Meet the Faces of Democracy: Spenser Mestel

More than 10,000 officials across the country run U.S. elections. This interview is part of a series highlighting the election heroes who are the faces of democracy.

Spenser Mestel, a registered Democrat, worked as a poll worker for over a decade in Brooklyn, the largest borough in New York City. Across just 300 square miles of land, New York City is home to over 4.7 million active registered voters spanning five boroughs (and coextensive counties). Nearly a third of those voters are located in Brooklyn, which is located in Kings County and is home to the most active voters in the state of New York at about 1.5 million.

Since his first Election Day as a poll worker in 2012, Mestel has worked two more presidential elections, two primary elections, and a municipal election. During the years he spent as a poll worker, Mestel saw new processes adopted and implemented in New York City, including the introduction of early voting and e-poll books.

Mestel uses his knowledge and experience as a poll worker to inform his writing about elections, which has been featured in publications such as The New York Times, The Guardian, The Intercept, The Atlantic, VICE, and Bolts. He has written about topics such as the need for adequately funded elections, ballot box accessibility, election misconceptions and conspiracies, and the experiences of poll workers on the front lines.

Now living abroad, Mestel helped overseas voters understand the process of casting UOCAVA (Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act) ballots for the 2024 presidential election while working with the Democrats Abroad Help Desk. He’s also been able to learn firsthand about international elections — through the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, Mestel observed Azerbaijan’s 2024 parliamentary elections.

In addition to writing about elections, Mestel is also a fitness journalist who has written about CrossFit, gymnastics, surfing, and other athletic activities.

Since 2022, Mestel has been part of Issue One’s Faces of Democracy campaign advocating for protections for election workers and for regular, predictable, and sufficient federal funding of elections.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Issue One: How did you become a poll worker?

Spenser Mestel: I didn’t become a poll worker by chance. My first time voting was in New Hampshire for the 2008 presidential election, and the process went really smoothly. I barely remember it, which is what I think voting should be like – seamless. I remember feeling excited, like I had contributed to something much larger than myself.

After that, I lived abroad, and when I came back to the U.S., I was living in New York City, and I saw a flyer advertising that the city needed poll workers. On the day of the election, I remember I had to wait for hours in the cold and dark at 4:30 AM outside of the Board of Elections office in Manhattan to be assigned a poll site. Despite this, I wasn’t deterred. Once I got my assignment, they sent me in a taxi to the poll site where I found I really enjoyed working the election, so I kept doing it for the next decade!

Issue One: What would you say to someone considering becoming a poll worker? Do you have an elevator pitch as to why somebody should work as a poll worker?

Spenser Mestel: If you are at all interested, you should just do it. It’s a long, difficult day, but you do get paid – not enough in my opinion. If you have concerns or questions about how elections are run, being a poll worker gives you a better sense of why you might see discrepancies in voting experiences. You might see why a machine breaks, why there are long lines, and see logical explanations for other scenarios that, from the outside, may seem sinister or inexplicable.

Once you work an election, you begin to understand that this is an incredibly difficult process. People are there working over 14 hours a day, as oftentimes polling places are understaffed. Voters don't necessarily come to the poll sites well prepared – they would show up to the wrong sites, or they would swear they re-registered at their new address, but they are listed at their old address in the system.

It's just a very human process, so I think it is good to see it from behind the scenes. Then you realize that these things you thought might be indicative of a larger conspiracy are just a result of a lot of people trying their best with not enough resources.

Issue One: What part of the poll worker experience in New York City do you think is not widely known or understood?

Spenser Mestel: All of the safeguards that are built into it. For example, there’s an hour at the beginning of each day of voting where poll workers go through a really exhaustive safety checklist. We are breaking seals on ballot containers, putting those seals in a plastic bag so there’s a record of it, writing down the numbers of ballots, and resealing things. There’s so much poll workers are doing to make sure that the election process is safe, secure, and transparent. At the end of the day, every single ballot that we have given out has to be accounted for.

One of the scariest things that happened to me on Election Day was when a voter got frustrated because they felt the line to insert their ballot in the tabulator was too long. The voter walked out of the polling place, and on the way out, put their ballot in the trash. That was a huge problem because poll workers have to account for every single ballot we’ve given out, even if it’s been spoiled. A spoiled ballot occurs when a voter doesn’t mark the ballot correctly so it doesn’t scan in the tabulator, or if a voter makes a mistake when voting. For poll workers, the usual process of collecting a spoiled ballot is that a poll worker takes the ballot and puts it in a special envelope so at the end of the day, we can make sure the number of ballots given out matches up perfectly with the number of ballots in the tabulator and the number of spoiled ballots. Poll workers cannot leave the poll site until the numbers add up. Thankfully, someone saw this person put their ballot in the trash and then gave it to us so we could put it in the special envelope.

