Montgomery County Board of Elections approves temporary poll worker, tabulator and canvass appointments for May 20 primary

The Montgomery County Board of Elections on May 14 approved three staffing actions for the May 20, 2025 primary election: appointment of temporary poll workers, appointment of election tabulators and authorization of provisional and absentee canvass boards.

“Today, I have 3 requests for you,” Montgomery County Director of Elections Frank Dean told the board when presenting the three agenda items and the lists of names attached to the meeting packet. The board voted orally in favor of each request; no roll-call tallies were recorded in the public transcript.

The actions give county elections staff authority under state election law to fill vacancies on election day with qualified temporary poll workers, to appoint individuals to serve as election tabulators for vote computation, and to delegate canvassing duties for provisional, absentee and mail-in ballots to designated canvass boards. Dean cited provisions of the Pennsylvania election code when describing the legal basis for canvass delegations, including references to Section 3050 and Section 3146.8 of the code as the authority to examine provisional and mail/absentee ballots after the election.

Board discussion focused on the makeup of the lists and the practical challenges of recruiting bipartisan teams for a primary. Commissioners asked whether tabulators and canvassers were county employees or outside vendors; Dean said the tabulator lists include individuals from outside the county and that vendor numbers on the spreadsheet are not a guaranteed indicator of non‑county status. He acknowledged it is “harder to get folks, especially from the county” for a primary and said staff would continue efforts to achieve stronger partisan balance for canvass reviews.

Dean told the board the expected workload is lower than a general election and estimated the county would receive “maybe we’re probably gonna get about 50,000 ballots back,” which reduces the need to staff a full 24‑hour cycle. He also told the board, “We do our best to keep it bipartisan,” and said staff would prioritize additional recruitment for future elections.

Board members praised the department’s poll worker training efforts. Commissioners noted online training sessions drew large participation — Dean said one Zoom training had about 250 attendees and another roughly 290 — and that trainings run about two hours.

The board’s motions were recorded on the meeting record as: (1) approval of the attached list of temporary poll worker appointments for the 2025 primary election, (2) approval of the attached list of election tabulator appointments for the 2025 primary election, and (3) approval of the attached list of canvasser appointments for provisional, absentee and mail‑in ballots for the 2025 primary election. Each motion was approved by voice vote; the transcript does not include individual roll‑call vote tallies.

The meeting adjourned after brief closing remarks and routine announcements.