Who will replace election workers?

Dixie and Rick Armstrong have seen plenty of elections come and go while working the polls in Wayne County. While they’re confident in the integrity of the process, they worry about where the next generation of election workers will come from.

Dixie Armstrong has been an election inspector at Wayne County voting sites for about 45 years. She also helps send out absentee ballots to active military members and delivers ballots to homebound people with bipartisan traveling board teams. 

Her husband, Rick, has worked the polls for 12 years at the courthouse and vote centers, after serving his political party as treasurer and helping with several campaigns over the years.

Despite the long hours and occasional challenges that develop in working with the public, the couple say it’s important to keep local vote centers staffed. 

Noting a decline in some young adults’ involvement in civic clubs and churches, they believe it’s crucial to recruit them now to work elections. Rick said he hopes they’ll be willing to “get out of their comfort zones” and help at the polls. 

Dixie’s experience

Dixie’s route to becoming a poll worker started through her job in Whitewater Broadcasting’s accounting office. On Election Night, she would take calls from precincts with their vote totals and add them to the roll of paper, and respond to listeners who called to ask about results. 

One of Dixie’s station colleagues believed her bookkeeping skills could be useful for elections, and convinced her that she should sign up.

Dixie’s first assignment was Centerville, where the Armstrongs lived at the time in the former home of Indiana’s Civil War Gov. Oliver P. Morton. 

Having that local knowledge helped her recognize most voters. She soon learned how to help those who faced challenges during check-in, such as having a different name after marriage, being known by a middle name, or moving to a different address. In recent elections, Dixie has served at Hagerstown and various Richmond locations as needed. She and Rick often work at the same site.  

Through the years, Dixie has served some potential voters who get upset over concerns such as town, city or county geographic boundaries, and has tried to diffuse those situations. She said she’s been called some hateful names, but most people will calm down “as long as you hold your temper too.”  

For instance, some Richmond Sanitary District customers have been convinced they should be eligible to vote for Richmond mayor even if they’re shown maps indicating they live outside city limits. When questions arise, voters may cast a provisional ballot that’s placed in a special orange bag. Provisional ballots aren’t counted on Election Night. Courthouse staff contact provisional voters after the election and invite them to come in and prove to the election board that their vote should count.

“You’re working with the public and you take care of them like you do your retail customers,” said Rick, who ran Armstrong Cleaners & Formalwear for many years.

Dixie is especially proud about celebrating first-time young voters. For many years, a longtime poll worker who had taught school brought her classroom bell to ring and announce the new voters. After that teacher’s death, Dixie bought a bell and has carried on the tradition to celebrate those new voters after they cast their ballots, encouraging others present to applaud.

Rick said it’s important to support new voters’ interest in democracy because human poll workers are still needed even when computers are used.

Indiana state law now allows 16 and 17 year old high school students to be excused from school for a day of working the polls. Indiana Capitol Chronicle reported that an estimated 4.3% of Indiana’s poll workers were under the age of 18 in 2020, higher than its peer states and higher than the national average of 3%, according to an analysis from Tufts University. 

Still, the Armstrongs worry who will take their place, so they’ll keep signing up “as long as we can do it, as long as they want us to do it and we’re sharp enough to do it,” Rick said.

Duties at a glance

It takes many hands to staff vote centers on Election Day and the days leading up to it, and there are roles available for people with different strengths and abilities.

Poll workers staff the courthouse each weekday for nearly a month, allowing voters to cast their ballots on the second floor outside the voter registration office. 

Vote centers are staffed with a balance of party representation. For example, there must be a Democrat and a Republican at clerk and judge stations for each vote center. 

Inspectors serve as managers of each site. Clerks check in residents with the electronic poll book and judges then print ballots for voters based on their address. Floaters can help with traffic flow. 

Berry said the system has worked well since Wayne County became a testing site for vote centers that have since rolled out statewide. 

“We’ve got it down pretty pat,” Berry said.  

Poll workers are being cross-trained to cover for each other during breaks and lunch. That’s especially helpful on Election Day, which can be a 14-hour day between the 5 a.m. worker arrival time and the moment vote data is delivered to the courthouse for final processing. 

They do get paid for those hours, and Wayne County recently increased that pay.

After many hours of watching Wayne County’s elections take place, the Armstrongs say they’re confident about how Hoosier elections are run. 

“If every state in the union would follow the state of Indiana, there’d be no question about the integrity of elections,” Rick said.