Skip to main content

Minneapolis, Minnesota - 2017 Clearinghouse Award Winner

Friday, March 11, 2022

Recruitment, Training and Retention of Poll Workers

Since 1991, the Student Election Judge Program has engaged high school students ages 16 and older as poll workers on Election Day. High school students receive the same training and work alongside adult election judges, performing all the same duties at the same rate of pay.

The Student Election Judge Program serves multiple goals:

  • Increase the number of election judges who are bilingual in targeted languages.
  • Address short- and long-term needs for effective, tech-adept poll workers.
  • Increase the ethnic and age diversity of our election judges to better reflect the face of our community.
  • Help high school students attain civic skills and dispositions.
  • Provide high school students with increased connections to their community.

The program has been growing, expanding from 162 student election judges in 2014, to 352 in the 2016 general election. For the 2017 municipal election, 291 student election judges were assigned across the 132 precincts in Minneapolis, more than 10 percent of our election workforce.

Competition Submission (PDF)

electionworker_winner_web