(FYI: This is my first diary after nearly 4 years here.)
The election is in my bedroom.
Well, not the whole election--but the materials for my precinct are sitting there right now, neatly organized into two large (and very heavy!) bags, topped by four US flags neatly rubber-banded together. They are heavy in more than a physical sense: they are burgeoning with promise, and laden with responsibility. Follow me through the jump to see the election through a pollworker’s eyes.
I am a presiding judge, which is Ohio lingo for "head pollworker." On Tuesday, assuming my nerves will let me fall asleep at all, I will rise at 4:30 a.m., stumble in and out of the shower, blearily don the clothes laid out the night before, maybe slurp down a cup of coffee, and leave for my polling place by 5:30 a.m. Luckily, it’s less than a 5-minute drive; I could walk it if I didn’t have the bags to worry about. I will heave those bags out of my trunk and schlep them inside, praying that the doors of my polling place are in fact unlocked, and hope that the other three pollworkers in my precinct will all arrive on time.
The period between 5:45 and 6:30, when the polls actually open, flies by in a whirlwind of activity. While a Republican judge and I work together to open each of our four voting machines using a detailed step-by-step checklist, the other two judges scurry around putting up the required signage in the prescribed places, placing the flags, and taking care of other details on our opening checklist.
Then, when the magic hour arrives, we open the doors and hurry to our positions at the table, and for the next thirteen-plus hours, we rise to our responsibility: we are the wind that carries the voice of the people from one little room, one precinct of many, and makes it heard--across our county, across Ohio, across the nation and around the world.
Being a pollworker is a rewarding, but very grueling job. Speaking as a pollworker, here are five simple things you can do that will make our jobs easier and our lives more pleasant, and even if we are too busy to thank you at the time, trust me, you will have our eternal gratitude:
- If you can do so in your state, vote early. By doing this, you are "freeing up the line" for people who have only a limited amount of time to vote on Election Day. By making your voice heard in advance, you make it more likely that infrequent voters, older or physically fragile voters, or those in a hurry will come into my polling place and stay there long enough to vote. (My precinct had 111 people who voted early—about 20% of our total active voter list! Yay!)
- Be kind to the people around you in line, no matter you who think they’ll be voting for. Let elderly or physically fragile people sit down if possible, even if that means "saving their spot" in line and allowing them to get back in just before you reach the table. Bring a few snacks and drinks, and be quick to offer them if someone seems hungry or thirsty. Save someone’s place in line if they need to use the restroom, or if they realize they don’t have their ID with them and want to run home and get it.
- Don't electioneer. The laws vary by state, but here in Ohio, people are not allowed to discuss, hand out materials, or act on behalf of or in opposition to any candidate, issue, or party within 100 feet of the polling location. So please don’t try and convince that guy in front of you in line that a vote for McCain is a vote for insanity. In Ohio, you are also not allowed to wear a T-shirt, hat, button, or any other identifiable candidate/party paraphernalia within 100 feet of the polls. Leave your gear in your car and put it on after you’ve voted and left the polling location. (I am bringing some blankets for emergency cover-ups, just in case.)
- Make sure you're in the right place and the right line. Check your polling location. Make sure it hasn’t changed. Once you get to your polling location, make sure you’re in the right line, since many locations host more than one precinct. (There is one town in my county that hosts six precincts at the same location!) There’s nothing worse than standing in line for an hour only to be told you need to get in the other line, or even worse, that your precinct’s polling location has moved and you have to go somewhere else entirely.
- Act now to make sure you won't have to vote a provisional ballot. I’ve seen lots of DKos comments along the lines of "Don’t let them give you a provisional ballot! MAKE them give you a regular ballot." While I understand the sentiment, under the law, there are certain conditions that require us to give you a provisional ballot. You cannot "make" us do one thing or the other. We are not doing it because we want to disenfranchise you. In Ohio, your provisional vote will count as long as you are a) registered in Ohio, b) voting in the right precinct (if you vote at a county Board of Elections office, this does not apply), c) have not already voted an absentee ballot, and d) fill out the front of the ballot envelope correctly and completely. To take one real-life example, don’t write your birthdate as "11-04-08." We try and check every envelope, but we are human too, and sometimes a mistake will get past us.
We only give you a provisional ballot because our flow chart tells us to. Here are the situations that will trigger a provisional ballot:
- You have "ABSENTEE" next to your name in the signature book, meaning you requested an absentee ballot. The county BOE will check to make sure you did not return the absentee ballot, and as long as you did not, your provisional vote will count.
- You had a name change (most likely because you got married) and forgot to update your registration with the BOE. You write your old name and new name on the provisional ballot envelope. The BOE will check that you were registered under your maiden name, and then your vote will count. They will also update their records so this won’t happen to you again.
- You have "CONFIRM PROVISIONAL" next to your name in the signature book. I admit, I don’t know why this message would appear, but I just checked my precinct book and it doesn’t come up once with over 600 names in the book. So no one at my precinct will fall into this category. If you do, you are within your rights to step to the side, call your county BOE (the pollworkers will have the number and let you borrow a cell phone if necessary), and politely ask why this is.
- You have "CONFIRM VIEW ID" next to your name in the signature book, meaning you mailed in your voter registration and did not provide ID at that time. Simply show your ID and all will be well. If you cannot provide ID, you will have to vote a provisional ballot.
The lesson here is to make sure that your registration is correct (right name, right address) and that you have valid ID that is accepted in your state. In Ohio, for example, correspondence from the Board of Elections, including the postcard with your polling place on it, IS NOT considered valid ID. There’s a valid reason for that, but it takes forever to explain, so please just take my word for it.
Finally, for anyone still reading, here’s a bonus tip:
- Thank your pollworkers. (We also love food.) No one works the polls to make the big bucks. It’s an incredibly long and grueling day for sub-minimum wage, and while you’re heading to your election night parties the second the polls close (or earlier), we’re still there at the precinct, following more incredibly detailed procedures to properly close down the machines, pack up our supplies, do several cross-checks to reconcile our vote totals across our paper and electronic records, and sign off on everything. Then the presiding judge (yours truly) and one Republican judge have to drive everything back to the Board of Elections and go through several more audits back at the BOE as we hand over our memory cards and supplies and ensure everything is accounted for. It was almost 10:00 p.m. by the time I got home after the primary. The most valuable pay we get is the voters’ thanks and appreciation, so after you vote, take a second and say "thank you" to your pollworkers. (And if you really love us, you’ll bring us pizza. Just sayin’.)
Thanks for reading, and good luck to us all on Tuesday.