A new way to serve democracy: recruiting poll workers and electoral participation

Declining turnout rates and political disengagement have spurred many proposals to reform contemporary democracies. Some proposals aim at electoral participation, while others seek to create alternative non-voting forms of participation in politics. This article explores a third route, where elections are used to foster democratic non-voting engagement: that is, engagement in elections, but not as voters. We propose that society actively seek to engage citizens and resident non-citizens, who are either by choice or by law currently non-voters, to participate in the different administrative aspects of elections as poll workers. Our proposal concerns paid positions for which people volunteer, rather than unpaid positions into which people are drafted, whether they want to or not. Hence, this article proposes a novel form of electoral participation that is voluntary, open, and appropriate for those unable or not yet ready to vote.