CLE Credit for Attorneys who Serve as Poll Workers

No. The rule specifies that an attorney must take the training and serve for a full day as a PEO to receive CLE credit.

Attorneys may serve as precinct election official and receive CLE credit for their service. Pursuant to Jud.Cond. R. 3.4, judges and magistrates cannot work as poll workers.

To earn four (4) hours of general CLE credit, an attorney must do the following:

1. Complete the required precinct election official training and
2. Serve as a PEO for their county board of elections on Election Day.

If the attorney has already completed the PEO training required by the county board of elections and is not required to complete the training to serve as a precinct election official, the attorney must complete at least three hours of election training offered by the office of the Secretary of State of Ohio, which shall include training on statutory law and case law related to Ohio elections. The attorney may not receive general CLE credit if the activity has been separately approved for CLE credit.

No. Gov.Bar R. X, Sec. 5 (I) requires that an attorney must take the training and serve for a full day as a PEO to receive CLE credit.

Yes. Generally, PEOs are expected to be at the polls at 5:30 am and remain on duty until after the close of polls at 7:30 p.m.

As with any CLE program, attorneys are expected to sign in and provide their attorney registration number at the training and at the polling location. The County Board of Elections will submit to the Secretary of State a list of attorneys who completed the training and served as a PEO on Election Day. The Secretary of State will then submit the CLE hours within 30 days to the Supreme Court of Ohio.

No. Any additional hours above the 12-hour maximum, will not carryover to the next biennial compliance period.

Please visit the PEO Sign Up Page on the Ohio Secretary of State website to sign up to be a Precinct Election Official.

Any questions regarding receiving CLE credit for serving as a poll worker should be sent to the Secretary of State at lbaldridge@OhioSOS.Gov.

Precinct Election Official (“PEO”) means an attorney who has completed the precinct election official training required by a county board of elections and worked for that county board of elections as a precinct election official, voting location manager, ballot tabulator supervisor, paper ballot specialist, or field technician in Ohio on election day.