I got a call last week, I will be an election judge this year. I am “in charge” of the polling place and all the other officials. Looks like a long day next week. I view it as a rehearsal for the big game in November.
Is CT the only state that allows half-day shifts?
It sounds like some others do. Those states are so much more sensible.
I doubt there is any “allow” to it. It seems to be more about logistics and how many workers they have.
Got paid today – $300 deposited to my bank account. Figure about sixteen hours for the election plus training, so $18.75 an hour.
Half day shifts may increase the number of workers they have.
Polls in all states used to be open 6am to 6pm, period, and everyone could get there at some point.
This isn’t the case anymore.
Some do, but not all states have laws that require employers to allow you time to vote, and 10 x 4 work weeks are more common, as is mandatory overtime, so in some states, polls are open longer-- 6-8 or 5-8. I think there are even some states open later than 8. The most Indiana does is close behind the last person in line at 6, and then allow everyone already in line to vote, even if it mean staying open until 6:20 or 6:30.
One year when I worked in Indiana, we had a couple show up at 7:30 and get all worked up because they had recently moved from California, where the polls were open until 8, so they just assumed that was the case here. I thought for a bit we were going to have to call for help to remove them, but we eventually talked them down, and they left on their own.
Anyway, when someone once proposed 6-8 voting in Indiana, one argument against it was the increased difficulty of finding workers, and the fact that it might lead to divided shifts.
I’m really not sure what people were worried might happen, but a lot of people think a change in shifts is a security risk.
That doesn’t make any sense. There is some overlap, as with any change of shifts. It’s not as if we left the ballots unguarded when the shift changed. And if someone wants to illegally vote twice, they are going to need to use different names. Why not different polling places, as well.
(Speaking as someone who worked a shift that was less than the full time the polling place was open.)
The part of working the polls that was most fun was that i got to stuff the ballot box. 
My state allows early voting. If the ballots arrive early enough, the town clerk and town employees process those ballots. But the ones that arrive in the last few days before election day were verified, sorted, and carried to the polling places. I took ballots out of their mailing envelopes and checked that the ballot was what was indicated on the envelope. Then, during pauses when no one was actively voting, i took the ballots & envelopes, a few at a time, to the people who checked in voters. I checked in on behalf of the absentee voter, so they could check that the person hadn’t shown up in person, and mark that the person voted, so they couldn’t show up later. Then i carried the ballot to the ballot box, and voted the ballot for the absentee voter.
I voted 52 times, including one ballot with stay marks and another that had an overvote. Both of those went into a separate bin to be read by hand, like write-ins. The stray mark was an obvious slip and would be ignored by a human. The overvote invalidated the ballot for that race, but the other races would still be counted and tabulated.
Just reiterating that this is not my concern, merely a concern that has been expressed to me, which I am repeating because people asked. I am not going to defend it.
I’ve been gently urging my county’s Board of Elections to offer eight hour shifts for two years now. Not positive, but I think the People’s Republic of Montgomery County is the only Maryland jurisdiction which does. I’ve told my supervisor that I would work all eight days of early voting if I could do eight hour shifts instead of the two marathon days for which I’m scheduled.
My county doesn’t have a shortage of judges, however, unlike Baltimore City which is dangerously short of help for the coming primary (reportedly). I don’t know how that affects the staffing equation.
Early voting days are lightly attended and we are indeed a little overstaffed and tremendously bored. But on election day proper it’s hard to squeeze in a couple of short sandwich breaks because those days hop.
I have absolutely no desire to be a poll worker, but I have helped with counting ballots. Sure, it was tedious, but it has to be done, and we’re paid as well.
Some places have tried split shifts, and the no call/no show rate was so high, it’s just best to have the workers there for the whole duration, even though most of them are senior citizens.
I’m sure that varies by location. Fwiw, 100% of the people who volunteered in my town showed up.
I’m an NJ poll worker, just got my assignment for primary day on June 4. It is a long day, I have to show up at 5:00 am and expect to be there until 8:00 pm. Interestingly, the letter I received did not specify the end time, maybe they are working out something different. Hmmmmm… But I’m up for it, I find it interesting and worthwhile to do a couple of times a year. I originally volunteered and was quite pleasantly surprised to find out it had wages attached!
At one point I asked about going home for the lunch break as I live quite nearby, but they said they don’t let poll workers leave the premises because of the possibility of someone walking off with a machine key or something. In a earlly busy urban district I would hope they’d figure out how to relieve people midway through but where I am we get plenty of downtime. It’s a long day but not really tiring.
I worked in PA for the general in 2020. I was just a general helper. I worked open to close - around 15 hours - and did get paid, but very little - I think $110 total. It was fun, but also boring - no cell phones allowed, and it’s a pretty quiet polling place. I’ve volunteered for every election since (by responding to an e-mail begging for workers), and haven’t gotten a call.
Huh. At my polling place, someone brought in donuts and coffee. But the two women who were there all day took a lunch break and left the premises. That is part of why i was there, to make sure there was enough staff when people took breaks.
It sounds like you were paid whatever the local minimum wage was at the time.
I think you’re right! Good 'ole PA - then, and still, $7.25/hour.
I’ve done it and its a freakishly long day - our cities (Minnesota) run elections and some cities do two shifts. Our city tried it - and too many people on second shift didn’t show up. So now its one (two with primaries) freakishly long day. We get minimum wage.