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2020 Clearie Award Winner 

As part of the 10th anniversary of the Clearinghouse Awards, the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC) is spotlighting previous Clearie winners, including the Harris County Texas Clerk’s Office. 

The EAC interviewed Harris County Clerk Teneshia Hudspeth on the Clerk’s Office 2020 Clearie award-winning program, Electronic Support Specialist High School Student Program. It was recognized in the “Best Practices in Recruiting and Training Poll Workers” category. 

EAC Q&A: TENESHIA HUDSPETH, HARRIS COUNTY CLERK

1. How did you learn about the EAC Clearie program, and what motivated you to author your jurisdiction’s Clearie entry?

We have been monitoring the Clearie program since approximately 2019. 

The Electronic Support Specialist High School Student Program has improved staffing needs at vote centers and has boosted support for some of the elderly election workers who are not as familiar with technology. We wanted other jurisdictions to be aware of the impact of this program to improve their poll worker engagement. 

2. What was the motivation behind developing your office’s Electronic Support Specialist High School Student Program?

Poll worker recruitment and retention have been a consistent challenge across the nation. Harris County recognized the need to find younger workers to build long-lasting staffing reinforcement. Students are at an impressionable stage in life where they are looking for purpose and direction. Giving them opportunities to participate in ways that make a difference and reinforce community service helps encourage them to consider poll worker service beyond their current stage in life and into their future.

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3. Talk specifically about how your program works and how recruiting high school students in this role has benefited Harris County and the operations of your polling locations.

Harris County recruiters reach out to principals, teachers, school districts, past students, and new applicants two to three months in advance of an election to inquire about availability to serve in vote centers on Election Day as electronic support specialists. Outreach is conducted to share flyers about the program and encourage applying. 

Harris County recruiters coordinate with students to get them into training, assign a student to each vote center, provide placement information, help them to submit indication of availability, and have principals sign off on their eligibility to work. The system automates most of the application and onboarding process (other than payroll-related onboarding). Students are assigned by proximity of their home address to available vote centers. Communication is emailed in bulk to students through mail merge with their placement details and the requirements of the position. Students are sent frequent communication close to Election Day to remind them to show up and about the responsibilities of the position. Dress code and basic professional etiquette standards are explained. 

On Election Day, students arrive at each vote center at 6 a.m. and remain until after 7 p.m. when the poll has closed. They support technological needs, through updating voter wait times in an application accessed through their mobile device, by helping judges with setting up and taking down equipment and other general election worker tasks. Many of these students also serve as bilingual translators. 

After the election, students are paid $17 per hour, including pay for training; they are sent a letter thanking them for their service and a letter of recommendation they can use to submit for educational or professional purposes. 

Communication recurs with former students prior to each election to identify availability and eligibility into the program for new placement or they are routed to work as a poll worker after graduation. They are encouraged to apply with their political party for nomination as a judge if they feel ready for the responsibility.

4. Has this program expanded since its 2019 inception, and have you found some of the high school students recruited from past years are still serving as Harris County poll workers? 

Yes. 

1. Training has expanded from a 2-hour online training to a 3.5-hour in-person training course. Students are not only taught how to use equipment, but they are also taught how to serve as poll workers. Judges are trained to incorporate their student clerk as an active participant in the election to assist with most election-related activities. Students can attend any election worker training class, rather than limiting the training to a student course only. We also acquired new equipment since 2020, and students have been acclimated to the new equipment. 
2. Students who were formerly electronic support specialists are transitioning into regular election worker roles and are engaging siblings, friends, and colleagues into the process so the pool of available workers is expanding. Some of our students have also successfully transitioned to be election judges. The judges have recognized the incredible value these students bring to their team and are incorporating them into their regular clerk lineup in future elections, leaving the ESS role vacant and filled by a new student. This increases our pool of available students within the program, and at vote centers. 
3. One other improvement made is a form that the student fills out with the principal’s information that automates an invitation to the principal to sign eligibility forms for the student to participate. This is done within Airtable which is tracked to ensure completion of all the relevant requirements before placement (principal signature, indication of availability, and training completion). Student placements are tracked within the system, and automatic communication is sent to students when placed. 
4. We have an auxiliary program to place students who are not able to take off a full day from school into other election-related jobs including handing out supplies to judges on the weekend before the election or collecting the equipment when the judges return them at the end of election night. 

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5. What does recognition by the EAC’s Clearie program mean to your office?

Harris County values when jurisdictions are given credit for their advancements. It brings us pride to know what we do is outstanding and can help other counties. It makes us want to work harder and bring more improvements.

6. Would you recommend other jurisdictions submit a Clearie entry?

Absolutely! We can learn so much from each other. Submissions help other counties get ideas to incorporate into their own counties so we can all grow together. If you’ve authored a program, you deserve to be recognized for it.