I served as a poll-worker (aka election judge) here in Minnesota for the 2020 elections. I worked my first election here in early March. It was the first “Super Tuesday” for Minnesota, and I was recruited by a friend who works for the City of Moorhead. Apparently, a lot of their regular people are “snowbirds” that were not back in town yet, so they had to recruit new folks. We are required to take an online training class (approximately two hours), and we are administered an oath (to protect the election in good faith) when we arrive at the site. Unbelievably, there were no COVID-related restrictions at that time—which now seems like a lifetime ago. So, there we were, processing folks through a preliminary election in ignorant bliss without any kind of protection.
I next worked with a different crew in my own precinct for the primaries. Of course, by now we were all wearing masks, there was plastic shielding at the registration tables (where I spent most of the day), and the voting stations were spaced at least six feet. These are long days: we arrive to set up at 6:00 a.m., the polls close at 8:00 p.m., and then we have to reconcile the ballot count and pack up the equipment.
On the day of the general election, we initially speculated whether we were going to be really busy, or whether the crowds would be moderated by people who had voted early/absentee. There was a line outside the door when we opened, and we were positively slammed during the first couple of hours. It alternated between steady and surges the rest of the day. We barely had time to grab a couple bites to eat or drink, or even pee. Although two friends from church plus another lady I know were working with me, there was no time to visit—we basically said “hello” and then “have a nice holiday” at the end of the day.
My main job was to hand out the ballots. Voters had to present a receipt which they obtained from the registration line (three people were doing this). Each ballot has to be signed by two other election workers. The ballots come in packs of 50, and we are only to open them as needed. This is so we don’t end up with a lot of unused loose ballots at the end of the day (which have to be counted). I scrambled to keep up with opening and signing ballots. One of the co-head election judges (a guy in a wheelchair) was in charge of monitoring the ballot box/counter, and he scrambled to keep me supplied with the blue folders that covered the ballots for privacy. We had three boxes of ballots at our site totaling somewhere over 1,600.
Toward mid-afternoon, I would first check with one of the head judges before opening the next packet of ballots. Each time, one of the head judges approved opening another pack of ballots, someone would say “this is it.” But it wasn’t. I worried about running out of ballots, until the co-head judge told me they always send more ballots than people in the precinct. I know that I (and probably a lot of other folks) had voted absentee, so at least I could stop worrying about the ballots running out. But the scrambling to keep up was nonstop. Somewhere between 4:00 and 5:00 pm, I began making command decisions about opening the next packet of ballots without consulting one of the head judges. Turned out I made the right call, because at the end of the day, we had 23 ballots left to count (less than a full packet).
In the beginning, two other folks were in charge of disinfecting the voting stations. For various reasons, a couple of people had to leave early. One lady (someone I knew but barely had time to say “hello” to) arrived in midafternoon to help with the evening crowd, but we were still essentially understaffed during the after-work period. Toward the last couple of hours, the head judge (who had been on her feet most of the day) said that her feet were hurting, and she needed to do a sit-down job. So, she took over the ballots, and I attempted to keep up with disinfecting the voting stations and running the blue folders between the ballot table and the ballot counter. At one point, I took off my shoes just so I could keep up speed. At the end of the day, we had processed over 1,000 voters.
Other than being crazy busy, there was no trouble other than the usual glitchy things that sometimes happen. During every election, there are always some voters who “spoil” their ballot by mismarking something. We give them another ballot, write “spoiled” across the mismarked ballot, and place it in a separate envelope specifically marked “spoiled ballots.” We are also required to write this up in an incident log. The ballot counter jammed at one point, but people were able to deposit their ballots in an auxiliary container specific for this purpose. During the short period of time the ballot counter was “down,” we collected 46 ballots (this gives you some idea how busy it was).
At the end of the day, our counts were off by one vote. The two co-head judges had seen some people leave the polling area to use the bathroom. They figured out that someone had probably gone through the registration line, picked up a ballot, then got tired of waiting during one of the surges when we got backed up and left without voting. The head judge said that there were no voter challenges and no poll watchers, so basically a (thankfully) uneventful election.
