Resources

In 2023, the Bridging Divides Initiative began surveying local election officials to better understand the degree to which election officials face insults, harassment, threats, and physical attacks throughout their career. The survey is administered quarterly, providing frequent snapshots into how threats and violence toward election officials is evolving over time.

The City and County of San Francisco Department of Elections maintains publicly available training resources for poll workers on their website, including informational videos and an up-to-date poll worker manual. Topics covered include poll worker duties in opening a polling place, assisting voters, and closing a polling place.

This paper analyzes whether the preferences and actions of local election officials are impacted by their method of selection - election or appointment - with a focus on the experiences of LEOs in Wisconsin. Authors found notable differences in support of voter access and concerns about ballot security and administrative costs, among other things.

This paper examines scholarly literature since 2008 regarding the motivation of public officials to serve their community. The authors identify several lessons impacting management and leadership of the public workforce, including the role of cooperative work environments in facilitating public service motivation, and using public service motivation as a selection tool, among other things.

This course series connects election officials to frameworks, strategies, resources, and best practices related to designing and administering poll worker programs. This series is free and consists of four courses focused specifically on recruiting, training, managing and retaining poll workers.

This resource provides an overview of state poll worker policies, highlighting the variance between states and need for unique approach to designing and implementing poll worker programs. Statutory references are provided for state laws related to poll worker qualifications, youth poll worker programs, residency requirements, and partisan distribution.

This resource provides tips and guidance for election officials to design clear, simple, easy to use, and easy to understand instructional materials for poll workers.

This training slide presentation and accompanying guide are intended to help election officials improve their training materials and practices for poll workers who assist voters with disabilities using accessible voting systems. The training ensures that poll workers know the legal rules for disability voting rights in the polling place and includes guidance for helping voters while preserving their independence and privacy.

Former Maricopa County recorder Stephen Richer outlines a potential solution to improving voter trust by offering election facility tours.

Use this tool to estimate how long it takes voters to mark a ballot.