July 14, 2025 • 14 mins
National Poll Worker Recruitment Day will be on August 12, 2025
National Poll Worker Recruitment Day is a national day of action established by the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC) in 2020 to inspire civic engagement and encourage people to sign up to become a poll worker. On August 12, 2025, National Poll Worker Recruitment Day aims to address the continued need for poll workers to sign up to Help America Vote and strengthen our democracy. Among the events that day, a big one will be at the WWII Museum in New Orleans. The event partner is Vet the Vote who recruits military veterans and their families to serve as poll workers across the nation. The event will be livestreamed as a feature of National Poll Worker Recruitment Day.
(Aired July 13, 2025) In this podcast, Lisa Foxx interviews Commissioner Christy A. McCormick with the U.S. Election Assistance Commission. They discuss her role and the role of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission with every election nationwide AND the importance of our valued poll workers. It takes almost 1,000,000 poll workers to run the election structure across the country. If you are interested in signing up to serve as a poll worker, and get compensated for your time, check out these sites:
www.helpamericavote.gov to connect with election jurisdictions across the country to learn about serving as a poll worker and to sign up to serve.
www.eac.gov/vote to connect with election jurisdictions across the country to register to vote or ask election related questions.
National Poll Worker Recruitment Day is a national day of action established by the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC) in 2020 to inspire civic engagement and encourage people to sign up to become a poll worker. On August 12, 2025, National Poll Worker Recruitment Day aims to address the continued need for poll workers to sign up to Help America Vote and strengthen our democracy. Among the events that day, a big one will be at the WWII Museum in New Orleans. The event partner is Vet the Vote who recruits military veterans and their families to serve as poll workers across the nation. The event will be livestreamed as a feature of National Poll Worker Recruitment Day.
(Aired July 13, 2025) In this podcast, Lisa Foxx interviews Commissioner Christy A. McCormick with the U.S. Election Assistance Commission. They discuss her role and the role of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission with every election nationwide AND the importance of our valued poll workers. It takes almost 1,000,000 poll workers to run the election structure across the country. If you are interested in signing up to serve as a poll worker, and get compensated for your time, check out these sites:
www.helpamericavote.gov to connect with election jurisdictions across the country to learn about serving as a poll worker and to sign up to serve.
www.eac.gov/vote to connect with election jurisdictions across the country to register to vote or ask election related questions.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Lisa Fox here. This is the iHeart So Cal Show.
So come up August twelfth, it's National Poll Workers Day,
National poll Workers Recruitment Day. That's all about thinking people
who have worked the polls in the past, but also
creating a buzz for in hopes of encouraging people to
get paid to work the polls and for future elections
here locally and nationwide. And I've got to Commissioner Christy A.
(00:22):
McCormick on with us from the US Election Assistants Commission
to tell us all about it. Hello, Commissioner CHRISTI gosh, Commissioner,
it sounds so official.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Hello, Yeah, how are you doing.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
I'm doing wonderful, So Commissioner McCormick. Great to have you
on the iHeart So Cal Show. It sounds like it's
not easy to just become the commissioner of the US
Election Assistants Commission. And looking at your resume, wow, you've
had quite the journey to get where you are. Can
you share a little bit of your resume?
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Yeah, I've been in elections for a long time. I
first started out as an assistant registrar. I saw an
ad in a penny saver that they were looking for
help and I went and bough on here to help
register people to vote, and it ended up turning out
to be my career. Little did I know at that
love that I ended up going to law school and
working at in courts and worked for the Virginia Attorney
(01:13):
General's Office for a while, and then ended up at
the US Department of Justice working in vote the voting section,
where we prosecuted discrimination cases, you know, against jurisdictions who
discriminated against voters to make sure that everyone had the
right to vote. And during that time, the assistant or sorry,
the deputy Attorney General asked me to go to Iraq,
(01:36):
and so I went to a rock for a year
and worked with them on their elections. Oh wow, and
then came back to the US. I was over there
for about a year and then continued working in the
voting section at the Department of Justice. And got a
call one day from somebody up in Congress, a staff
member who said, your name has been you know, suggested
to be a commissioner on the US Election Commission Election
(01:58):
Assistants Commission, would you come and interview? And I was like, Okay,
I don't really know anybody on the Hill, but i'll go,
and a couple months later they called me and said,
we've decided to send your name to the president. Went
through the whole background process, and which is quite complicated
and everybody's heard when you get nominated for one of
(02:18):
these positions, presidentially appointed positions, you go through a big
background check, yeah, and then you have to go through
Senate confirmation and then the president appoints you. And there
are four commissioners on our commission. It is a bipartisan commission.