We did get two visitors at the end of the day. A lady came in and said she was a DFL poll watcher. (In Minnesota, the Democratic party maintains its populist roots as Democratic Farm Labor, or DFL.) There was some anxiety, because by that time we knew we were “off” by that one vote. However, she was friendly, looked around, chatted with us, and left after a few minutes. A young man said he was with the “AP” press. The co-head judge spoke with the guy and concluded that he was looking for numbers (i.e., actual results) that we didn’t have. The actual tallying of results takes place in a much more secure area at the county courthouse. All we do at the polling place is make sure the number of issued ballots adds up and then post a tape on the door, showing zero votes at the start of the day and the number of votes at the end of the day. The co-head judge let the AP guy take a picture of the tape, which satisfied him and sent him on his way.
There was only one incident that I would categorize as “hinky.” A middle-aged white man had come in earlier and asked about vouching for some neighbors. MN allows someone who is registered in the precinct to vouch for up to eight other people who live in the same precinct but are not registered nor have the required identification. Since I was not working the registration desk, I was only tangentially aware of this. Sometime later, a gentleman came over for a ballot and he looked like he might be in some medical distress. He was sweating profusely and appeared to be dizzy and unstable (but not under the influence of drugs or alcohol). I got a chair for him to sit down and he asked if he could sit at my table (distanced) to fill out his ballot. Although it was not exactly allowed, I let him do so. I also looked around for one of the head judges (they were both occupied with other issues) because I thought we might need to get the guy some medical help.
Shortly later, the middle-aged “vouching” guy came over and said he was with the ill-looking man and one other guy. At first, I was relieved that there was someone with the first man, because he might need help not just voting, but even getting out of the building. I also believed the middle-aged guy was some kind of caretaker, because he told me “he’s always like this, don’t worry.” The middle-age man then “walked” the guy through his ballot. I heard the sick man say, “Tina Smith (DFL candidate for Senate) is a nice person,” but the guy told him he had to “vote for the party you want” (which I soon figured out was Republican). The sick guy struggled through his ballot, and when he got to the school board (where you could choose four out of nine nonpartisan candidates), the middle aged guy told him to “pick the right ethnicity,” and then suggested German or Norwegian.
I also briefly met the second man that was with them, and from what I could observe, this second guy also appeared to have mental limitations. Someone in this trio (it may even have been the ringleader) asked me to define “incumbent.” So, what it looked like to me was the first guy (Mr. voucher) had rounded up some vulnerable men who probably were politically disengaged, talked up voting like it was a good thing to do, and got them to the polls to vote the way he wanted them to. Later, I told the head judge about this incident, and she kind of shrugged it off. Our job was to help people vote, and so long as voters were not being actively coerced, we should remain neutral. Frankly, I was just grateful that the sick guy did not have a medical emergency in the middle of crazy-busy.
Other than this, the only other noteworthy situation was a handful of voters asking if they “just voted for President and nothing else” would their vote still count (it would). This indicated to me that there were some people voting who are not normally politically active—and might even be politically ignorant for the most part—who nevertheless felt compelled to vote for the President. Sure, a lot of down ballot candidates (especially judges, who only lawyers really know) are left blank, but most people who vote regularly at least cover their Congressional and state representatives. Not sure how many people were there just for the Presidency (or which way they were voting), but it definitely adds to the overall uniqueness of this election.
There is a final positive observation to this day. As required in Minnesota, our two head judges were from both major parties. Because I am an Independent, I had to occasionally fill in for certain tasks which required “two parties” and one of the head judges was occupied. The nominal head judge was a DFL woman, the co-head judge was a Republican man. These folks have apparently worked a lot of elections together and they know how to work as a team. Both of them were committed to doing the fair and correct thing, as well as helping all of us get a lot of people through as quickly and as painlessly as possible. During one slower moment the head judge told me she had postponed foot surgery until after the election. She also said she was going to recommend her co-head (the Republican guy) to take over as head judge in the event of her retirement. These two folks from opposite political parties obviously respected each other. Moreover, throughout the day we witnessed our Democratic (DFL), Republican, and Independent neighbors voting peacefully, waiting patiently, and fulfilling their civic duty in the middle of a pandemic. It gave me hope that—at least in our own corner of the universe—partisan divisions have not destroyed our basic human decency.
Sadly, a tiring but otherwise uneventful election day was bookmarked by an email from our Pastor that announced the death of a friend from church’s Mom. Mom had been under the care of hospice for going on two years, but she had been doing well and enjoying a reasonably good quality of life. However, my friend’s sister had flown in from out of state for a visit, and shortly thereafter the whole family tested positive for COVID. This was too much for Mom’s aging body to handle, and she passed the afternoon of November 3rd. It just goes along with the rest of this very strange, sad, and exhausting year.