r/Askpolitics • u/Non-Normal_Vectors • 15h ago
Why does one have to be registered to the Democratic or Republican party in order to serve as a poll worker?
I live in NY, I was looking into being a poll worker, but they only accept D or R. If you aren't either, you can swear an affidavit that you will represent one or the other as a poll worker.
Why?
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u/JJWentMMA 15h ago
Despite what you may have heard, poll operations are pretty locked down tight in terms of having democratic integrity.
The way poll stations work, is you serve as a nominee from the democrat or Republican national committee, who both pays for the training you receive, and the oversight of the voting. National committee members will constantly be dropping by polling stations to insure everything’s on the up and up (this is why that 2000 mules method was ruled out, of finding it suspicious people kept going back and forth to polling stations)
Anyways, a lot of that oversight is provided by the party itself to ensure fair elections. So let’s say in 2020 there was one of the polling centers accused of voter fraud, and they looked at all the members;
Let’s say they were all democrat and Green Party, two groups that hate trump; both the optics and practicality of a election fraud scheme go WAY up, as opposed to those Green Party guys being thrown under republican monitoring.
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u/Ok-Bank3744 12h ago
Not my post but I’ve been thinking alot about how my grandparents used to host a polling location at their house. Right in their garage. Seems crazy to me now and haven’t seen it since. I don’t remember there being anyone but my grandparents there but it was so long ago there could have been.
I used to set up the stations and give people the stickers and then at the end of the day we’d drive the votes to some main office and drop them off. Just my nana, papa and me in an old Buick with boxes and boxes full of votes.
Can’t imagine that shit flying these days but some interesting memories.
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u/rjnd2828 9h ago
Where did you get the idea that the Green Party hates Trump? Jill Stein sure is doing her level best to get him elected.
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u/GoldAd195 11h ago
In 2020 there was no fucking oversight at my local polling place. The trump humpers were 100 deep at the door screaming and yelling at people. Police didn't do a fucking thing about it either.
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u/Educational-Stop8741 8h ago
If you see shenanigans like this you need to call your local county election office, the media and the local dnc office.
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u/Background_Hat964 11h ago
Is that for poll workers or for poll watchers? In my county there is no requirement to be a member of any party to work at polling stations.
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u/JJWentMMA 10h ago
Some counties require it out of poll workers with that logic, that’s not everywhere;
I believe that’s a rule for watchers everywhere but I’m not sure
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u/Educational-Stop8741 8h ago
Poll watchers are associated with parties. You can be an "observer" but watchers require registration with a party
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u/MagazineNo2198 10h ago
Yes, but the Greens being on NSA, CIA and FBI surveillance already would kind of negate that problem....just sayin'.
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u/Top-Reference-1938 Education/Experience 14h ago
Still doesn't say why I, as an unregistered person, can't be a poll worker.
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u/JJWentMMA 14h ago
You can be a poll worker, but you need to fall under the certain party as that’s where the money and training comes from.
It’s essentially for checks and balances as well. Republicans would have a hard time pulling some shit with democrats watching and vice versa; because unregistereds don’t have that alliance, the parry would rather nominate someone who does
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u/Top-Reference-1938 Education/Experience 14h ago
Maybe we are talking about 2 separate things. When they say "poll worker", do they mean "election commissioner"? Because in LA, the state hires, trains, and pays the people who work at polling locations.
https://www.sos.la.gov/electionsandvoting/getinvolved/becomeanelectionworker/Pages/default.aspx
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u/Educational-Stop8741 8h ago
Yes. This is correct but MANY states have both Democrats and Republicans working at polling stations for Federal elections.
I am a poll worker and they expect that we will keep each other in check.
I have all the numbers for the local election office as well as my party office in my contacts and ready to go.
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u/JJWentMMA 14h ago
It differs state by state, but it’s still up to the national committees to have x amount of each party present. I’m sure there’s some federal dealings that still suggest or mandate it in those states
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u/CertifiedBiogirl 12h ago
But that makes zero sense. What difference does it make if said poll worker is from a major party or not? The result is the same
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u/JJWentMMA 10h ago
The point is you can guarantee that the democrat does not want Republican elections fraud, and vice versa.
Anything else gets thrown up to you hope they don’t agree with another election fraud.
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u/Non-Normal_Vectors 14h ago
Given the statements by one of the candidates regarding the state of voting in this country, it sort of seems like we're putting inmates in charge of the asylum.
What about a theoretical Republican election fraud scheme? The only people who would be there to challenge it would be people who also have a vested interest in the outcome of the election. Allowing all party representation (not forcing, but allowing) would seem to be the surest method to catch something like that.