We have two Democrats and two Republicans, but we really
agree on ninety nine percent of everything. We're very close
(02:39):
knit group, and you know, we're all working for the
same goal, which is free and fair elections and making
sure that everybody who's a citizen in the country gets
an opportunity to vote easily as they can, yeah, and
securely as they can.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
And probably a big stress in your job is to
make sure that nothing gets messed up, because right we
hear about you know, issues and things that happen elections.
So your job is, you know, you want to make
sure that everything goes smoothly and that it's on the
up and up.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
It is. We don't run elections at the federal level
in our country. Most countries run them at the national level,
but we don't. We leave that up to the states
and the localities to run elections. So our role in
elections is providing guidance and assistants and advice to election
officials across the country, and we have a voluntary program
(03:27):
that states can use to get their machines tested and certified.
We have national standards that we help set, and we
accredit laboratories to do the testing of the machines. And
we distribute money that Congress appropriates to the states when
they appropriate it. They didn't appropriate appropriate any money, and
they're great, big, beautiful bill, but we have had over
(03:48):
a billion dollars dedicated to the states over the last
several years. So we track that money and we audit
it and make sure it's being used appropriately, and then
we also collect and distribute best practices to try to
improve elections across the country. There's a big gap in
knowledge from the biggest jurisdictions that have a lot of money,
jurisdictions like Los Angeles, which is actually the largest voting
(04:12):
jurisdiction in the country with over five million voters, to
tiny little jurisdictions out in rural America that might even
only have five or ten voters. So you know, there's
a big difference in you know, the resources and knowledge
that these election officials have. But we try to help
them all and we do a lot of travel around
(04:32):
the country. We've I've actually been to every state and
territory now visiting trying to help them with their elections.
So it's a big job, an important job. Ye you know,
I've been doing this now for the Commission for about
ten years and it never gets easier.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
And with every election, you're like, it's an election year, Okay,
I got to buckle up and get ready.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
Every year, every year is an election year across the country.
I mean every two year. Every two years we have
federal elections, but there are elections running everywhere. This year,
I think Virginia and New Jersey are voting for a governor,
and then there's lots of little elections in between. So
there's usually an election going on somewhere almost every day.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
And are we happy with the machines when these elections happen?
Speaker 2 (05:18):
On?
Speaker 1 (05:18):
What they're called? But you know, we use the kind
of like the touchscreen electronic way to fill out the ballot.
These days here in the southern California.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
Most places don't use a touch screen machine anymore. Most
of those jurisdictions use a paper ballot that's scanmed either
at the polling precinct or is sent in and scanned
at a central location and sort of a tabulating machine.
So that's the most common type of voting system. But
we were working constantly to improve those machines and take
(05:47):
care take advantage of new technology and new you know,
cybersecurity measures and things like that. I would say that
our machines are safe. We've never had any proven instances
of somebody actually hacking. I mean, there's lots of stories
out there, but we have never actually had the evidence
of that happening. And the good thing about using paper
(06:08):
ballots along with these machines is you can always do
an audit and count the paper ballots to make sure
they match the totals of the that come out of
the machines after they tabulate it. So we do a
lot of spot checking to make sure that the machines
are still working the way they're supposed to work and
that the results are accurate. There's a lot out there
(06:28):
about the machines, but I actually have confidence that our
machines are safe and secure well.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
And being that it's such an important job to be
a poll worker, how easy is it to sign up
or apply? I mean, my mom did it a couple
of years ago and she loved it. And it's not
just a one day thing. It's a whole process.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
It is. You have to go through training. They do.
