# US Election workers who are not US citizens? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 18, 2020, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-election-workers-who-are-not-us-citizens/920882 "2020-09-18T01:10:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Guest-starring\_Id](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guest-starring_id/32/21736_2.png) [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2020, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-election-workers-who-are-not-us-citizens/920882/1 "2020-09-18T01:10:49Z")
My google-fu is brutally way off right now. I’m just simply trying to find out if a non-US citizen can help with any US electoral work. I’m getting sick and fed up at seeing what’s going on, down there, and yeah yeah I get it that I’m just a spit in the ocean, but just sitting here - stewing in impotent rage/astonishment at what’s unfolding down there - isn’t cutting it now. (If everyone held themselves back because they were spits in the ocean, not a whole lotta change would happen.) Definitely a battleground state (where there’ll likely be voting monitor thugs that will need to be monitored, _themselves_) would be nice, somewhere where making a difference is paramount. I can take about two weeks off from work for this. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2020, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-election-workers-who-are-not-us-citizens/920882/2 "2020-09-18T01:14:58Z")
I’d recommend just calling your local electoral office, and ask them. ---
**Author:** ![Guest-starring\_Id](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guest-starring_id/32/21736_2.png) [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2020, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-election-workers-who-are-not-us-citizens/920882/3 "2020-09-18T01:16:19Z")
Of course, I’m sure they’d instantly fill me in. Thx. (forehead slap) ---
**Author:** ![aurora\_maire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aurora_maire/32/328_2.png) [@aurora\_maire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aurora_maire)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2020, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-election-workers-who-are-not-us-citizens/920882/4 "2020-09-18T02:13:42Z")
It looks like you would have to join some organization to be allowed access. Unfortunately, not all states allow it so you couldn’t go to Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Connecticut, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, Ohio, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Texas. Some of those will be hot spots who could frankly use some neutral eyes. This organization is based in Europe but Canada is one of their participating countries: > **[How to join an ODIHR election mission](https://www.osce.org/odihr/elections/how-to-become-an-election-observer)** > > An ODIHR election observation mission (EOM) consists of a core team of experts, long-term observers (LTOs), and short-term observers (STOs). Candidates for all positions must be citizens of OSCE participating States, excluding the country where the... The U.S. and other countries observe elections around the world for the most part to make sure they are fair. Other countries come to the U.S. to see how our elections are run. I hope they send people here this time to see if our elections are fair. We need all the help we can get. For anyone interested, you can find more info here: [https://www.ncsl.org/research/elections-and-campaigns/international-election-observation.aspx](https://www.ncsl.org/research/elections-and-campaigns/international-election-observation.aspx) ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2020, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-election-workers-who-are-not-us-citizens/920882/5 "2020-09-18T02:20:25Z")
PDF Warning: [U. S. Election Assistance Commission State-by-State Compendium Election Worker Laws & Statutes](https://www.eac.gov/sites/default/files/eac_assets/1/28/Compendium.2016.pdf) seems to have the information you’re looking for if you’re talking about being an actual pollworker. ---
**Author:** ![Guest-starring\_Id](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guest-starring_id/32/21736_2.png) [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2020, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-election-workers-who-are-not-us-citizens/920882/6 "2020-09-18T03:10:13Z")
And much thanks as well to the last two posters. ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2020, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-election-workers-who-are-not-us-citizens/920882/7 "2020-09-18T03:45:14Z")
You can volunteer to send letters or make phone calls to swing states and encourage people to vote or make sure they know where their polling place is, etc. Here’s one: [https://votefwd.org/](https://votefwd.org/) ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2020, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-election-workers-who-are-not-us-citizens/920882/8 "2020-09-18T13:21:18Z")
here in NC you have to be registered to vote to work at the polls. Which means US citizens only. Also you can only work in your home county. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2020, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-election-workers-who-are-not-us-citizens/920882/9 "2020-09-18T20:20:18Z")
Before I was a Canadian citizen, I acted as a poll watcher for a candidate for a school board election. I watched the votes being counted. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2020, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-election-workers-who-are-not-us-citizens/920882/10 "2020-09-18T23:20:12Z")
That guide that Monty posted the link to said the same thing for Iowa. ---
**Author:** ![Guest-starring\_Id](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guest-starring_id/32/21736_2.png) [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2020, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-election-workers-who-are-not-us-citizens/920882/11 "2020-09-19T01:58:05Z")
Looks like the closest battleground state is Arizona, and I’m not too amped up to head down to a region where this wuss’ll fry in anything over, like, 90 degrees. Closest to the east would be Minnesota; naively I was hopng for something closer. Being an STO (short term observer) for the ODIHR definitely piqued my interest, (thx again, **aroura\_maire** ) but apparently many states allow limited numbers. Some IRL folk I’ve told have been souring on my idea, concerned about the potential for confrontational situations. I tell everyone if I was an American, I’d be out canvassing, doing whatever I can in my community (unless of course it was such a solidly blue county that my vote wouldn’t matter one whit), and when I’m met with a shrug or half-assed “right on”, it can be a little deflating, kinda. Either discouragement or apathy. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2020, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-election-workers-who-are-not-us-citizens/920882/12 "2020-09-19T04:54:58Z")
> [@Guest-starring\_Id](#): > > Closest to the east would be Minnesota; naively I was hopng for something closer. Pennsylvania is a swing state. That should be pretty close. ---
**Author:** ![Guest-starring\_Id](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guest-starring_id/32/21736_2.png) [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2020, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-election-workers-who-are-not-us-citizens/920882/13 "2020-09-19T05:03:12Z")
^ I should’ve mentioned earlier that this non-US citizen is from Vancouver Island, which puts Penn even further away. **AHunter3** : Vote Forward is US citizens only. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2020, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-election-workers-who-are-not-us-citizens/920882/14 "2020-09-19T05:16:10Z")
> [@Guest-starring\_Id](#): > > I should’ve mentioned earlier that this non-US citizen is from Vancouver Island, which puts Penn even further away. Ah, I thought you were in eastern Canada. Yeah, you’re out of luck if you want an short drive. The nearby states are all either very blue or very red. But I can tell you that I’ve been to Arizona in November and it was no where near 90 degrees F. Except for some wind, it was quite pleasant. So you may want to look into that a bit more. Also, Nevada, while it’s leaning blue, is not strongly so. The Republicans think it’s in play. ETA: based on at least one site, it’s currently less blue than AZ. ---
**Author:** ![Guest-starring\_Id](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guest-starring_id/32/21736_2.png) [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2020, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-election-workers-who-are-not-us-citizens/920882/15 "2020-09-19T05:27:34Z")
^ Having a tough slough through the sublinks through the ODIHR link, in search of any relevant STO information for Nevada or Arizona. Getting a little bit bleary-eyed from it right now, heh.