Bucks County poll workers will open 304 precincts on Nov. 3, and in Yardley, the Lower Bucks borough that sits against the Delaware, that means one room: the Yardley-Makefield Fire Company on South Main Street, the only polling place the borough has. Bristol Borough sends two of its northern districts into the same building, the Ancient Order of the Hibernians hall on Corson Street. Langhorne Borough votes at the Pennwood Library on South Pine Street.
Tuesday was National Poll Worker Recruitment Day, which the U.S. Election Assistance Commission set for Aug. 11 this year. The federal commission runs it as a nationwide push at the recruiting problem county election offices hit every cycle.
The four jobs in the room
A polling place in Bucks is run by four kinds of worker, and the titles are more literal than they sound. The judge of elections is in charge of the place for the day. Two inspectors, one from the majority party and one from the minority, work the poll book and check voters in.
Clerks back them up at the book and hand out the paper ballots. A machine inspector stays near the scanner for voters who have a question about feeding a ballot through it. Polls are open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m., and the state’s guidance is blunt about the hours: a poll worker’s day generally starts before the doors open and ends after they shut.
Who can sign up, and who cannot
The base requirement is registration. You have to be registered to vote in the county where you want to work the polls, which for anyone reading this means Bucks. Seventeen-year-olds are the written exception, and the county runs them through a program called Youth at the Booth: a 17-year-old junior or senior in high school can be paid to work as a clerk or a machine inspector, even though the same student cannot yet cast a ballot…