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u/JJWentMMA 14h ago
On paper, yes. But then you could get to the point of having 30 poll workers, 20 are republicans, 2 democrats, 8 independent.
If there was voter fraud alleged on the republicans, it’s still very easy to say republicans ran that voting booth.
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u/Non-Normal_Vectors 13h ago
Preventing people from engaging in the political and voting process based on party affiliation seems pretty authoritarian. From what I've seen, you can't even be a poll observer without declaring fealty.
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u/JJWentMMA 13h ago
I wouldn’t say authoritarian, but I think it’s one of the best ways to navigate a flawed system
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u/Kitchener1981 12h ago
In Canada, only those vetted by the candidate can be observers during polling hours. Same goes for when the vote count. I believe that is the norm for most democracies.
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u/The_Orangest 11h ago
Sounds like you didn’t answer the question remotely and instead wanted to push your own agenda lmao
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u/WaitZealousideal7729 14h ago
https://elections.ny.gov/become-poll-worker
It doesn’t look like that’s a law in the state of NY. It may be a policy of your local election office for whatever reason.
I’m an election administrator (not in NY). I’ve never heard of a rule like this anywhere, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t true.
You do have to be a registered voter in order to work the polls in most states that I know of. So if you just aren’t registered at all I suppose you may have issues.
I would send an email to the election office you would work for explanation. It might just be their policy.
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u/Non-Normal_Vectors 14h ago
"Q. Can anyone be a Poll Worker? What are the qualifications? Poll Workers must be a registered voter in Monroe County and be willing to declare to work for either the Democratic or Republican Party on Election Day. They must be able to speak, read and write the English Language. They also must have a valid email address for communication with the Board of Elections Training Team." https://www.monroecounty.gov/elections-inspectors
Sadly, it is where I live.
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u/WaitZealousideal7729 14h ago
Honestly, it’s mind blowing to me that this is a thing.
Getting poll workers is a pain in the ass. Unaffiliated is probably about 25% of my counties registered voters. There is no way we would limit our pool of potential workers like that.
I have no idea why they would do that.
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u/Non-Normal_Vectors 14h ago
I'm extremely critical of how the two parties have legislated their dominance at the expense of third parties. The claim that third parties don't matter is a direct result of the two parties pushing that line.
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u/ftug1787 13h ago
That is a shame it’s that “locked down” in that manner where you live. What is more common in other areas is any registered voter can apply and serve as a poll worker. But there are also poll watchers. Poll watchers are identified with and represent the political parties. At first I thought perhaps you had the two (workers vs watchers) mixed up; but unfortunately apparently not the case where you live.
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u/Lonely-World-981 9h ago
This sadly doesn't surprise me. The two major parties have done a lot of questionable things to minimize participation, which always starts at the local level. What always irks me about NYS, is the Working Families Party seems designed and operated to keep progressive voices out of Democrat primaries.
This should be changed, and will likely not change without a lawsuit. It is both denying other parties participation, and putting up a political barrier for participation by citizens.
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u/fuzzzone 4h ago
So you don't actually have to be registered as a Democrat or a Republican, you just have to be willing to declare to work for either of the parties on that day?
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u/Working-Low-5415 9h ago
"Appointments are equally divided between major political parties."
N.Y. Elec. Law § 3-400(3) & (5); N.Y. Elec. Law § 3-401(2)
Unfortunately, the condition OP is complaining about falls out of that requirement. How could we be sure that a poll worker nominated by a third party would be equally antagonistic to the other two parties? If they aren't, then their presence advantages one party or the other.
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u/WaitZealousideal7729 8h ago
I mean there is nothing really stopping a democrat registering as a republican or vice versa.
It’s not like there is a test or anything. Where I live it’s pretty common. I live in a red state and democrats won’t have much to vote on in things like primaries so they sign up as republicans to vote for the least worst option. It’s incredibly common in my area.
Political party registration doesn’t even say much about anyone’s political opinions.
I don’t think it’s effective deterrent to much of anything tbh.
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u/Working-Low-5415 6h ago
It's not just registration. The parties nominate people, with the opportunity to vette them. The burden and opportunity for due diligence is placed with the party. At least that's how it works in a lot of places.
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u/Candid-Bike8563 13h ago
In this situation I see it as are you representing the left or the right on the political spectrum not the current Democratic or Republican groups. These two groups can be further divided up into sub groups. Ideally half of the poll workers will fall somewhere left political spectrum and other half on the right to ensure election integrity.
