Reading, Pa. — On National Poll Worker Recruitment Day, Pennsylvania Secretary of the Commonwealth Al Schmidt and Berks County Commissioner Michael Rivera called on residents to volunteer as poll workers for the upcoming Nov. 4 municipal election.
Speaking at the Berks County Services Center Wednesday morning, Schmidt stressed the essential role poll workers play in running elections.
“Voting couldn’t happen without the roughly 45,000 poll workers who staff more than 9,000 voting locations across the Commonwealth each Election Day,” said Schmidt, who previously managed elections in Philadelphia for a decade.
Rivera, who chairs the county’s Election Board, praised the work of more than 1,000 poll workers, interpreters, and elections staff in Berks County. “We always need residents to staff and supervise polling places by serving as judges of election, inspectors, machine inspectors, clerks, or translators,” he said.
Several local poll workers joined the event, including Mike Reese, a longtime judge of election in Reading; Brandon Snyder, a judge of election in Sinking Spring; Patricia Vlaska, an interpreter for Reading voters; Jamie Kyle, a judge of election in Boyertown; and Tanner Sweigart, a former student poll worker who returned from college to serve in the 2025 primary election.
Who Can Serve
Poll workers must be registered voters in Pennsylvania, though high school juniors and seniors aged 17 can participate with permission from a parent or guardian and their school principal. Workers are paid for training and Election Day service.
State officials said bilingual poll workers are in high demand, particularly those fluent in Spanish or Mandarin. Federal law requires Philadelphia, Lehigh, and Berks counties to provide voting materials in certain languages, while other counties, such as Lebanon and York, offer interpretation services voluntarily.
How to Apply
Registered voters can volunteer by completing the Department of State’s Poll Worker Interest Form. Interested high school students should fill out the Student Poll Worker Interest Form.
For more information, visit the Department of State on social media at @PaStateDept (Instagram/X), @PADepartmentofState (Facebook), and @pa-department-of-state (LinkedIn).
