Laura Wooten

Laura Wooten (December 19, 1920 – March 24, 2019) was the longest-serving poll worker in Mercer County and the state of New Jersey. She was also believed to be the longest-serving poll worker in the United States with a record of 79 continuous years of volunteering at the polls on Election Day. Wooten's dedication to working at the polls has inspired a new generation of voting rights advocates, including at Princeton University, where she worked part time until her death.

Early life and family Wooten was born in on December 19, 1920, in Goldsboro, North Carolina to Oscar and Leora Mitnaul, just months after the Nineteenth Amendment granted women the right to vote. Her family moved to Princeton, New Jersey when she was four years old. The neighborhood was named after John Witherspoon, a slave owner and former president of Princeton University.

Princeton was still an emerging town when Wooten was a child. In previous interviews, Wooten described horses and carriages going down Nassau Street and a trolley running from Witherspoon Street to the stores in Trenton, New Jersey. The town was segregated during Wooten's upbringing. Princeton High School had been integrated in 1916, but Black and white children went to different primary schools. The primary school for Black children was on Quarry Street, while white children had two public schools to choose from, as well as Catholic and private schools.

Wooten encountered sexism in addition to racism while growing up. She said in interviews that women's career options were limited at the time, so women mostly ended up doing housework. Many of her female peers did laundry for Princeton University students. Meanwhile, Wooten's parents could not afford for her to go to college. They had five children, 16 grandchildren, 31 great-grandchildren, and one great-great grandchild.

Poll worker

Poll workers like Wooten perform a variety of jobs that are essential to elections operating smoothly. 917,694 people served as poll workers in the 2016 presidential election, helping operate 116,990 polling locations. A driver would take the list from her at the end of the day and visit each unchecked voter's house to pick them up and drive them to the polls.

Wooten also served a variety of other roles relating to voting, such as a crowd manager and a counter. Congressman Donald Payne Jr. of New Jersey honored Wooten on the floor of the House of Representatives on September 27, 2018.

Career Wooten was employed as a waitress before working at Princeton Medical Center for 18 years.

At the age of 72, Wooten began working for Princeton University as a food service worker in the dining hall of Butler College, one of six residential colleges that contain living and dining spaces. At the ceremony for Princeton University's Hidden Chaplain Award, which goes to staff members who students nominate for playing a role in improving their college experience, one student wrote that Wooten was "more of a fixture of [their] Princeton experience than many of [their] professors" and that they hoped to be "half the community member that she seemed to be throughout her entire life." Two of Wooten's grandsons also work at the university. The bill also instructs the New Jersey Center for Civic Education at Rutgers University to establish curriculum and professional development for social studies teachers. In the state Senate, the bill was introduced on January 14, 2020. It cleared the Senate Education Committee on February 13 with a vote of 5-0 and was referred to the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee. An identical bill was introduced in the New Jersey General Assembly on February 25 and was then referred to the Assembly Education Committee. The New Jersey Education Association opposed the bill because state social studies standards already require civics lessons and they believed that there was not room in the school day for an extra class.

Wooten's long history of voting rights advocacy inspired a group of students from Princeton University, as well as other college students and high school students, to begin the Poll Hero Project, an initiative that recruits young people to serve as poll workers. The COVID-19 pandemic led to a shortage of poll workers across the country, especially because many typical poll workers are seniors like Wooten and they chose to stay home to preserve their health. In order to fill the need for more poll workers, Poll Hero Project organized social media campaigns to convince young people to step in to work at the polls as Wooten did for so many years. In total, Poll Hero Project's efforts led to over 37,000 high schoolers and college students working at the polls for the first time. The founders of Poll Hero Project specifically cited Wooten as a reason for their dedication to recruiting young poll workers.

Wooten was named an honorary member of the Princeton University Class of 2020 by the senior class. The Laura Wooten Institute for Civic Engagement was founded in her honor. This renaming became effective on July 1, 2022, and was dedicated to Wooten to honor her contributions through her long tenure as a poll worker and to showcase the significance of voting for civic change. This renaming also comes in the wake of the CPUC's commitment to diversity and inclusion being reflected in the honorific namings of places on the Princeton University campus.