Signing Up to be an Election Officer

Sign Up

It's easy to sign up to serve your community as an election officer, fill out this form.

Once you have joined the team and your account has been set up you will have access to current Election Officer resources and training materials through the online system.

Requirements

To be an election officer, you must be a United States citizen and registered to vote in Virginia.

In Virginia, the polls open at 6 a.m. and close at 7 p.m. As an election officer, you must be at the polls from 5 a.m. until the polls close, the results are called in, and all required forms are complete and equipment is stowed for pickup (usually between 8 and 9 p.m.). While we prefer all-day workers, we understand that the day is long and therefore offer half-day shifts (5 a.m. to 1 p.m. or 12:30 p.m. until finished) for those who are not able to work the entire day. We do ask that you be flexible as to which shift you work so that we can balance morning and afternoon workers.

Compensation

Election officers are paid $200 if working all day or $80 if working a half day.

Election officers may work as unpaid volunteers if they so choose.

Training

A general training session for most elections is mandatory. In addition, training on use of the voting equipment and the new laptop-based electronic pollbooks may be required. We schedule the training at various times, and you may attend any session that fits your schedule. The training schedule is announced six to eight weeks prior to elections.

Time Off From Work

Many employers view working as an election officer as community service and may give you a day of leave to perform your duties. If your company provides this benefit, we will provide a signed statement verifying your work on election day.

As stated in Section 24.2-118.1 of the Code of Virginia, "Any person who serves as an officer of election … shall neither be discharged from employment, nor have any adverse personnel action taken against him, nor shall he be required to use sick leave or vacation time, as a result of his absence from employment due to such service, provided he gave reasonable notice to his employer of such service. Any employer violating the provisions of this section shall be guilty of a Class 3 misdemeanor."

In other words, your employer must give you leave without pay if you don't have leave available or do not wish to use your leave for this purpose.