At least I assume so. A few months back, I was sent a flyer stating that they needed judges for the upcoming election. I sent it back saying “Sure” and just received a training date in the mail. I’d guess they’re not going to pay me $45 to not use me.
Anyone go through this before? What was it like? I know it’s not supposed to be exciting and experiences would vary wildly from location to location. I’m not expecting great times from it but I figured if I was jonesed up enough to complain about the election process, new voting machines and judges who may not understand them, I should at least man up and make myself available.
Is that the same as an election official/poll worker? I’m one and it’s fun, mostly. We have a short training session before each election to go over the rules and the machines, learn how and what to count so everything tallies. I volunteered for it and was surprised to learn that we get paid!
Yeah. My sole experience with them is when they look me up in the voter rolls and hand me a ballot. I’m assuming there’s also prep work and getting the data to the right people involved.
Yeah, I was an election judge for two years once I turned 18. It’s interesting - you get to meet a lot of unique people. Plus, I always ate donuts from 4 a.m. to 7 p.m. and drank so much coffee I thought my head would explode. It was also a great opportunity to ditch class for a day.
Though it’s kind of tough when the polls are slow - then you start to fantasize about taking a nap. You know, because you’re crashing from the sugar high you were on because of all the donuts.
Our County Auditor is super organized. She’s prepared a file case with tabbed folders that have everything we need, including step by step instructions for how to handle unregistered voters and voters who are in the wrong precinct, what to say to election watchers – all that stuff.
Transmitting the data has been different for each election. When we used the voting machines, we hooked up a modem and transmitted that way. When we have paper ballots, we count them at the start and end of voting and phone in the results. Paper ballots also go into a machine that counts them and prints out a report.
I’ve worked three elections and we haven’t had any problems, except for the boredom cited by overlyverbose. In our last city election – 9 hours at the polls and only 36 voters. A bond issue was worse – 12 hours and 10 voters. The national was busy all day though – we barely had time for potty breaks.
It’s kinda fun, and a good way to meet people in your neighborhood.
I did it about half a dozen time in the past. When we were busy it was great, especially meeting neighbors I really didn’t know. But the slow times made the day seem real long. I was at a church across the street from a small shopping center so there was something to do during the breaks. Absentee voting has taken over in my county lately so I haven’t been called the past few years. Next year the county is going to all mail in ballots so poll judges will be a thing of the past.
I did the election worker thing for a while before I was gainfully employed. These days I still take the day off, but I am volunteering at the ‘front of house’ for candidates.
The first 2 hours can get pretty hectic. Presidential elections are a zoo, especially in wards like mine where turnout was about 90%. Everyone wants to get the hell out and get to work and they aren’t really happy about standing in lines.
After that, the volume begins to slow a bit until lunch when there is a bit of a pickup.
After work it gets pretty hectic again. People seem to be surprised that they weren’t the only ones who thought of coming at 7:45PM and are pissed off when they get there and see lines.
For more important elections you will find that campaigns are sending poll checkers out. These folks are permitted to sit inside and they check off the names of voters so that the campaigns can call those who have not shown up. At hectic times, the checkers will get a bit behind and will be asking you to repeat names or read back names. It might get on your nerves after a while. But be nice to them and they will stay out of your way for the most part. At least I did when I was a poll checker.
After the day is over, you have to stay and go through the closing process which can run a while. Campaign workers are were allowed in the back (once the preliminary machine count is out) trying to get their numbers to call into HQ. You have to get them to calm down a bit. One older judge I worked with would just make like the town crier and shout the results from our precinct so that we didn’t have people fighting over who would get to the preliminary count sheet first.
What I found refreshing was how well a lot of the veteran judges get along. Most of the folks have been doing this for a number of years. While they all come from opposite parties and elections can get pretty divisive, there isn’t really any of that nonsense between the judges in my experience. We chatted and joked around most of the day. The Democratic judges were more than willing to cover for me when I went to grab lunch and I returned the favor. I think mostly they were thrilled to see someone under the age of 30 willing to even do this stuff.
It is what you make of it. If you come in thinking that you have 13 hours of sitting around ahead of you, you may not enjoy it. But if you can work hard for a couple of hours and don’t mind BSing with some of your fellow workers, then the day goes pretty quickly.
It’s a great thing. I’ve done it a few times. Although workers do get paid, it always felt like charity work for me because it was a hellish long day and they needed people so badly. It also feels kind of noble–you are helping people discharge their civic duty! It’s neat to be a part of that.
I’d second just about all of what has been said above, and especially appreciate what Neptunian Slug wrote. People are serious about getting it right, but there is a lot of camaraderie between the workers. In my state, workers have to be identified by party affiliation (and there are certain procedures which require workers from different parties to be witnesses) but in truth the partisan stuff just melted away otherwise.
You’ll learn a lot about the voting process, and gain new respect for what’s involved. I applaud you for doing this.
