People at the Polling Place

Who are the people in the polling place?

• CHIEF AND ASSISTANT CHIEF: Work together as a team to manage the polling place. They assign duties to and rotate election officers throughout the day. Most importantly, they are trained to handle all non-routine voter situations.
• ELECTION OFFICERS: Throughout the day, regular election officers greet voters, check in voters, issue ballots, and direct voters to mark & cast ballots. Some precincts may have Language Officers, who perform all regular officer duties and may also assist voters who speak a different language, such as Spanish, Vietnamese, or Korean. (All election officers who have been assessed for their language skills will receive a special badge.)
• HIGH SCHOOL PAGES: Only serve in November elections. They may help in many ways, but they are not registered voters and may not operate or supervise use of voting equipment and may not handle ballots. However, the Code of Virginia does allow Pages to help set up voting equipment before polls open.