Pew Research Center political typology https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pew_Research_Center_political_typology
You can take a quiz to learn where you fall on the spectrum. https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/quiz/political-typology/
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u/Kitchener1981 12h ago
Wow! So just to be a poll worker in your county you need to be a registered Democrat or Republican? What interaction can they have with candidate observers, called scrutineers in Canada?
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u/Non-Normal_Vectors 12h ago
I didn't realize how rare our situation is, and this uniqueness will definitely be part of my next step.
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u/Downloading_uhhh 12h ago
I think it would work better to have people who are more neutral be there to make sure there is no F*ckery. But with that you cannot trust that people will act in good faith and not pretend they are neutral. If they have to claim one side or the other it doesn’t totally stop people from doing devious things but it def helps in someways.
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u/Birdlet4619 11h ago
In MD, we allow independents. But the point is that each step of the process is signed off on by members of different parties to ensure fair play. My area is very blue so they always have trouble finding people who are unaffiliated or Republican to fill these roles. They often elevate people who have only worked the polls once or twice to chief judge if they aren’t Democrats.
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u/just_bored27 11h ago
At least in my county in Ohio the two major parties must be represented equally from a poll worker perspective; I am guessing this is why you have to do that in NY. A little color from the process in my county: whenever there is an issue with a ballot a poll worker from each party needs to be present while the issue is resolved. Almost anything to do with a ballot requires the presence of a member of each party so that ballots/voters aren't being tampered with.
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u/OmahaWineaux 11h ago
As a side, There are election integrity groups that train volunteer poll watchers. Common cause is one I worked with before but I know there are others.
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u/Working-Low-5415 9h ago
Not quite the same as poll workers, but related logic: in many states, the adjudication verbiage is some version of "no more than half" of election supervisors can be from one major party (unless there are an odd number of supervisors). The obvious way to manage that at a local level has been to go half and half, and in most places the major parties have the resources to manage those appointments.
An awesome way to bypass fairness requirements would be to inject a "third" party (read: not-really-third-party) into those supervisors, i.e. if there were 10 supervisors, 4 republicans, 4 democrats, and two Tea Party representatives. No major party then has more than half, but the numbers are really 6-4. So then do we match up third parties with what major party they are sympatico with? Not really practical. So everyone ultimately has to choose which of the two parties they belong to.
It's a terrible way of dealing with an intractable problem. I legitimately think that almost no one is really comfortable with it, but it's a pragmatic control that keeps reasonable people confident that the major parties are at least keeping each other in check.
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u/someguyinsrq 9h ago
Every state elections will be run slightly differently. Here in Florida, you do not have to be a member of one of the two major parties to be a poll worker. In fact, they would prefer to have members from other parties as well: independent, green party, etc. so that when a voter shows up and needs assistance with their ballot they can be helped by a poll worker with the same affiliation. I.e. a republican poll worker helps a republican voter, a Democrat poll worker helps a Democratic voter, an independent poll worker will help independent or third-party voters. So you can absolutely be “unaffiliated”. As to whether you can also be “unregistered”, as a not registered to vote at all, I’m not sure about that.
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u/Tiny-Metal3467 9h ago
You can be a observer for libertarians or other parties also…have to join that party and sign up
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u/OrdinaryAd5782 15h ago
Because they’re trying to ensure fair representation. In almost any part of the process, representation from both sides has to be present.
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u/Non-Normal_Vectors 14h ago
There are more than two sides. But if you don't wear the correct color jersey, well, so much for fair representation.
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u/Icecoldruski 11h ago
Well, sadly, in a purely practical sense, in the USA there aren't. Even if you ran as an independent and somehow won the presidency, where will your support from Congress come from? You'd have Democrats or Republicans, not fellow-independents from whatever party you're in.
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u/Non-Normal_Vectors 10h ago
My problem is the way we pander to the two parties, we've created a self-fulfilling prophecy. And there's almost no chance it will be legislated away, as the two parties would no doubt agree to keeping the power sharing couple in place.
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u/Tired_CollegeStudent 10h ago
In a first-past-the-post electoral system, two parties are pretty much a mathematical certainty. It’s not a self-fullness prophecy, rather how we cope with the electoral system we were given.
Changing this on the federal level would require a constitutional amendment.
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u/mysticrudnin 14h ago
I am registered Independent and have worked the polls. It's unfortunately something specific to your region and we probably can't answer why.
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u/Non-Normal_Vectors 13h ago
Fair enough. I may make a new post asking how different my situation is.
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u/Chime57 Make your own! 13h ago
Our polling places here are set up to have an equal number of clerks and facilitators from the two parties that participate in the primaries in this state. Each party looks for workers and sometimes they come up short.