That's what people don't see: that poll workers are so vigilant about everything. We keep everything, even the plastic the ballots come wrapped in, so that there's always a record. Also, poll workers are always working in teams. I wish that people who may not understand the poll worker experience would become poll workers so they can see just how exhaustive every process is.

Issue One: During the decade you spent as a poll worker, can you speak to some of the different roles and responsibilities you were tasked with?

Spenser Mestel: I did it all because we were constantly understaffed. So, by my third or fourth election, I knew that if I was assigned to check voters in, that's not necessarily what I’d be doing the entire day. Everyone was placed where we needed people in the moment. If you had experience, the managers would often pair you with someone who had never worked in an election before.

I’ve worked as an information clerk, so I was the first person you would see when you walk into the polling place. I’d ensure the voter knew what their assembly and election districts were and ask if they needed any help, especially if they hadn’t voted before. I’ve also worked handing out the ballots and opening and closing the tabulator machines to make sure they were functioning correctly. And I’ve worked as the accessibility clerk. I made sure that people with mobility issues or who needed any kind of assistance to vote were helped as much as they could be.

Issue One: What are some of the bipartisan checks and balances that are implemented into the election administration process in New York City that you witnessed as a poll worker?

Spenser Mestel: It's always Republicans and Democrats paired together. You're never doing anything by yourself. For example, if there is a curbside voter, a Democrat and a Republican poll worker both have to go to the voter’s vehicle to check them in, hand them their ballot, and securely deposit the ballot in the tabulator.

Issue One: Ranked choice voting (RCV) was implemented in New York City in 2021, can you speak to what it was like to roll out a new voting system while you were a poll worker? And can you discuss if there were any differences in poll worker processes before and after RCV was implemented?

Spenser Mestel: I worked the first day of early voting in the first election that ranked choice voting was implemented. I don't remember there being an issue or people being confused. My guess is that a lot of people didn't necessarily take advantage of the ranked choice just because they hadn’t heard about it. People are very busy, and the state has a limited budget to be able to educate voters about a voting system that is different from the one they've been using. But now, every election cycle, ranked choice is in the news, so I think the media has done a good job in publishing articles explaining the process of ranked choice voting.

Issue One: Many people are surprised to learn that the federal government doesn’t routinely fund the costs of running elections. How could regular federal contributions to election administration costs help poll workers better conduct safe, secure, and accessible elections?

Spenser Mestel: The federal government should be providing more funding for elections because then we could pay poll workers more. It is a constant problem to get people to sign up for this job. Election day is a Tuesday, so either you aren't scheduled to work that day or you take the day off. And working the polls is an incredibly long day. It’s not necessarily difficult but it's a lot to remember and is quite stressful, especially when lines are building up. Voters can get quite… spirited. So I think paying poll workers more would help.

Besides that, regular funding would make elections more predictable. Election officials could build a budget where they know where the money is coming from and that it is assured to come, instead of piecemealing together emergency funding for elections every nine months. That’s just not how a democracy should function.

Issue One: In recent years, there have been increased reports of threats and violence against poll workers and at polling locations. Can you speak to how the experience of poll workers has changed since you first started working the polls?

Spenser Mestel: I feel really fortunate because, especially when I was a poll worker, since there had been so much coverage of the poll worker shortage, and because of the pandemic, people were very kind to us. Not everyone, but certainly some people, went out of their way to say, “Thank you for doing this, we really appreciate all the work you do.” I never experienced any threats, security issues, or aggressive voters who were questioning what we were doing.

Threats of violence weren’t necessarily at the forefront of my mind, but I think there's always the threat of political violence in this country, more so since the rhetoric of violence against poll workers started. I know a lot of other poll workers and election administrators through the Faces of Democracy campaign. Their stories were horrific; they had talked about people robocalling in bomb threats at poll sites. This job is already difficult enough, and to add pressure from people who don't understand the election administration process or who have a political agenda is a really unfair thing to happen to an election official. I feel lucky that New York City didn’t have these issues, which I don't think is the norm in this country. New York City is not considered a “battleground,” so I think that relieves some of the tendency for violence.

