Poll Worker Training in California Overview Background Reading Key Websites Newspaper Articles and Commentary December 2004

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Poll worker recruitment and training in California is primarily the responsibility of counties (see Title 12, California Elections Code). The role of the state was strengthened with passage of the federal Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA). This legislation provided $3.75 billion to states to purchase new voting machines, to increase voter education and poll worker training, and to aid disabled, overseas and military voters, among other requirements. HAVA left each state to interpret its many requirements for registration, poll worker training, and ballot technology. It required states to create planning documents, including how to use HAVA Title II funds to educate elections officials and poll workers. The California plan -- My Vote Counts: The California Plan for Voting in the 21st Century -- includes a section on poll worker training. The plan requires the Secretary of State to establish an outreach and education program to "ensure that any training provided to poll workers covers at least the following topics:

• the proper operation and maintenance of voting systems and technology;
• the rights of voters to cast provisional ballots, the proper processing and counting of those ballots, and how provisional voters can determine whether their votes were counted and, if not, why not;
• the non-discriminatory application of HAVA’s identification requirements for certain voters who register by mail;
• identifying and assisting voters with disabilities, including psychiatric disabilities, in order that such voters can participate fully in the voting process independently and privately;
• the rights of minority language voters in jurisdictions covered under Section 203 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to receive language assistance at the polling place"

Background Reading

Following is a selection of reports on poll worker training. The reports are listed in reverse chronological order.

National Council of State Legislatures.
Voting in America : final report of the NCSL Elections Reform Task Force. Denver, Colo., 2001.

See Section 9. Election Day Workers.

Maidenberg, David H.
Recruiting poll workers. Washington, D.C.: Federal Election Commission, Office of Election Administration, 1996. 33 p.

IGSL A9801 no. 14.

California Advisory Voter Task Force.
Report of the 1995 elections summit. Sacramento, Calif. : The Task Force, 1995. 53 p.

IGSL 95 00424.

Key Websites

Poll Worker Training Task Force
California Secretary of State.

Newspaper Articles and Commentary

The following citations include links to full-text online when available. For more info, see Tips for Finding Full-Text Articles.

"California receives election money held up during investigation," Sacramento Bee, June 2, 2005.
NewsBank (UCB)

Pfeifer, Stuart.
"E-Vote firm agrees to pay state: Diebold OKs settlement of $2.6 million for California and Alameda County," Los Angeles Times, Nov. 11, 2004
NewsBank (UCB)

Drucker, David M.
"Elections officials take aim at Shelley: group says Secretary of State improperly implemented federal reforms," Long Beach Press-Telegram, Oct. 12, 2004
NewsBank (UCB)

Oakley, Freddie, and Tom Stanionis.
"Poll workers: witnesses for democracy," Yolo Elections Office, n.d.
Yolo Elections Office

Prepared by the staff of the IGS Library. Send comments to igsl@uclink.berkeley.edu.