Usually most jurisdictions pay their poll workers. It's not a
lot that they do pay them, sometimes several hundred dollars
for the day or for a few days. You can
go to your local jurisdiction, your local registrar's office and
sign up.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
And I see your other website here. If you're looking
to be a poll worker, a paid poll worker for
the next election, you can sign up or apply at
Help America Vote dot gov.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
Yeah, we also have them on our website EAC www
dot EAC dot gov slash vote and that will take
you also to where you can sign up to be
a poll worker. God and we do use a lot
of poll workers. Usually during a presidential election, we need
almost a million people to work or an election officer
(07:31):
across the country. That's a huge recruitment effort, and it
takes a lot of people to do this job and
to secure our democracy. And the more people who are
in it, the more people understand the process and they
see their neighbors and they help do some civic engagement.
So we recommend people who have questions about the elections
or the machines to actually go sign up and be
(07:53):
a poll worker or be an election worker, because I
think it educates them as well. Opening Yeah, yeah, much so.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
With a variety of events happening on August twelfth, National
Poll Worker Recruitment Day. Looks like you're live streaming a
pretty big one happening at the World War Two Museum
in Orleans, and the event partner is vet the Vote.
What a great program, talk about that.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
So That's the Vote is a great organization that we've
partnered with. Their goal is to sign up veterans to
be poll workers, and during the last elections, the November elections,
they signed up one hundred and sixty eight thousand veterans
to work. The amazing so great. But those veterans have
taken a vow to uphold the Constitution and protect the
(08:37):
United States, so it's a great way for them to
continue to be involved in protecting our democracy, our representative
democracy after they've left service, and we really appreciate all
of them and their service and their continued service when
they become election workers as well.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
That's wonderful. Yeah, I was going to say also to
you know, anyone who's ever voted knows the poll workers
aren't messing around. They're not you know, they take it
very seriously, which they should. You know, we're coming in
there before work, after work, or you know, Lord knows
where we're coming from. But they're very all about business
and seemingly really respect the whole process and want to
(09:15):
make sure it's done right.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
They get a lot of training on how they should
support themselves and the correct procedures. One of the things
about elections is they need to be perfect. We don't
accept error in elections, and we do our best. I mean,
there's we're humans, so things do happen once in a while.
But they are the faith of our democracy. They're the
first person you meet when you go into vote or
(09:36):
if you go to a registrar's office. They are the
people who are keeping this country going and making sure
that people continue to receive help with casting a ballot
and having their voice heard. So there is a very
important role.
Speaker 1 (09:50):
The US Election Assistants Commission also has what's the Field
Services program touch on that.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
Yeah, So we have a program where we have regional
experts UH to go out to these local election offices
to help them check their machines and make sure there's
they haven't been hacked, that they're still certified to the
standard when they were tested, and then we provide manufacturer
updates to machinery, and we provide best practices and help
(10:17):
help the local jurisdictions sort of conquer the challenges that
they might have in their area. We have a great
team at the EAC that we've hired to do this,
and they are willing to come out and visit election
offices all over the country or even do work with
folks virtually. So we're very proud of that program. It
just started. It helps us get some visibility out into
(10:40):
the country. Previously, we didn't have that visibility. We would
test and certify machines and then we really didn't have
a way to follow up. But the last couple of
years we've had this program so that we can go
out and make sure that the machines are still how
they're supposed to be operating, and we check for anomalies
and things like that. So it's a it's a really
great program for local jurisdictions to take advantage of.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
That's great. And again, the money that's spent to make
sure this all happens, you know, according to plan, is
a lot, right.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
As I mentioned, like from twenty eighteen until last year,
there was over a billion dollars that Congress appropriated to
the states, and usually that money is spent on things
like cybersecurity or physical security for the machines or actually
for the poll workers sometimes and then updating machines, or
voter education programs because it's a little intimidating when you
(11:31):
turn eighteen and you've never voted before and you don't
know kind of what you're getting into. So a lot
of the local jurisdictions like to run voter education programs
to let people know how to vote, where to vote,
and how the whole process works.
