Elections Training

Welcome to the Northumberland County Electoral Board Training Page

► How to become an Officer of Elections

Resources for Officers of Elections

Before you come to your live training session, you must go through all the materials below. These resources are here to help you learn what you’ll be doing on Election Day. You can also come back and review them anytime. The training is divided into four sections:

1. Reading Materials / Documents

These documents give you a good overview of what to expect on Election Day. Please read each one. You can download, save, or print them if needed.

2. Instructional Videos

In Northumberland County, we use several types of election equipment: a ballot box with a scanner, a Touch Writer, and an electronic poll book called the Poll Pad. Watch each video to get a basic idea of what these machines do, how to set them up, and how to use them.

(The Touch Writer helps voters who are disabled or need to sit down. It prints out a ballot, which is then turned in like normal.)

3. Election Officer Roles

Each polling place has printed binders that explain the different officer roles. We’ve also included that same information here so you can review it beforehand.

Everyone is assigned a role, especially important before polls open and after polls close. But during the day, you'll likely rotate between roles, so it's important to know the basics of each role, listed below:

4. Officer of Elections Course

Click the link to take the Virginia Department of Elections training course. It’s made up of 11 short modules and takes about an hour. You can do it at your own pace.

You’ll need to enter your email to get in. When you're done, they’ll email you your score and show which answers you got right or wrong.

We trust you to complete the course honestly. No one at the county or state saves your personal info. Please either bring the results email to the October training session, or forward it to Bob Heller, Secretary, Electoral Board (bheller@co.northumberland.va.us) by (Date TBD)

Training Course

Note on Officer Roles:

In the assignment letter you got, there’s a role listed next to your name. This role is temporary and based on what we think is needed and what you’ve done before. It’s mainly for the first hour of Election Day (5 AM to 6 AM). You’ll learn all the roles during training and on Election Day. The Chief Officer at your location will decide if you stay in that role or switch to something else based on what works best.

Questions

For technical issues, content questions, or completion concerns, contact:
Bob Heller, Secretary, Electoral Board – bheller@co.northumberland.va.us