Issue One: Given all of the challenges in the election administration space, especially in recent years, what inspired you to continue working as a poll worker for over a decade? And do you plan on returning to serve as a poll worker in the future?

Spenser Mestel: Put simply, I loved it. It’s corny to say, but I do think it’s incredible that we get the right to vote in this country, and being able to facilitate that for others was really rewarding. I met a lot of people I wouldn’t have met otherwise – I really liked interacting with the voters. You also see a lot of people from your community. When I worked the poll sites near my house, I would see people from my neighborhood or who I went to the gym with. It made me feel like I live in a society, that I do not just exist on my own, and that collectively we are all making decisions for the betterment of the country.

As a journalist, I’ve covered election administration for a decade. To me, it felt negligent not to work the polls. I don't think you can write about elections without having been a poll worker because, again, you really come to understand the process, the pitfalls, and the hiccups so much better.

I love this work, and I was really heartbroken to not be able to work this last presidential election because I was living abroad. Especially with the lack of poll workers, having that experience is so helpful if everyone working the polls is new or has only worked an election or two. While I was abroad, I was helping fellow American voters living abroad cast their ballots because that's its own uniquely dysfunctional process. Then, through the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, I went to Azerbaijan last September and observed parliamentary elections there. I’m going abroad again—to Spain—soon, and I would love to continue this democracy work there, perhaps in election observation, because it’s likely you have to be a citizen of Spain to be a poll worker there. I just think that democracy is so important and that it’s a right that is always under threat. And so, we have to really proactively and with a lot of intention try and promote it.

Issue One: What have your experiences been like voting while abroad?

Spenser Mestel: My experience was good. I'm now registered to vote in Washington State, and Washington State allows internet voting for citizens who are abroad. It's really interesting to experience that system, but it’s also really anticlimactic.

Some people say they don't like to do absentee voting because they like to go to the poll site and feel the energy. I feel similarly. I do think we should vote however we need to to get it done, because that's what's most important. But in my ideal world, you go to the poll site, you see 10 people you know, you wait in line just long enough to chat with your friends, you get your ballot, you mark it, you put it in the scanner, you leave the poll site. Everything is very seamless.

In Australia, where I briefly lived, they have sausage sizzles, so there's just a barbecue outside of every poll site. It makes voting something joyous to celebrate with your community. I fear that in the U.S., voting is just seen as this burden, this horrific chore that you have to slog through. I think there should be some joy to voting.

Issue One: Ahead of the 2024 presidential election, we saw jurisdictions employ creative strategies to help recruit poll workers. During your time as a poll worker, what unique recruitment efforts did you witness in New York City?

Spenser Mestel: I’ve seen some strategies less so as a poll worker, and more so as an elections journalist. I've seen so many wonderful ways to recruit poll workers, including in Montgomery County, Maryland. The county has a huge program with high schools because it’s one of the most diverse counties in the country, so they go to high schools and recruit students who speak a language other than English at home to go to the poll sites and translate for the community. Through this program, Montgomery County has around 61 languages translated at the polls, and I think that's wonderful. We should get as many kids involved as we can, even if they can't be poll workers, and integrate them into this process in some way as part of their civics education.

I know that some states offer bar credits for lawyers, so as part of their continuing education, law students could work a poll site and have those hours go toward their bar. I know there's a big push for military veterans to do it as well. I think anything we can do to get people involved is good.

Issue One: Outside of being passionate about safe and secure elections, what are your hobbies?

Spenser Mestel: I am big in the queer line dancing scene at the moment. When I was living in Sydney, I surfed, I played paddle, I did a lot of open ocean swimming. I'm a CrossFit coach.

Issue One: What is your favorite book or movie?

Spenser Mestel: My favorite book is “The House of the Spirits” by Isabella Allende. And my favorite movie is “Spring Breakers.”

Issue One: Which historical figure would you have most liked to have had an opportunity to meet?

Spenser Mestel: The person who comes to mind is Benjamin Franklin. He seemed like kind of a weird dude with a lot of niche interests. Though I never want to overly glorify the Founding Fathers, who were problematic in so many ways, Benjamin Franklin did seem open-minded. I think it would have been interesting to meet him and let him see what this country has become.

Amelia Minkin is a research associate at Issue One.

Rebecca Dorsey is an Election Protection Intern at Issue One.