Speaker 1 (11:44):
And most importantly, people get to know that people on
your ballot, you know what I mean. You can't just
show up and wing it. You got to do a
little homework and know who you're who you're filling in
the little bubble for I mean, you got to know
your people. You've got to spend some time doing a
little Googling and do your research.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
Research. Yeah, yeah, I mean one of the great things
that California does, I know this is Southern California Radio,
is that they provide a voter guide which goes through
each of the races on the ballot and gives a
little bit of a description. But you really kind of
need to do more research than that. I mean, even I,
who am an experienced election person, you know, when we
get our ballot in Los Angeles, I live in Los Angeles,
(12:23):
it's a long ballot. There's a lot of a lot
that I don't know anything about. So if I was
eighteen first looking at a ballot, I'd be like overwhelmed,
I think. So it's important for you to be able
to kind of research and learn about things before you
go in to vote. Absolutely voting and listen. We do
have mail in ballots in California, so I mean you
can sit there next to your computer and do the
(12:45):
research in Google people as you're voting. But yes, I agree,
I think that's an important thing for people to educate
themselves before they vote.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
But Christy we all know it's more fun to go
in go through the voting process in person and get
your sticker and get your sticker.
Speaker 2 (12:59):
Come on, sticker. We actually have a sticker contest now
every year. One of the one of the things we
do is we we have something called the Clearinghouse Awards
at the national level award program, and it recognizes innovation
in elections across the country. People send in nominations and
ideas of things that they're doing and then we have
(13:20):
a panel of judges who picked the best best ideas
and there's a number of different ideas, but one of
the categories is best I Voted Sticker, And that is
really interesting.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
Because the design.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
A lot of jurisdictions will have their high schools although
run into the contest for what that looks like. Uh,
and you know, yeah, it's really fun. We've had some
great stickers and you know the last few years, and
I think voters really love their stickers. We do.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
We're proud. We like to proudly rock our I Voted stickers,
especially on election day.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
I know, I know, I lived in a jurisdiction one
time that cuts the voting the election's budget. And one
of the first things they cut with the I Voted
stickers and they stopped buying them. Little voters had a
fit that they wanted to have their eye voted stickers.
That's right. To restate the budget for the I vote.
Speaker 1 (14:11):
That's great. It's a badge of honor. It's a badge
of honor.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
It is. It is.
Speaker 1 (14:16):
And remember, if you signed to be a pollworker, you're
gonna get paid too. You'll get compensated, that's right.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
And you can get to meet a lot of people,
which is great, and you get to know your neighbors
and your community, and it really is important to the community.
You know. It's a great way to serve our country.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
It's a great way. Thank you again. Commissioner Christy A.
McCormick with the US Election Assistants Commission again the best
websites for all the info year round, but especially for
August twelfth, the National Pollworker Recruitment Day, Help America Vote
dot gov, Help America Vote dot gov, and EAC dot
gov slash vote. Commissioner Christy, thank.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
You, thank you so much. We appreciate it.
Lisa Fox here. This is the iHeart So Cal Show.
So come up August twelfth, it's National Poll Workers Day,
National poll Workers Recruitment Day. That's all about thinking people
who have worked the polls in the past, but also
creating a buzz for in hopes of encouraging people to
get paid to work the polls and for future elections
here locally and nationwide. And I've got to Commissioner Christy A.
(00:22):
McCormick on with us from the US Election Assistants Commission
to tell us all about it. Hello, Commissioner CHRISTI gosh, Commissioner,
it sounds so official.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Hello, Yeah, how are you doing.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
I'm doing wonderful, So Commissioner McCormick. Great to have you
on the iHeart So Cal Show. It sounds like it's
not easy to just become the commissioner of the US
Election Assistants Commission. And looking at your resume, wow, you've
had quite the journey to get where you are. Can
you share a little bit of your resume?
