On Tuesday, poll workers across Providence reported for their approximately 15-hour shifts to oversee the voting process for the 2026 midterm elections.
The Herald spoke with poll workers at three voting centers to learn why they signed up to work the polls and hear about the trends they’ve observed.
Joy Little was one of the poll workers stationed at City Hall on Election Day. Little, who previously staffed a voting site during the primary elections in September, cited a belief in political participation as her motivation for working the polls.
“It’s really important to be involved politically in your municipality,” Little said, adding that people are “always very conscious of what’s going on nationally,” but that it’s “really important” to be involved on the local level as well.
At the Joseph A. Doorley Jr. Municipal Building poll site in downtown Providence, Kenneth Kalu ’27 said that they had “an oversupply of poll workers” — an improvement compared to the September primaries, which saw staffing shortages.
Kalu, a first-time poll worker who was inspired to work the polls by a message from Brown Votes, said that the experience was “a lot easier” than he anticipated.
“Coming from Texas, I expected a lot more opprobrium,” he said. But “everybody that I’ve met today has been positive about the polls and in their approach to electoral participation.”
Kalu, who considers himself to be a politically-engaged person, said that he thinks it’s important to “approach every opportunity for political involvement with openness.” He added that being a poll worker offers an opportunity for him to “directly observe the political process.”
For Michael Citarella ’27, his work with Brown Votes compelled him to sign up to be a poll worker at City Hall.
“Getting to just sit and work with people the same way I do on the Main Green or different club fairs and stuff like that — to be able to do that and get paid to do it on an important election day just felt very natural to do,” he said.
On election day, the City Hall site was only expected to receive 15 to 20 voters, said Michelle Narducci, a poll worker stationed there.
“We’ve had 19. That’s up from 15 in 2024,” Citarella said at 6:22 p.m. on election night — less than two hours before the polls closed.
“We are a transient city, ” Narducci said. “We have a lot of colleges, we have a lot of people abroad, we have a ton of businesses,” she added. “We do all of our voting, almost, by early voting.”
This year, Rhode Island reached a record number of in-person votes cast during the early voting period. The 111,901 individuals who voted at designated early voting polling places account for more than double the early voting turnout from two years ago.
For Kalu, “the highlight of doing this work is solving problems that people have with regards to their votes” and “ensuring that people with complex situations,” such as disabilities, “are still able to exercise their civic rights.”
Ultimately, Kalu said that his primary takeaway is that “people care a lot.”
“People are deeply, deeply interested in their communities and changing things” through their vote, he explained. “It demonstrates a level of love and care that I think is admirable.”
Annika Melwani is a metro senior staff writer covering state politics and justice. She is from New York City and plans on concentrating in English and International and Public Affairs. In her free time, she can be found reading or drinking an iced vanilla latte.
Talia Katz is a senior staff writer covering city hall and crime.
