Enhanced County Employee Election Worker Program

2023 NACo Achievement Award Winner

Los Angeles County, Calif., CA

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About the Program

Category: Personnel Management, Employment and Training (Best in Category)

Year: 2023

Administering successful elections is an essential and core function of the County of Los Angeles. Further, County employees have been important contributors to the election process since the inception of the County Employee Voluntary Pollworker Program in 1998. These facts coupled with the adoption of the California Voter’s Choice Act in 2020, which increased the number of voting days, and in response to recruitment challenges presented by the COVID-19 Pandemic, required the Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk to make structural vote center staffing changes. This included deploying County employees as election workers through the Disaster Service Worker (DSW) Program for several elections through the June 2022 Election. Recruitment of County employees through the DSW Program proved to be extremely effective. Due to its success, the RR/CC developed an enhanced County Employee Election Worker Program (Program) which included the most effective components of the existing County voluntary program and the DSW Program. The new Program was implemented during the November 2022 General Election and was highly successful. Over 6,000 County employees volunteered, 52% of County employees placed were bilingual, and now-show rates decreased by 50% in comparison to the June 2022 Election.