This is part of How to Vote from BPR News, a free, re-publishable guide to the 2024 elections. Learn more about republication.
With only 44 days until in-person early voting begins, counties across Western North Carolina are finalizing poll locations and making sure they are staffed with the correct amount of poll workers.
Each county board of elections hires poll workers to staff each precinct on Election Day and during Early Voting.
Poll workers are members of your community who choose to work at polling sites, ready to assist and answer any questions you have. But how can you become one and what goes into it? Here’s what you need to know:
North Carolina poll worker requirements
There are legal requirements for those interested in becoming a poll worker. Some of the requirements, under North Carolina law, include:
- Being a registered, active voter and resident in the county
- Not hold any federal, state, county, or political party office
- Not be a candidate for election
- Not be a spouse/child/parent/sibling of a candidate
- Not be a manager or treasurer for any candidate
- Not be a spouse/child/sibling/in-law of an official working in the same precinct
Karen Rae, election services coordinator for Buncombe County, explained, “You will actually stand up in training and take an oath of office to agree to abide by that.”
Training
Poll workers must attend training. The training sessions vary:
- Multi-partisan assistance team (MAT) training is 3 hours and started in mid-August.
- Early voting poll worker training takes place in late September and lasts two weeks. The training is 7 hours with a 1-hour lunch break.
- Election Day training starts the first week of October with each session lasting 4 hours. Days and times vary.
Poll workers
In Buncombe County, there are 14 early voting sites and the responsibilities for the nearly 160 staff are quite similar to Election Day staff, according to Rae. Poll workers commit to working from the start of early voting to the last day of early voting, Nov. 2, Rae said.
On Election Day, poll workers are expected to show up two hours early to the precinct they are assigned. It’s an all-day shift from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Responsibilities include:
- Updating addresses/names for voters
- Placing ballots in the tabulator
- Completing Authorization to Vote (ATV)
- Helping voters access voting machines with their ballot
- Completing audit process at end of shift
- Helping curbside voters
- Packing away the precinct at the end of the day (day of election)
During early voting, same-day voter registration is available if you’ve lived in the county where you are registering for at least 30 days. As previously reported by BPR, voters will not be able to update their voter registration after early voting is over.
Check the North Carolina State Board of Elections website to find your polling place and sample ballot.
MAT workers
MAT workers are two people with different party affiliations who visit care facilities to help the residents with voter assistance. The visits are scheduled at the location’s request.
You must be flexible with your schedule and work 15 to 20 hours a week. MATs help voters with:
- Completing a registration form
- Requesting an absentee ballot
- Serving as an absentee ballot witness
- Completing the absentee ballot envelope
Rae expanded on the vulnerability of voters living in care facilities.
“The reason to have a registered Democrat and a registered Republican is you have a very vulnerable population and they could be very susceptible to influence,” Rae said. “We want to make sure that those teams are working together and they can both say absolutely no undue influence was exerted on this present.”
