A precinct captain is the individual who acts as a direct link between the party machine and the voters in the community. The precint captain helps with voter registrations, meeting new residents of the area or neighborhood, and helping voters get to the voting booths or precincts. A precinct is a space enclosed by the walls or other boundaries of a particular place or building, or by an arbitrary and imaginary line drawn around it. ...

In Maya Angelou's autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Grandmother Baxter (chapter ten) is described as a precinct captain in the Negro section of St. Louis.