At the heart of every election, there’s community support

TROY HULL | THE CHARLOTTE POST

More than 3,000 Mecklenburg County residents are deployed to conduct election duties from preparing polling sites to checking voters’ identification before they cast a ballot, according to elections director Michael Dickerson.

This series was produced in partnership with the Pulitzer Center.

Elections are conducted by teams of underappreciated people.

They administer rules, prepare polling sites, verify voters’ identity for check-in, answer questions and count ballots. In an era of heightened scrutiny over election security and voting rights, Election Day operations still rely on community participation and preparation.

“There is so much more to it than just meets the eye,” Mecklenburg County elections director Michael Dickerson said. “I’ve got 100 training classes, and my people are teaching the 3,000 poll workers that we use … and I turn people away. That’s how great this community is.”

According to the state Board of Elections, anyone who wants to work as an election official in North Carolina must be a registered voter who lives in the precinct they serve. On Election Day, workers must be a registered voter or high school student at least 17 years old and in good academic standing. 

Precinct officials can’t be a candidate or relative of a candidate in the election. Elected government officials, political party officials, or managers or treasurers for a candidate or political party are also prohibited. Workers can’t serve at the same polling place as a spouse, child, or the spouse of a child, sister, or brother.

As North Carolina’s largest county by population, Mecklenburg needs a robust elections community to keep pace with growth in its 195 voting precincts. According to the county Board of Elections, each precinct must include a chief judge, a judge representing the Republican Party and a Democratic counterpart – all appointed by the board. A provisional ballot/transfer assistant and an equipment assistant round out the precinct team and extra assistants are scheduled as needed based on projected voter turnout. 

Midterm and municipal election cycles typically don’t produce the voter turnout of presidential years, but they all require infrastructure and people to ensure accuracy and access. The runup to Election Day is long, but the goal is precision.

“It is a lot of work,” Dickerson said. “It’s just one of those things that you as the voter walk out there and see somebody voting, and then we produce results on election night, albeit late. I know that gets (people) upset, but we’re always latest on election night. But everybody expects to get the results. That’s perfect. That’s the way we like it here.” 

Election Day is made up of people working behind the scenes to ensure votes are cast without friction. That’s where election officials, poll workers, and volunteers come in.  

The League of Women Voters, a nonpartisan voter empowerment organization, is leading a national initiative to raise awareness of the people who make elections work. LWV, which has nearly 800 state and local chapters across the country, does its share by providing nonpartisan voter information as well as supporting poll worker recruitment, and elections preparation. 

Through a partnership with Power the Polls, it also recruits people to work the polls. 

“Democracy doesn’t run itself,” league CEO Celina Stewart said. “It depends on everyday Americans who show up, serve their communities, and protect our freedom to vote, often in the face of intimidation and political pressure. Election workers are our neighbors, friends, and community members who deserve our gratitude, respect, and support.” 

Celina Stewart is CEO of the League of Women Voters, which is leading a national initiative to raise awareness of election workers' contribution to democracy.

The LWV’s Charlotte-Mecklenburg chapter is involved, too. It’s encouraging volunteers to monitor voting conditions across the region by making observational visits to early voting locations. The goal is to report situations that could affect voters — such as long lines, curbside voting conditions, maintaining electioneering boundaries or unusual law-enforcement presence.

Protect Our Vote NC, a nonpartisan voter protection coalition of more than a dozen legal, advocacy, and policy organizations, runs 888OURVOTE, a nonpartisan voter protection hotline. It also publishes explainer notes about deadlines for early voting – which ends on Oct. 31 as well as Election Day on Nov. 3.

“We want to remind voters that if they have questions about the voting process or need to report something that doesn’t feel right at the polls, they can easily call or text 888.OUR.VOTE and speak with attorneys and advocates who can support them,” the coalition said in a joint statement.

The coalition reported more than 700 hotline calls and 45 voter intimidation incidents across the state as well as nine reports of police presence at or near polling sites. More than 1.1 million ballots have been cast in North Carolina as of Oct. 22, more than 300,000 ahead of 2022’s pace.

“The coalition is actively monitoring polling sites across the state to ensure all North Carolina voters can exercise their right to vote free from intimidation,” Protect Our Vote NC said.

For elections administrators, elections are always seasonal. There are primaries and general elections with ballots that swell or shrink depending on whether state or national campaigns are included. The poll workers – most of them veterans of multiple cycles – make the chaos manageable.

“It is a rhythm,” Dickerson said. “It’s a pattern – we’ve done this. We’ve hit this post, this mark. We made it, and now we are going to the next thing, and you plan everything as far as you can, without doing something completely stupid. … It has worked out well.” 

Poll workers are trained on elections rules, including what constitutes a legally-cast ballot. There’s also the process of setting up polling areas and tabulation machinery. Poll workers are paid up to $200 on Election Day – relatively small compensation, Dickerson admits – but most consider it a civic duty.

“I think that’s the reason why everybody does it anyway,” he said. “Look back at 2020 – that was our COVID election. Right after we canvassed the [primary] election on March 13, on March 14, the governor ordered the state shut down because of COVID. We sent out an email and a survey to all our poll workers right after that and said, ‘Hey, we’re just getting an idea of how many of you will want to work in the election, although there’s COVID out here.’ I think 90% came back and said, ‘Yeah, we’re going to work.’ It did not matter.

“We’ve always had about 4,000 people that want to work the elections every time we do them, and it’s just great to see. These people like to help.”

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