Earlier this summer, some Washington-area election officials were warning of a possible shortage of volunteers to work the polls come November. But a recent surge in interest has left those same officials with a good problem to have: more poll workers than they may even need.

“We have too many right now, to be honest,” says Eric Olsen, the deputy director of Arlington County’s Board of Elections. “I can’t remember an election where I felt where we had this many people.”

Olsen says he expects his county to need 750 poll workers for the November election cycle. They had 1,000 applicants in August alone. In D.C., Board of Elections Executive Director Alice Miller says she’ll need 4,000 poll workers for early voting and Election Day, and has already trained 1,300—with another 4,000 still in the queue. In Maryland, a move to trim the number of polling places and use state workers as election judges has eased the crisis caused when many of the traditional corps of older poll workers opted out of this year’s elections because of COVID-19 concerns.

“We were having an emergency situation with the election judges, but that crisis has passed,” says David Garreis, the deputy director of the Anne Arundel County Board of Elections and president of the Maryland Association of Election Officials.

Poll workers—also known as election judges or election officials, depending on jurisdiction—do everything from opening polling places and checking-in voters to providing assistance and tabulating vote counts at the end of Election Day. “Without them, it would be impossible to run the election,” Garreis says.

Election officials in D.C., Maryland and Virginia attribute the end of the shortage in poll workers to a rise in volunteers, to jurisdictions choosing to consolidate polling places, and to elected leaders marshaling the power of their workforce to serve at the polls.

Both D.C. and Maryland have chosen not to open every normal polling place. Instead, they will open a few large voting centers where residents can cast their ballots early or on Election Day. Both jurisdictions are also putting government employees to use as poll workers; Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan says his administration drafted 11,000, in part by offering workers 16 hours of administrative leave to work the polls. In D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser says she’ll do much the same.

“We are going to work with our own employees to help make sure [the D.C. Board of Elections has] enough people,” said Mayor Muriel Bowser last week on WAMU’s “The Politics Hour.”

Both Olsen and Miller say they’ve also noticed a spike in interest among younger people who are signing up to be poll workers for the first time. That marks a generational shift of sorts. During the 2016 general election, Pew Research found that 56% of U.S. poll workers were 61 years and older — tending to mirror the demographics of voters.

“Definitely a lot of 20-somethings and 30-somethings and 40-somethings are in the mix here that have heard the message that seniors aren’t going to work the polls and they need to step in,” says Olsen.

“There are a lot of first-time poll workers,” says Miller of the people she’s sees signing up for trainings in D.C. “I love it. We love our veteran poll workers because they know the process, but to introduce new people is always a good thing because we need everyone involved.”

Audrey Roofeh, 42, is one of those new poll workers. A 10-year resident of D.C., she says she was motivated to volunteer by the news of older poll workers stepping aside because of health concerns. “If there was any possibility there would be a shortage, I wanted to help,” she says. “It felt like a really important thing to do.”

And when Roofeh got trained to work the polls, she says she saw a number of younger volunteers alongside her. “I definitely saw a lot of folks who appeared to be younger. I think there were only two people I would identify as male. It disproportionately skewed to people who were white,” she says.

Both Miller and Olsen say the spike in interest among younger people has come in part from media reporting on the election, as well as professional associations representing attorneys and realtors motivating members to work the polls. Business are also stepping up. Today Compass Coffee said it would offer employees paid time off to work the polls.

Still, some election officials are waiting to celebrate. They say it’s better to have more people sign up to work the polls than are needed, since not all people complete training and changing conditions could suddenly require more poll workers than initially expected.

“I’m always holding back enthusiasm because while we are grateful for our civic minded county residents, there’s always a process,” says Gilberto Zelaya of the Montgomery County Board of Elections. “Between Point A and Point Z, things get in the way. We’re doing well so far, but until we cross that finish line we’re being cautious. We’re still looking for individuals. We always want to have a stand-by team.”

Last week, officials in Prince William County said they are still looking for 1,600 volunteers to work at 93 polling places. Still, Keith Scarborough, the secretary of the Prince William County Board of Elections, says he’d like to see more young people sign up to work the polls.

“We haven’t gotten as a great a response as we have from middle-age professionals. We’re trying to do what we can to reach out to young people. Once people try it, they have a positive experience. It’s not rocket science, but younger people are more comfortable with the technology. We’re hopeful we’ll get more millennials and young people to sign up,” he says.

Tuesday is National Poll Worker Recruitment Day. To volunteer to work at the polls, here’s the information you need: D.C., Montgomery County, Prince George’s County, Arlington County, Alexandria, Fairfax County, Loudoun County, and Prince William County.