The Montgomery County Board of Elections was recognized recently with the 2008 Minute Man Award by the National Association of Election Officials at its 24^th Annual Conference held in Dallas, Texas.

The award is part of the National Association of Election Officials’ Professional Practices Program which recognizes innovative programs or partnerships that will benefit others in the election profession.   The Minute Man Award was created to highlight practices that are a tremendous benefit to election operations while remaining quick or inexpensive to implement.

Increasing numbers of election judges inquire about and plead for part-time hours’ serving voters.  Election directors and their operations staff continue to require and plead for an efficient return of all critical election materials on election night.  From this intense desire, an idea was born, the Closer Election Judge, a part-time pollworker position.  Closers, a solid success, are recruited from voters bringing unique knowledge, skills, and abilities to serve their communities in smaller time blocks while supporting full-time pollworkers, exhausted from 16-18 hours of public service to hundreds of voters.

“By investing a $75 stipend and 2 hours of training to a specific responsibility, returning all critical supplies on election night, both focus and commitment to successful completion of duty is considerably heightened,” said Montgomery Election Director Margaret Jurgensen.  “The objective is clear and the Closer knows the expectation and importance of their position; no longer do you need to deploy personnel to investigate, secure, and recover precious supplies.  The Closer Election Judge has ensured that all critical materials are returned to the Board of Elections in a timely manner.”

If you would like to serve as an election judge in the 2008 Presidential General Election, call the Board of Elections at 240-777-8533 or e-mail electionjudge@montgomerycountymd.gov.

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