I am starting to reconsider my decision.
(Republicans Are Training Poll Workers to Challenge Voters | by Caren White | Politically Speaking | Medium)
I am an Independent.
Depends a lot on where you are, I suppose. What is the prevailing mood in your district?
That article suggests:
Are you seeing any of that kind of training going on, or even being discussed, in your area?
Of all of the errant nonsense—the Weimar era-esque ‘political rallies’ of people openly expressing white nationalist and anti-intellectual rhetoric, the rise of demagoguery in both national and local politics, the bizarre rejection of objective scientific and medical guidance, the comprehensive gerrymandering policy, even the attempted (if moronic) insurrection on 06 Jan 2021–this concerted effort by the GOP to try to influence or block voters and intimidate election officials worries me the most, because this is how you actually ‘steal’ an election and get away with it.
My sincere appreciation to the o.p. for undertaking this civic duty and my hope that they persist and are well because without honest and reliable poll workers we have no functioning electoral system.
Stranger
Training starts in July, I do hope this is addressed .
Seconding.
Thirding.
I will be very surprised if your elections officials haven’t got plans to address this in some way. I hope you’ll come back to this thread and share what they tell you in July.
Don’t be nervous at all. If anyone behaves untowardly, just say “Your attempts at insurrection will not succeed.” If they complain, tell them “One more time and we’ll have the security guard here escort you out for the rest of the day, no voting for you until the next election.”
I’ve always kind of felt that (at least right now) despite the general feeling of danger, any one particular individual’s or event’s risk feels like it’s relatively low. Does that make sense?
Raw Story has this relevant article today (June 7, 2022). Is anything like this happening in OP’s quadrant of the galaxy?
Don’t know. I was told 4 hours of in-person training and 4 hours on-line. When I did it (poll working) the general election, we were told an election judge was there for our protection and to take care of any issues. The one at my polling place turned out to be a mealy-mouthed stereotypical little old lady.
I was also just selected to be an election judge for my state’s (Maryland) primary next month.
My home county went for Trump by 28 points last time but obviously the state is very blue. I’m not really concerned about threats because there’s no real competition in either case.
I might be a lot more worried if I were in an urban precinct in a battleground state, though.
I cannot say what risks you may face being a poll worker but, at a guess, I would think they were low. The people who might oppose you are not there to cause violence (I do not think). They are there to tip the scales at any opportunity. Not to mention the government will know exactly who they are. They are not likely to get away with attacks on fellow workers.
But, these days you never know.
I hope you hang in there and are a fair and neutral poll worker but neither would I think less of you if you decided you wanted no part of it (for whatever that is worth).
Isn’t your governor a republican?
I’ve been working polls for 2-1/2 years — I wanted to try to keep them honest during the time of Trumpist insanity.
Through-out the pandemic I just had to deal with one pair of “we won’t wear masks, and we have a right to vote” idiots. It was no big deal. They were cowed a bit by my unfeigned outrage, and backed off completely we called the cops.
My republican co-workers have all been competent likable folk. I think they care about electoral integrity as much as myself.
My message to the OP is stay involved. Do your best, stay optimistic, and don’t be nervous until you have concrete evidence that you need to be. The US is still in better shape than most of the world, and a tiny amount of personal bravery will help things stay pretty good.
Larry Hogan’s eight years of RINO governorship are coming to an end this year. He’s consistently garnering 1% in 2024 presidential polling.
As a counterbalance, we have two Dem senators, seven out of eight Reps are Dems, both houses of the state legislature are Dem majority and we were a 20+ Biden state in '20.
But yeah, moderate Republicans sometimes do pretty well running for governor in Maryland. I’ve never quite gotten that.