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Yeah, I've been in elections for a long time. I
first started out as an assistant registrar. I saw an
ad in a penny saver that they were looking for
help and I went and bough on here to help
register people to vote, and it ended up turning out
to be my career. Little did I know at that
love that I ended up going to law school and
working at in courts and worked for the Virginia Attorney
(01:13):
General's Office for a while, and then ended up at
the US Department of Justice working in vote the voting section,
where we prosecuted discrimination cases, you know, against jurisdictions who
discriminated against voters to make sure that everyone had the
right to vote. And during that time, the assistant or sorry,
the deputy Attorney General asked me to go to Iraq,
(01:36):
and so I went to a rock for a year
and worked with them on their elections. Oh wow, and
then came back to the US. I was over there
for about a year and then continued working in the
voting section at the Department of Justice. And got a
call one day from somebody up in Congress, a staff
member who said, your name has been you know, suggested
to be a commissioner on the US Election Commission Election
(01:58):
Assistants Commission, would you come and interview? And I was like, Okay,
I don't really know anybody on the Hill, but i'll go,
and a couple months later they called me and said,
we've decided to send your name to the president. Went
through the whole background process, and which is quite complicated
and everybody's heard when you get nominated for one of
(02:18):
these positions, presidentially appointed positions, you go through a big
background check, yeah, and then you have to go through
Senate confirmation and then the president appoints you. And there
are four commissioners on our commission. It is a bipartisan commission.
We have two Democrats and two Republicans, but we really
agree on ninety nine percent of everything. We're very close
(02:39):
knit group, and you know, we're all working for the
same goal, which is free and fair elections and making
sure that everybody who's a citizen in the country gets
an opportunity to vote easily as they can, yeah, and
securely as they can.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
And probably a big stress in your job is to
make sure that nothing gets messed up, because right we
hear about you know, issues and things that happen elections.
So your job is, you know, you want to make
sure that everything goes smoothly and that it's on the
up and up.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
It is. We don't run elections at the federal level
in our country. Most countries run them at the national level,
but we don't. We leave that up to the states
and the localities to run elections. So our role in
elections is providing guidance and assistants and advice to election
officials across the country, and we have a voluntary program
(03:27):
that states can use to get their machines tested and certified.
We have national standards that we help set, and we
accredit laboratories to do the testing of the machines. And
we distribute money that Congress appropriates to the states when
they appropriate it. They didn't appropriate appropriate any money, and
they're great, big, beautiful bill, but we have had over
(03:48):
a billion dollars dedicated to the states over the last
several years. So we track that money and we audit
it and make sure it's being used appropriately, and then
we also collect and distribute best practices to try to
improve elections across the country. There's a big gap in
knowledge from the biggest jurisdictions that have a lot of money,
jurisdictions like Los Angeles, which is actually the largest voting
(04:12):
jurisdiction in the country with over five million voters, to
tiny little jurisdictions out in rural America that might even
only have five or ten voters. So you know, there's
a big difference in you know, the resources and knowledge
that these election officials have. But we try to help
them all and we do a lot of travel around
(04:32):
the country. We've I've actually been to every state and
territory now visiting trying to help them with their elections.
So it's a big job, an important job. Ye you know,
I've been doing this now for the Commission for about
ten years and it never gets easier.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
And with every election, you're like, it's an election year, Okay,
I got to buckle up and get ready.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
Every year, every year is an election year across the country.
I mean every two year. Every two years we have
federal elections, but there are elections running everywhere. This year,
I think Virginia and New Jersey are voting for a governor,
and then there's lots of little elections in between. So
there's usually an election going on somewhere almost every day.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
And are we happy with the machines when these elections happen?
Speaker 2 (05:18):
On?
Speaker 1 (05:18):
What they're called? But you know, we use the kind
of like the touchscreen electronic way to fill out the ballot.
These days here in the southern California.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
Most places don't use a touch screen machine anymore. Most
of those jurisdictions use a paper ballot that's scanmed either
at the polling precinct or is sent in and scanned
at a central location and sort of a tabulating machine.