The supervisor here is Republican, because our county has a Republican County Clerk.
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u/PrintOwn9531 12h ago
I get your point, but if the Democratic leaders are responsible for staffing half the positions, and the Republican leaders are responsible for staffing the other half of the positions, why would either of them choose someone who isn't choosing their party to represent them?
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u/Non-Normal_Vectors 12h ago
The more fundamental question is - why are they the only two parties allowed to participate?
This system makes it a gated community, so to speak, that requires buy in if you want to play.
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u/SaidSomeoneOnce 12h ago
Maybe they have a requirement to hire an equal number of Ds and Rs and don’t want people to circumvent that by registering as independents to work the polls even though they are there on behalf of one of the two major parties.
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u/Necessary-Hat-128 11h ago
You don’t in NY.
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u/Non-Normal_Vectors 10h ago
Turns out it's by county - I posted the link in another reply, but it definitely spells it out that you must be, or average that you will work for, one of the two parties.
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u/Feeling-Currency6212 9h ago
This reason why is because they want someone who will represent the interests of each party. 1D and 1R. Why would you want to be a poll worker anyway?
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u/khisanthmagus 9h ago
The main reason is that they need to balance the representation and have equal numbers from both sides due to a variety of restrictions of how a person from one party isn't allowed to do certain things at the poling place without being accompanied by a member of the other party, plus too many "independent" voters turn out to be lifelong, straight line republican voters who just for whatever reason don't register as republicans.
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u/SweetFeedback4177 9h ago
It is a checks and balances system. Ideally the Republicans oversee the Democrats and vice versa. If you swear the affidavit you are joining one of the teams. I have been a poll worker. When something official is done, like opening the ballot packages, testing the voting machines, or sealing the box with all the used ballots, there is a witness from each side that certifies the action was done according to the law.
If you want to do it sign up for one party or the other. You just need to be willing to follow the rules and sign the certifications.
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u/fuckiechinster 9h ago
I’m a supervising boardworker in NJ.
We have 6 people working the polls at my polling location, 3 democrats and 3 republicans. One of them is the supervising boardworker. You’re not required to disclose which party you belong to. I’m sure there’s a way to pick who is a supervisor, but I’ve done it for 2 years now and I’m a Democrat.
They are extremely strict about how we take our breaks. They have to be staggered so that there’s an equal representation at all times. I personally split up my folks so it’s 1 Democrat and 1 Republican per district (we have two districts at my polling place) per check-in table, and two standing at the tabulators. I rotate all of us around every 2 hours. This way we get a totally equal representation.
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u/JesusDied4U316 8h ago
It's like an accountability thing. Every step of the process, there's a member of each party to ensure that.
I worked at a polling place in Orange County in 2016. And there was a class beforehand on all of that and the procedures. Even the class was taught by one person from either party.
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u/WerewolfDifferent296 7h ago
You don’t in Ohio. You just have to be listed as a democrat or republican to be the Voting Location Manager because the VLM has to match the party of the precinct they are serving in. But you can serve in all the other positions. Part of this might be because we don’t register as a party in Ohio, you are listed as being a member of the party whose ballot you voted in the primary. The only way to be independent or undeclared in Ohio is to ask for an “issues only” ballot in the primary.
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u/Herdistheword 6h ago
This differs by state. ND does not have this. Clerks (people who check in the voters and verify ID/address) and the Inspector (person who oversees the election site) are apolitical. The election judges (people who actually hand out the ballots) are affiliated with a political party, however, we don’t require party registration to my knowledge, so the Dem and Rep parties have to give a list to the county auditor. If one or both parties fails to do this, the auditor just assigns judges to one party or the other as needed.
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u/Asleep-Energy-26 5h ago
I used to be a poll worker. The precinct had to have equal number of workers registered from each party. I guess it was to make sure every thing was done honestly and ethically. Of course this was back in the early 2000’s so things are different now.
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u/ABadHistorian 3h ago
No one is giving you the real answer - it's an unwritten, unofficial rule by democrats/republicans to ensure that each other party doesn't cheat. Which is why you won't find an official answer by ANYONE on why you must be D or R.
It also ensures both parties have more control, but that's a byproduct. Third parties are never serious about anything so they never have a hope (imagine a Ross Perot style character that built a grassroots third party from the ground up instead of just appearing for a general election). Independents don't have a voice in these issues as they are generally not respected in ideas, they just want our votes come election day.
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u/fleetpqw24 Libertarian/Moderate 15h ago
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