Want to work as a poll worker in the 2024 election? Here’s what you should know

Election Day is Nov. 5 — and early voting starts even sooner on Oct. 21.
Many Texas residents are preparing for the upcoming presidential election by signing up and registering to vote. The last day to register is Oct. 7.
But if you feel extra civically engaged this year, you can do more than vote. You can sign up to work at the polls — and get paid for it.
On the Dallas County website’s “Election Worker Application,” you can express your interest in being an election judge or clerk for either early voting or Election Day. Election clerk positions tend to be the most common way citizens help work the polls.
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Meanwhile, the county’s commissioners court appoints the presiding judge and alternate presiding judge positions from lists provided by the major political parties, Dallas County Election Administrator Heider Garcia said.
“If you want to be an election judge or an alternate, call your party and say, ‘Hey, I want to be a judge or an alternate,’” Garcia said.
He added election clerks are typically recruited after judges.
Applications to become an election worker may vary by county. For example, in Dallas County, you can fill out an online form to express your interest in being a poll worker. But there’s also an in-person aspect to the application process. On the online form, prospective workers must select all roles they would be interested in and state their political party. This is partly because Texas’ election code requires that presiding judges and alternate presiding judges in each precinct are associated with different political parties.
In Tarrant County, those interested in becoming poll workers can fill out a PDF and submit it to a county email or mail it to the elections department. Residents in Collin County can similarly fill out a PDF form that can be emailed to a local elections official or handed in directly.
First, all election workers must be registered voters.
“If somebody applies, we’re going to look up and check their registration status and say, ‘Hey, we need you to register if you really want to work,’” he said.
But even if you fit the registration criteria, some other restrictions may prevent you from becoming an election worker, including if:
Poll workers sometimes work long hours to ensure elections run smoothly throughout the state. Dallas County’s polls will be open for 12 hours on Election Day and during half of the early voting dates. Election workers are often present before and after to ensure everything is properly set up and taken down, Garcia said.
“It can be a bit of a stretch, but they do it because they love their communities and they just want to help,” Garcia said.
Additionally, election workers will help check voters in and provide voters with ballots.
Yes. Election workers across the state are paid hourly for their work. Pay rates differ by area, with wages in Dallas County higher than in some neighboring counties.
In Dallas County, an election judge is paid $20.22 per hour during the early voting period and $24.22 per hour on Election Day. Clerks meanwhile earn $18.24 each hour on Election Day and during early voting, according to the county’s election worker application.
Compensation for election workers in any Texas county must be higher than the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour.
Even if you are not of voting age and will not be by Election Day, you can still participate in the electoral process. In Texas counties, Dallas County included, high school students at least 16 years old can sign up to serve as election clerks.
To qualify, you must be a U.S. citizen, have permission from your parent or guardian and school principal, and have completed an election worker training course. Students who want to participate but are homeschooled just need their parent or legal guardian’s consent.
Students engage in some of the typical functions of an election clerk, such as answering voters’ questions, organizing the polling place before it opens or distributing ballots to voters.