In late July, the Durham County Board of Elections posted on Facebook calling for Republicans to sign up to work the polls this election season. Commenters swiftly voiced concerns that the board was only looking for voters from one party and that independent voters were left out of the process.
The board was trying to adhere to a state law that requires the party affiliation of its poll workers be as evenly split between the two major parties as possible. More specifically, it requires “wherever possible” that no precinct, or voting site, has poll workers of only one political party. But, in Durham, finding enough Republicans is hard, considering the party makes up less than 10% of registered voters in the county.
The Durham County Board of Elections has made a targeted effort to recruit Republicans this election season by sending out mailers, posting on social media, and organizing speaking engagements. As a result, the board of elections is onboarding Republicans at a higher rate than they have in a long time, said Derek Bowens, the board’s director.
Still, the poll worker split is nowhere near fifty-fifty. If unaffiliated voters were reflected in the law, the goal set by state law would look different: In Durham, more than one-third of voters are registered as such, and plenty of them work the polls.
Of the 4,180 poll worker shifts filled as of September 21, about 10% are registered Republicans, 55% Democrats, and 35% unaffiliated—which closely matches the voting population of Durham, but not the parity state law sets as the ideal arrangement.
Poll workers are paid to check in voters, hand out ballots, and help uphold election laws and procedures. The board aims to enhance bipartisan representation at the polls, in order to quell any skepticism about the process, Bowens said.
“Our recruitment efforts are for anyone that wants to serve, that is truly qualified to serve,” Bowens said. “But certainly, we put priority on getting Republicans onboarded because we have a strong number of Democrats and unaffiliated registrants already on our books.”
Poll workers undergo a four-hour online training, and there’s an additional in-person training for chief judges and judges, who oversee the poll workers and voting process at each precinct. Bowens said the board has a reserve of trained poll workers to deal with vacancies, and they continue to onboard people up until Election Day. The local Republican and Democratic parties each appoint judges as well as poll observers, who watch interactions between poll workers and voters, reporting issues if they arise.
But Durham doesn’t have a deep bench of Republicans to fill those spots. It can be hard to find people willing to work on Election Day, as the shift runs from 6 a.m. to late at night. If a judge calls out sick, Durham County Republican Party Chair Christina Crosby said she doesn’t always have someone who can fill in.
With a relatively small pool of Republican voters to pull from, Bowens said, some people who want to be involved in the elections process may instead choose to campaign for a candidate or be a poll observer.
In line with state law, Bowens said Durham’s board of elections works to ensure one party does not hold all of the poll worker positions at a given precinct. Without enough Republicans, Bowens said, the board of elections defers to unaffiliated and third-party voters. As of September 21, there was at least one Republican signed up for every precinct on both early voting days and Election Day, and the board of elections had 333 shifts left to fill.
Bipartisan representation at the polls is crucial to prevent voters, candidates, or election workers from accusing a party of “stacking the deck,” Crosby said.
“The intent of the law is to always have, like everything else in our government, to have checks and balances, so nobody is slanted one way or the other,” Crosby said.
Bowens said the board typically doesn’t get accusations of fraud or misuse, due to its transparency: Members of the public can attend board meetings and facility tours to better understand the process.
Confidence in elections isn’t particularly high among either party, a new Association Press poll found. Forty-four percent of Democrats surveyed said they have confidence in government certification of election results, down from 65% two years ago. Just 29% of Republicans said the same, about the same share as in 2024.
A faction of Republicans has challenged the accuracy of election results, led by President Donald Trump, whose unproven claims of voter fraud and unwillingness to certify the election results in his 2020 loss to Joe Biden ignited the violent January 6, 2021, insurrection at the Capitol.
Republican State Auditor Dave Boliek is allowed to appoint board of elections chairs after the general assembly took that role from Democratic Governor Josh Stein. Boliek’s appointments swapped the majority party of state and county election boards—including Durham’s—from Democrat to Republican, prompting backlash from Democrats that the process has become unnecessarily partisan. The state board has eliminated Sunday voting outside of Durham and adopted new rules that make it easier to reject mail-in ballots, both options that tend to be favored by Democrats.
There has been some effort to get unaffiliated voters a seat on the county boards of elections, said Bob Hall, former executive director of Democracy NC, but the courts have determined that power lies with the general assembly.
Hall said anyone concerned about administering fair elections should sign up to be a poll worker.
“It’s the best place to be, to ensure that there is a safe and fair election by being inside the polling place and helping voters,” Hall said.
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