I recommend moving the "Differentiation by Position and Experience" section on page 104 to Chapter 13.  I think it will get lost placed between the sample 20 questions and the PowerPoint presentation.

Welcome Standards Board Members.  Thank you for taking the time to review EAC's draft manual (guide book) on the Recruitment, Training and Retention of Poll Workers.  EAC looks forward to receiving your comments and we appreciate your participation. 

Agree with edit comments. Is it pollworker, pollworker or poll-worker.

References to specific election jurisdictions needs to include the state name. Is it Orange County, CA or Orange County, FL?

Page 11 If it a Rotary Club, then is a Kiwanis Club. Under service organization. Hopefully, editors will catch these.

Need to refer more to chart showing state laws.

I found this document to be very well written and full of information. Most of the information is a repeat of ideas that we currently utilize or have been exposed to in the past; however, the examples and detailed suggestions were very interesting and could prove to be very valuable. Samples for voting jurisdictions were very helpful.

Even for jurisdiction like Puerto Rico, where the responsability for the recruitment and training of the pollworkers goes to the political parties, this document is full of good and interesting suggestions that help to improve the quality of these procedures. I  will prepare a ducument based on these suggestions to the persons in charge of the recruitment and training of pollworkers in the political parties.

For the record I want to explain some of the facts of the Puerto Rico electoral system:

• The general election is a holiday. with a constant 80% or more of voters participation.
• Until now in Puero Rico dont use any elctronic voting system.
• All the pollworkers are volunteers (they don't get paid) but they get food trough the public schools food services. recently we have been considering law projects to paid a perdien for expenses or provide a contributive credit (local IRS).
• In general terms the experience with the parties responsability to the recruitmen and training of the pollworkers have been very good. For example:
• -We have never confroted any problems to open any polling place in general elections because pollworkers absence.
• -Each political party, trough their own structures has the responsabilty to recruit and traing a minimum of 10,000  to have at least one representaive in each level of the electoral process( 110 Local Commission, 1676 Polling Centers[Unidad Electoral in spanish] and near 8,000 polling places [colegios in spanish]). But the parties can recruit and provide almost near 30,000 pollworkers if they wants to have full representation: two (2) in each Local Commission, two (2) in each polling Centers and  three (3) in each polling place. Historically the two principal political parties provides almost the maximun permisible.Because these reality we have counting with the presence of at least one pollworker in representation of at least the two principal parties in each of the electoral levels.
• -The CEE (Elections Commission of the Commonwelth of Puerto Rico) has the institucional responsability for train the Local Commision Parties Officials ( last electios near 760, next electios will be near 1000). The training is based in the General Electios regulatios and procedures manuals so that they can train or supervise the train of the pollworkers of each party. These training takes from 6 to 8 hours.
• -The CEE has also the responsability to provide the political parties all the necessary materials and documents to make the trainings to allthe pollworkers. The train of the pollworkers are from 7 hours period for those that have previos experience to 14 or 16 hours for the new electoral officilas (pollworkers).
• -The educational or academic level of the pollworkers is not least that high school graduate  and not least than 50% are of the professional level.
• -We estimate that 20% belongs to retired people, 20% are young new voters and 60% are voters from 23 to 50 years old. Except to the new voters; the others groups have at least experience in  one or mores elctions events and in general terms there is a perseverance of 60% to 70%.
• -In terms of the participation by gender is almost equall wiht a higher tendency of participation for the women.  

Very interesting. Much, if not all, of the information in this volume has been discussed in other forums. Putting it together in one place with examples will be very valuable to the Election Community. As noted by others, it needs to be carefully proofed before it is published.

Thanks for putting this together.

I read with interest Chapters 2 and 3 of Section 1 relative to using high school and college students as poll workers.  My experience with this source has not been a productive one.  We found that this group had great difficulty enduring the 14 hour election day.  Very few came back for a second dose of democracy in action.  As hard as we work to train them, it would be nice to keep them for at least two years.  These chapters did, however, provide other ideas of how to make this concept work.  We'll keep trying.

Section 3: Colleges and Universities, again offers a wide array of excellent ideas. This section prompted the most brain storming on my part. I see this area as one of the most underutilized and perhaps one of the most valuable areas for workers.

Need more detail on how to recruit bilingual poll workers based on cultural issues. Many older Hispanic women back out once they find out how late the poll worker must worker and because of their responsibility at home (prepare dinner).

In the bullets listing the contents of this chapter (page 40), "Resources Needed" should be above "Pitfalls and Challenges."  On page 41, the heading "Pitfalls and Challenges" is part of the last bullet under "Resources Needed."  There is a parenthetical comment on the top of page 42 that should probably be deleted.

I would encourage the use of "people first" language throughout this chapter.  See http://www.disabilityisnatural.com/peoplefirstlanguage.htm for background information and diction choices.   For example:

• Replace "mobility impairment, impaired vision and cognitive disabilities" with "disabilities that affect a person's mobility, vision, hearing, or cognitive abilities."
• Replace "disabled voters" or "disabled citizens" with "voters with disabilities" or "citizens with disabilities."
• Replace "voters with special needs" or "poll workers with special needs" with "voters with disabilities" or "poll workers with disabilities."
• Include voters with disabilities with all voters.  For example, the last sentence of the 3rd paragraph should read:  Recruiting and hiring poll workers who have disabilities sends a strong message to the community that all voters are a part of the democratic process.
• Replace "disabled community" with "people with disabilities."
• Replace "visually impaired poll workers" with "poll workers who are blind or have low vision."
• Do not use "impaired."