So that's the most common type of voting system. But
we were working constantly to improve those machines and take
(05:47):
care take advantage of new technology and new you know,
cybersecurity measures and things like that. I would say that
our machines are safe. We've never had any proven instances
of somebody actually hacking. I mean, there's lots of stories
out there, but we have never actually had the evidence
of that happening. And the good thing about using paper
(06:08):
ballots along with these machines is you can always do
an audit and count the paper ballots to make sure
they match the totals of the that come out of
the machines after they tabulate it. So we do a
lot of spot checking to make sure that the machines
are still working the way they're supposed to work and
that the results are accurate. There's a lot out there
(06:28):
about the machines, but I actually have confidence that our
machines are safe and secure well.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
And being that it's such an important job to be
a poll worker, how easy is it to sign up
or apply? I mean, my mom did it a couple
of years ago and she loved it. And it's not
just a one day thing. It's a whole process.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
It is. You have to go through training. They do.
Usually most jurisdictions pay their poll workers. It's not a
lot that they do pay them, sometimes several hundred dollars
for the day or for a few days. You can
go to your local jurisdiction, your local registrar's office and
sign up.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
And I see your other website here. If you're looking
to be a poll worker, a paid poll worker for
the next election, you can sign up or apply at
Help America Vote dot gov.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
Yeah, we also have them on our website EAC www
dot EAC dot gov slash vote and that will take
you also to where you can sign up to be
a poll worker. God and we do use a lot
of poll workers. Usually during a presidential election, we need
almost a million people to work or an election officer
(07:31):
across the country. That's a huge recruitment effort, and it
takes a lot of people to do this job and
to secure our democracy. And the more people who are
in it, the more people understand the process and they
see their neighbors and they help do some civic engagement.
So we recommend people who have questions about the elections
or the machines to actually go sign up and be
(07:53):
a poll worker or be an election worker, because I
think it educates them as well. Opening Yeah, yeah, much so.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
With a variety of events happening on August twelfth, National
Poll Worker Recruitment Day. Looks like you're live streaming a
pretty big one happening at the World War Two Museum
in Orleans, and the event partner is vet the Vote.
What a great program, talk about that.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
So That's the Vote is a great organization that we've
partnered with. Their goal is to sign up veterans to
be poll workers, and during the last elections, the November elections,
they signed up one hundred and sixty eight thousand veterans
to work. The amazing so great. But those veterans have
taken a vow to uphold the Constitution and protect the
(08:37):
United States, so it's a great way for them to
continue to be involved in protecting our democracy, our representative
democracy after they've left service, and we really appreciate all
of them and their service and their continued service when
they become election workers as well.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
That's wonderful. Yeah, I was going to say also to
you know, anyone who's ever voted knows the poll workers
aren't messing around. They're not you know, they take it
very seriously, which they should. You know, we're coming in
there before work, after work, or you know, Lord knows
where we're coming from. But they're very all about business
and seemingly really respect the whole process and want to
(09:15):
make sure it's done right.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
They get a lot of training on how they should
support themselves and the correct procedures. One of the things
about elections is they need to be perfect. We don't
accept error in elections, and we do our best. I mean,
there's we're humans, so things do happen once in a while.
But they are the faith of our democracy. They're the
first person you meet when you go into vote or
(09:36):
if you go to a registrar's office. They are the
people who are keeping this country going and making sure
that people continue to receive help with casting a ballot
and having their voice heard. So there is a very
important role.
