Voters should volunteer to fill the countless poll worker vacancies throughout the commonwealth to ensure a smooth election. 

“While the legislature and Pennsylvania Department of State continue to evaluate potential election reforms, one way that voters can make an immediate impact on the integrity of elections is by serving as judges and inspectors of elections,” said former PA governor Ed Rendell.

“These nearly 27,000 election day positions are essential to ensuring a smooth election day with involvement in verifying voting integrity and securing ballots,” said former congresswoman Melissa Hart. 

Judges of Election supervise their voting precinct and safely deliver ballots and election results to the county at the end of the evening. Inspectors verify voter registration, sign in voters and uphold election integrity at each voting precinct.

Although the petition-filing period for these positions has passed, voters can still run write-in campaigns for the May 20 primary. Anyone interested in filling these crucial positions should ask their friends, family and neighbors within their specific precinct to write their name on their May 20 primary ballot for the position they are seeking. 

“Pennsylvanians should step up to serve as Election Day poll workers, ensuring a smooth, fair and secure election process. This is a unique opportunity to serve their community and play a vital role in our democracy,” said former congressman Jim Gerlach. 

While Election Day volunteers are an important part of the voting process, members of the state legislature should explore additional election reforms. Improvements for discussion should include pre-canvassing, voter ID and election uniformity to further strengthen our election system. Pre-canvassing ballots would allow election workers to prepare and inspect mail-in ballots before counting them on Election Day. 

Additionally, Act 77 of 2019, which allowed no-excuse mail-in voting, had several unclear guidelines and failed to set uniform rules across all 67 counties. Because of this, some counties faced lawsuits due to inconsistent enforcement. To protect our counties in future elections and to ensure consistency, uniformity in our elections must be a top priority for the state legislature.

Democracy Defense Project Pennsylvania board 
State of Pennsylvania