Election workers review a mail-in ballot with an incorrect signature at Chester County’s central scanning location in West Chester, Pennsylvania, prior to the start of Election Day on Nov. 5, 2024. In Pennsylvania, voters elect poll workers, but there often aren’t enough candidates. (Kriston Jae Bethel for Votebeat)
This article was originally published by Votebeat, a nonprofit news organization covering local election administration and voting access.
You know those workers at the polling place who help you cast your ballot each election? There are elections for them, too.
This year, voters across Pennsylvania will have a chance to choose the people who will staff their polling locations for the next four years.
In most states, these workers are appointed, but in Pennsylvania, the people who oversee voting at the precinct level are elected officials with four-year terms.
Historians say it has been this way since 1799, and according to data from the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, Pennsylvania is the only state that does it quite like this.
Some small New England states have elected town officials who oversee polling places as part of their job. But Pennsylvania takes this exercise in democracy to another level, with elections for three out of the five people who staff each polling place: the judge of elections, as well as the majority and minority inspectors. With more than 9,000 precincts across the state, this means upwards of 27,000 positions are up for election this year.
Judges of elections are the supervisors at the precinct. Their primary responsibilities are to ensure things run smoothly on Election Day and that the ballots and results make it back to the county office safely at the end of the night, according to a guide put together by the Philadelphia-based nonprofit Committee of Seventy. The majority and minority inspectors are tasked with checking voter registration documents, signing in voters, and ensuring the election is conducted legally and fairly.
Pennsylvania’s way of choosing poll workers through elections is meant to prevent any one political party from having complete control over voting in a precinct, and allows the opportunity to switch them out every four years, said Jeff Greenburg, a former election director in Mercer County who now works as a senior adviser on election administration for the Committee of Seventy. The process is structured to make sure at least one member of each major political party is represented.
The downside is that there often aren’t enough candidates running, which means counties have to appoint people to fill vacancies, which can be difficult.
“Without poll workers, we cannot have elections,” Greenburg said. “They are the foundation of our election system.”
The state doesn’t track how many spots on the ballot go empty across the state, but election officials say that it’s fairly common for no one to run for the four-year term staffing polling places.
Officials in Montgomery, Bucks, and Chester counties told Votebeat and Spotlight PA that election officials typically need to appoint people to 30% to 50% of their poll worker positions.
Sean Drasher, the election director for Lebanon County, said that as of March 5, he had received nomination petitions for fewer than 10% of his open poll worker positions, though he expected that number to increase before the March 11 filing deadline.
The job can be taxing. Poll workers work a minimum of 13 hours on Election Day, and the judge of election tends to work even longer. The pay varies by county but is typically low. Most who serve think of it as community service.
Jay Schneider, a Chester County resident who served as an appointed judge in his precinct for the 2024 election, said just getting on the ballot can be a chore.
He tried to get on this year’s ballot to be a poll worker, but gave up. His first nomination petition was rejected this winter because the voters who signed it signed before the petition period was open, and his second was rejected because the second page of the petition, which he printed on the back of the first, was upside down.
“And I thought ‘I am not asking people a third time to sign this,” he said.
Schneider said making the role appointed, rather than elected, and shortening the term would make the positions attractive.
“No one is making any money on this. It’s just a service and you’re running people through the wringer to get them to sign up,” he said. “It’s a very long day and there’s a fair amount of responsibility and there is no upside. If you’re a younger person and you’re excited about it, yes, but otherwise I would change the rules instead of making it such an involved process and make it a shorter term.”
Carter Walker is a reporter for Votebeat in partnership with Spotlight PA. Contact Carter at cwalker@votebeat.org. Votebeat is a nonprofit news organization covering local election integrity and voting access. Sign up for their newsletters here.