On page 45, there is a reference to using Q-tips for touching a touchscreen.  Q-tips can break and are very small for voters with dexterity disabilities.  The eraser end of a pencil is stronger and larger.  Election officials may also want to include signature guides in supply bags;  these devices help a voter who is blind or has low vision know where to sign his or her name.

A minor comment:  Under "Challenges and Pitfalls", perhaps it should be noted that in states that require all pollworkers be trained, split shifts can double the number of individuals requiring training...potentially a significant drain on resources.  

The quote (page 58) referencing research on state requirements conducted by EAC contractors states that "only one state, California, allows any state resident to be a poll worker anywhere in the state."  On page 8 of the draft College Pollworker Guide, it states that California and Massachusetts allow state residents to be poll workers anywhere in the state.  Someone may want to fact check this and make a change in the appropriate report.

It might be helpful to explain that adults learn in different ways.  Some learn by reading, some by hearing, and some by doing.  Because of this, training programs must include components for all types of learners.  We offered our local election officials a training on the theory behind adult learning and received positive feedback.  They appreciated knowing the theory behind our training recommendations.  I think it would be helpful to add some of the theory in this guide to explain the basis for the suggestions.

It seems that the entire document is limited in the technology being used in polling places. Orange County, FL has had laptops in each polling place since 2000. Allows for the entire county database to be searched, able to do changes on-line, print affidavits for voter signature, provide directions to correct polling place, etc.  Different then electronci poll books.

Section 2, Chapter 14, Page 70: Second paragraph needs to add a “t”  for the word "to" (5^th line: “to feel how …” )

On page 82 is the following paragraph:

In the 2nd bullet in "Tips for Successful Implementation," there is a suggestion to refrain from evaluating things that "you don't have the resources to address."  The results of the evaluation may enable you to get the resources to address the issue.

There is a formatting error on page 97 on the "Canvass" and "audit" reports bullet.

Poll Workers relate better when the message is coming form the top election official. I train all of the poll clerks, poll book inspectors, and ballot issuers. Orange County is considered a large county in Florida.

The examples displayed on page 114 are too small to read.  Suggest that you use less so they will be bigger or expand to another page.  The same is true with the bottom examples on page 115.

Page 120 has the following bullet:

Chapter 20 . . . "Tips for Successful Implementation" . . . Typo:  Aassign should be Assign.

On page 127, add the following language at the end of the 3rd bullet:  "and tax consequences for poll workers who work multiple days."  Poll workers expect election officials to explain the tax consequences if they earn more than the threshold for social security withholdings, etc.

Page 124 standardize use hyphens in Election Day vs. Election-Day in last bullet.

Examples on the bottom of page 134 are again much too small to read and be effective.

• The hyphen used in the term "poll-worker" is used inconsistently throughout this chapter - sometimes there is a hypen, other times there is not a hyphen.
• The terms "workforce" and "work force" are used interchangably on page 128, second paragraph and page 129, eighth paragraph.  It needs to be consistent.
• "For example" should be removed on page 129, fifth paragraph from the bottom.  It does not make sense.
• Page 130 - the two column formatting makes the content difficult to follow.  The Sample Excel Spreadsheet is extremely difficult to read.
• Page 130 - under the heading "Screening Potential Poll Workers for Blended Teams" - this section would flow much better if the second and third paragraphs were switched so that the findings of the survey follow the paragraph describing the survey.
• Page 130 - the first reference to NACo should spell out the acronym.  Then the acronym could be used throughout the rest of the section.
• Page 131 - last bullet under the heading "Mechanisms used for these programs" - there needs to be a comma between "lesson plans" and "training slides."
• Page 132 - under "Engaging Local Election Officials" - there are many states that do not have a Secretary of State.  For instance, in Alaska we do not have a Secretary of State, but a Lieutenant Governor, who oversees elections.  It would be more inclusive to reference both.
• Page 133 - the heading of the graph - the first letter in "jurisdiction" should be capitalized.
• Page 133 - "Average Daily Basic Pay Rates" should be bolded.
• Page 134 - the heading of the graph - the word "pollworker" needs a space between the "l" and the "w."  The labels of the second and third bars appear to having a spacing issue.
• Page 134 - Section 5: #54 and #55 - "pollworker" needs a space between the "l" and "w."

The information provided under "Developing a Blended Team Tracking System" at the bottom of page 128 through the paragraph after the 5th bullet and the information under "Screening Potential Poll Workers for Blended Teams" on page 130 would be very useful in the Recruitment Chapter.  This information is applicable to all recruitment efforts, not just those to develop a blended team.

The sample Excel spreadsheet on page 130 is difficult to read.

In "Engaging Local Election Officials" on page 132, replace "Secretary of State's Office" with "State Election Office" since not all Secretaries of State are responsible for elections.

The information on pages 133 & 134 need some introductory language or it should be moved to Chapter 19 where poll worker pay is discussed.