I was contacted by Pollworkers for Democracy about a month before the election and encouraged to become a poll worker. I decided to make the call and before I knew it, I was in training at the County Clerk's office. I'm glad I did. It was an eye opening experience to say the least.
What I learned is that it doesn't take nefarious misdeeds by the Republicans to wreck an election. It only takes incompetence. And unfortunately that is not in short supply.....
Why YOU should think about becoming a pollworker on the flip.....
I'm a reasonably intelligent person. I don't think of myself as a rocket scientist but I easily find my way home alone every day. That didn't seem likely for two of the pollworkers working behind the tables in my precinct......
Our precinct was in a largely university student populated area. Without giving it too much thought, I took the job of "sign-in judge". The other jobs were "pollbook judge", "ballot judge" and "machine judge". As sign-in judge, my job was to greet voters, check their IDs and ask them if they wanted to vote by machine or by paper ballot. I thought this would be an easy, fun and relaxing job. Little did I know what a crucial job it was in making sure everyone who was eligible, got to vote.
When voters arrived, I checked their IDs. If it was unacceptable, I explained what their options were, including voting provisional ballots. Once they got past me, they went to the pollbook judge. This guy was a few tacos shy of a combination plate. Reading voters' names off the sign-in slip seemed a challenge. On numerous occasions, he would tell me they weren't in the book and I would discover that he wasn't even looking on the right page. Several times I was on the phone with the County Clerk trying to help the voter find out where they were registered, only to find out they were registered in our precinct! The Alphabet didn't seem to be his strong suit. He was a very nice, personable guy, but not the brightest bulb in the bunch. Unemployed, on SSI, living in a basement. Nice, but not of average intelligence. (Imagine if he had been in charge! - something he kept referring to about previous elections)
Next voters went to the ballot judge. Our ballot judge was a retired, slightly crotchety old lady who had been working as a pollworker for 45 years! Her job was to give them a paper ballot, if they wanted one and explain how to fill it in properly. She spent much of the day making embarrassing comments about the way voters were dressed, whether students should be allowed to vote since they were voting to raise property taxes but didn't own property, and other wonderful gems. Yikes. She had a hard time understanding what to do with Provisional Ballots and made numerous mistakes with them. If voters chose a machine ballot, they might also visit the machine judge. He seemed reasonably intelligent and I had no concerns about him, thank goodness.
As the day wore on, more and more voters came through the door who needed help - finding the right precinct, figuring out where they were registered, getting the proper ID and on and on. All it would have taken to keep these people from voting was an unhelpful, ignorant pollworker who told them bad information. In fact, if I hadn't been there checking on the pollbook judge in my precinct, at least 8 voters would have been turned away as "not registered". I began to realize that being a pollworker is kind of like being on a jury - critical to the functioning of a democracy and yet few seem willing to do it.
If you are concerned about the integrity of voting, BECOME A POLL WORKER!! It's easy, it's only one or two days every few years. You get paid. The average age of pollworkers nationwide is something like 75. I would guess that many of these people don't know much about computers, many of them have unfortunate prejudices, and if they do have experience, they haven't had to deal with electronic voting machines, Provisional ballots or ID requirements. It could be the most important thing you do to ensuring a fair and representative vote.
We also need to advocate for better pollworkers in general, and better training for pollworkers. Things have changed A LOT since HAVA passed. When I called the County Clerk's office where I live, there was no standard of any sort for becoming a pollworker. I wasn't asked if I had graduated from high school. I wasn't asked if I could read. At the training I attended, there was no effort to make sure I understood my training nor that I could actually read my training manual.
Our training consisted of a 4 hour power point presentation and a manual we got to take with us. There was no hands-on practice in determining what was proper ID and what wasn't, helping voters find the right precinct, helping voters decide whether to vote provisional ballots, processing provisional ballots, possible machine malfunctions etc etc. No practice whatsoever, no test, no questionnaire, to see if we understood and no background check on us that I know of.
I don't know about you, but my eyes have been opened and I find this downright scary. There are a lot of things that need to be done to ensure a fair election - criminalizing voter suppression, verifiable voting that is unhackable, ensuring enough machines for each precinct, and on and on. Lets add signing up reasonably intelligent, well-trained pollworkers for every precinct to the list.