Speaker 1 (09:50):
The US Election Assistants Commission also has what's the Field
Services program touch on that.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
Yeah, So we have a program where we have regional
experts UH to go out to these local election offices
to help them check their machines and make sure there's
they haven't been hacked, that they're still certified to the
standard when they were tested, and then we provide manufacturer
updates to machinery, and we provide best practices and help
(10:17):
help the local jurisdictions sort of conquer the challenges that
they might have in their area. We have a great
team at the EAC that we've hired to do this,
and they are willing to come out and visit election
offices all over the country or even do work with
folks virtually. So we're very proud of that program. It
just started. It helps us get some visibility out into
(10:40):
the country. Previously, we didn't have that visibility. We would
test and certify machines and then we really didn't have
a way to follow up. But the last couple of
years we've had this program so that we can go
out and make sure that the machines are still how
they're supposed to be operating, and we check for anomalies
and things like that. So it's a it's a really
great program for local jurisdictions to take advantage of.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
That's great. And again, the money that's spent to make
sure this all happens, you know, according to plan, is
a lot, right.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
As I mentioned, like from twenty eighteen until last year,
there was over a billion dollars that Congress appropriated to
the states, and usually that money is spent on things
like cybersecurity or physical security for the machines or actually
for the poll workers sometimes and then updating machines, or
voter education programs because it's a little intimidating when you
(11:31):
turn eighteen and you've never voted before and you don't
know kind of what you're getting into. So a lot
of the local jurisdictions like to run voter education programs
to let people know how to vote, where to vote,
and how the whole process works.
Speaker 1 (11:44):
And most importantly, people get to know that people on
your ballot, you know what I mean. You can't just
show up and wing it. You got to do a
little homework and know who you're who you're filling in
the little bubble for I mean, you got to know
your people. You've got to spend some time doing a
little Googling and do your research.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
Research. Yeah, yeah, I mean one of the great things
that California does, I know this is Southern California Radio,
is that they provide a voter guide which goes through
each of the races on the ballot and gives a
little bit of a description. But you really kind of
need to do more research than that. I mean, even I,
who am an experienced election person, you know, when we
get our ballot in Los Angeles, I live in Los Angeles,
(12:23):
it's a long ballot. There's a lot of a lot
that I don't know anything about. So if I was
eighteen first looking at a ballot, I'd be like overwhelmed,
I think. So it's important for you to be able
to kind of research and learn about things before you
go in to vote. Absolutely voting and listen. We do
have mail in ballots in California, so I mean you
can sit there next to your computer and do the
(12:45):
research in Google people as you're voting. But yes, I agree,
I think that's an important thing for people to educate
themselves before they vote.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
But Christy we all know it's more fun to go
in go through the voting process in person and get
your sticker and get your sticker.
Speaker 2 (12:59):
Come on, sticker. We actually have a sticker contest now
every year. One of the one of the things we
do is we we have something called the Clearinghouse Awards
at the national level award program, and it recognizes innovation
in elections across the country. People send in nominations and
ideas of things that they're doing and then we have
(13:20):
a panel of judges who picked the best best ideas
and there's a number of different ideas, but one of
the categories is best I Voted Sticker, And that is
really interesting.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
Because the design.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
A lot of jurisdictions will have their high schools although
run into the contest for what that looks like. Uh,
and you know, yeah, it's really fun. We've had some
great stickers and you know the last few years, and
I think voters really love their stickers. We do.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
We're proud. We like to proudly rock our I Voted stickers,
especially on election day.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
I know, I know, I lived in a jurisdiction one
time that cuts the voting the election's budget. And one
of the first things they cut with the I Voted
stickers and they stopped buying them. Little voters had a
fit that they wanted to have their eye voted stickers.
That's right. To restate the budget for the I vote.
Speaker 1 (14:11):
That's great. It's a badge of honor. It's a badge
of honor.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
It is. It is.
Speaker 1 (14:16):
And remember, if you signed to be a pollworker, you're
gonna get paid too. You'll get compensated, that's right.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
And you can get to meet a lot of people,
which is great, and you get to know your neighbors
and your community, and it really is important to the community.
You know. It's a great way to serve our country.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
It's a great way. Thank you again. Commissioner Christy A.
McCormick with the US Election Assistants Commission again the best
websites for all the info year round, but especially for
August twelfth, the National Pollworker Recruitment Day, Help America Vote
dot gov, Help America Vote dot gov, and EAC dot
gov slash vote. Commissioner Christy, thank.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
You, thank you so much. We appreciate it.
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