I did and went to the training today. Only 20 minutes from my house, so not too bad. But when they got to expected time of arrival it was 5am and then all indications was staying until at least 8:30pm. (this was a little open ended and could be later)
I verified that was the expectation and at that point I left. So about 90 minutes wasted, but why not include the shift time in the Emails. What a pain in the ass and no wonder New Jersey is short on election poll workers. Shorter shifts would almost surely mean more people.
So anyone with any experience with this? How does it work in your state? Hopefully better than New Jersey.
The worst for me was California–in general elections there would be 6+ party tickets (natural law party anyone?) plus 3 or more propositions. And "head’ poll worker had to balance ballots and then take them to voting HQ. of course some ballots never made it when poll worker got drunk and forgot, and one time ballot box was found floating in Bay
very!! Usually–not always–booths were already setup when we arrived, otherwise we did it. We were supposed to be there by 6 am. And if we were located in someones garage, etc HOPWEFULLY they were nice enough to let us use restroom; otherwise we were out of luck. and as long as there was person(s) in line at close time, we couldn’t start counting ballots until last person voted. So all in all, you might not be done until after 8 pm
OTOH, I think the OP is going for congratulations for volunteering for an important civic duty, yet bringing up a valid critic of the volunteer poll worker situation which led them to decline to participate.
OTOH, they volunteered and then flaked out cuz it was too much work.
I’m not going for congrats. I don’t think that makes sense as I did opt out.
I was mildly ranting that they should have mentioned the length of the shift long before part way into the training class. Wasted their time and mine. Not a big deal though and too mild for the Pit.
I think shorter shifts would get them a lot more people to help.
And I was wondering how other states do this.
The reason they have such long shifts is because they can’t get enough people to volunteer for multiple overlapping shifts. I know that in some cases they make exceptions for people who can’t work for that long (for medical or other serious reasons) but they can’t be shutting down polling locations early because they don’t have enough workers to keep them running. I’m not sure what else you expected.
I’ve been a scrutineer a couple of times, once at an advance poll (federal) and once at regular poll (provincial).
Wasn’t long hours for either. I think the regular poll I was on for about 4 hours in the afternoon, then someone else came in and relieved me.
The advance poll was afternoon and evening. Pretty quiet.
Scrutineers are appointed by the parties, not the elections officer, so it could vary from party to party and poll location, depending on party organizing strength in a particular riding.
I was a poll worked in Illinois. In my county, at least, it was an all day thing from an hour before the polls opened to an hour after they closed. I think we were told that in the first ten minutes of training though.
The bigger issue was that, unless you had been a poll worker for several elections, you were probably an alternate which meant that they wanted to be able to contact you at 5am the morning of the election and give you a location anywhere in the county to report to. Few people probably want to schedule around that or jump in the car and drive 45min away instead of working their local election precinct.
Oh sorry. They get 10 volunteers to come in for training. None actually follow through. None of them make a commitment. Then they go onto a message board to complain about it.
I don’t volunteer for jury duty. It is a civic responsibility I put up with.
You know damn well volunteering for working at a soup kitchen could be problematic . But you volunteer anyway. Then change your mind because there are all these crazy smelly people yelling at you. Then all the real volunteers pick up the slack and work a 16 hour day.
This “I’m trying to do a good thing” but the evil volunteer poll worker system prevents me, well it’s pathetic
I’ve been an elections poll worker before. Sort of a family tradition, with Gramma being the district registrar for 50 years. It was a long, mostly boring day punctuated by an hour or two of constant business from 6am to, I think 9pm but can’t remember now, its been more than a few years, when the poll closed and we broke it all down for pick up by the county the next day. The busy times were around lunch, dinner and the last hour or two before closing.
It is as long as it takes to set up, oversee and collect votes, and perform the local count or verification. This is why poll workers are considered the unsung heroes of electoral integrity. And since I’ve never volunteered to be a poll worker I’m not passing judgment on the o.p., but “unreasonably long” in compared to what many other critical roles such as doctors, nurses, first responders on a mass casualty scene, et cetera have to endure seems a bit of a weak complaint. Many people spend longer than that waiting “on line” for tickets back in the days when Ticketmaster didn’t just bleed your bank account dry from the convenience of your own home.
I was a poll worker for the first time at age 10-- 3-hour shift as a poll book holder for the Democratic party. My father was the precinct committeeman.
My mother worked every year.
I started working full days when I was in high school, as a poll book holder and also a watcher. Election day was like a holiday in our house. We ordered Chinese since no one had been home to cook, and watched the returns.
The first election after I turned 18, I got to work a real position, for money. The Inspector, or head of the precinct, was an idiot about counting up the votes on the old-fashioned ballot on these very long sheets of paper, and we were there until 1am. 5am Tuesday until 1am Wednesday.
Once we got the electronic ballots, it got so much easier. I was usually home and watching the returns with my sesame tofu and pea pods by 8:30.
After my son was born, I stopped working for a few years, but recently got back to it.
Yup, long shifts are normal, and so is crap pay. I worked practically every election from age 18 to 38, and recently started working them again. It’s practically a ritual.
Yes was a poll worker for many years.
Early starts about 6:30, earlier for suoervisors. Didn’t get out until 2-3 hours after polls closed. Longer if your counts were off.
Township provided lunch and dinner had donuts sodas and coffee in the morning.
No ekectonics allowed. People read books or knitted to pass the time in our rural township.
I last worked a year ago I volunteered to another township that was short workers. So boring I could hardly stand it. I’d rather be in a busy precinct.