Board discusses judge recruitment, training schedule and new partisan-balance requirement

Caroline County elections staff told the Board of Elections on Friday that they need a minimum of 103 election judges to staff polling places on election day and are actively recruiting to fill vacancies, particularly among Republican applicants.

Allison (Election Director) said the county aims to assign judges to their home precincts and is working to fill highlighted vacancies shown on an assignment chart. She told the board that during the 2025 legislative session Senate Bill 308 passed and "requires, to the extent practical practicable, equal representation of the majority and minority parties" among judges; the office will use unaffiliated judges for chief-judge vacancies if no partisan chief judges are available within 45 days of an election.

The office has scheduled tentative judge trainings for April 2026, Allison said, and explained the local approach: trainers run job-specific sessions (check-in judges, voting/ballot-issue judges, chief judges) and often split content across nights to keep class sizes smaller. Chief-judge training covers equipment, scanning units and the ballot-marking device on one night and poll books and same-day registration on another night.

Board members asked about transferring judges between polling places and transportation to remote precincts; Allison said the office prefers to keep judges in their home precinct when possible but had contingency plans and several months to fill assignments.

Why it matters: Adequate staffing and proper training of election judges are essential to run polling places, maintain ballot security and ensure voters can cast ballots without avoidable delay. The county's staffing plan also responds to a new state statutory requirement on partisan balance.

Less critical details: The board's assignment chart shows current partisan assignments and vacancies; Allison said the office has contacted the Republican Central Committee about recruiting. There was no formal board vote on recruitment strategy or training dates at the meeting; the board did approve the county's election plan earlier in the session, which documents staffing numbers.