The Democratic Process

[soc_puppet]

Just submitted my application to be a poll worker! In addition to Voting Day Proper, I said I would be interested in working at Satellite locations for early voting, working Absentee Ballots, and at Health Care Facilities, helping people there vote.

My biggest concern right now is for regular voting locations and possible early voting locations, because I'm still masking in public; since I'm a registered Democrat and have volunteered to go anywhere in our relatively blue county, I may end up in a more red area and get some shit over that. (Hell, even if I'm in a more blue area, I may still get some shit, but probably less of it.) I hope I can work something out with my fellow poll workers, if that's the case. (Pretty sure it shouldn't be a problem for working with absentee ballots, and if there's anyone who complains about me wearing a mask at health care facilities, I will boggle at their ignorance.)

My second biggest concern is remembering to check the email address I signed up with 😅 It's not one I check as often as I probably should.

Comments

[oracne]

Go you! I was a poll worker a few times in my twenties and found it dull but rewarding...I suspect it is a lot less dull now....

[soc_puppet]

I see that the rate of interesting-ness for this year has ratcheted up another five notches in just the past few hours 😳 It's not going to change my voting behavior (I'm voting along Democratic party lines regardless), but still.

[oracne]

Interesting Times indeed!

[chanter1944]

Many kudos to you, doing your civic duty and then some!

[soc_puppet]

Thank you! It's important to do, and it also helps me feel like I'm doing something in all this mess. Something that's not calling people or knocking on doors, which I definitely cannot do, as I'd have a breakdown in very short order. (Though I'm also not complaining that they'll be paying me if I get the gig 👀 $16-ish an hour, plus overtime if I go over eight hours in a single day! That's certainly nothing to sneeze at.)

It's both mundane and thrilling!

[jesse_the_k]

I worked the polls for one election back in 2010--first they trained me, and then I staffed a student ward.

I loved being part of the fundamental process that's so crucial for our society. It requires a lot of peopling energy, and I was truly wiped out afterwards.

Thanks so much for doing it, especially the satellite locations. In Wisconsin these decisions are made at the county level, and Dane County distributes polling machines and staff for "early voting" (absentee-ballots-in-person) at all the libraries. Looks like that's a state function for you, and you can get a satellite station just by petitioning for one!?

Re: It's both mundane and thrilling!

[soc_puppet]

Thank you for sharing those links! I like to think I would have paid special attention to accessible voting stuff either way, but reading your first post will definitely help it stick in my brain a bit harder. Iowa still uses mostly paper ballots, and I remember seeing a wheelchair-accessible voting stall at previous elections, but I'll have to pay more attention for the other accessible voting options!

Oh nice, I didn't know that! I've never had a very difficult time voting, TBH, and didn't even know until a few years ago that Iowans get up to three hours paid time off to vote, if we want to. I wouldn't be surprised if it's a holdover from the Democratic governor we had prior to 2008, when he left to join Obama's administration at the White House. (We ended up with someone substantially worse, alas, so here's hoping that we can get the bad one replaced this year 🤞)

I haven't gotten contacted one way or another yet about my application, but I'm hoping I'll be accepted! I worked Registration for AnimeIowa for a good number of years, so I expect it'll be a pretty similar experience. Greet people, look them up in the system, make sure they know what they're doing, get them set up with all of their materials, and send them on their way (to the voting booth, in this case). Sometimes I may need to do a little more interacting, depending on various situations, but that's how things shake out sometimes.

Re: It's both mundane and thrilling!

[jesse_the_k]

Three hours off to vote -> My amazed face.

Wisconsin also continues with paper ballots: they're just more (ac)countable than those unreliable sparky bits. (Electrons, I mean electrons.)

Working con registration is much harder than working at the polls: nobody's in a hurry.

Re: It's both mundane and thrilling!

[soc_puppet]

Not just three hours off, three hours paid off! Ideally, Election Days would be federal holidays regardless, but I'll take whatever scraps of awesome I can get!

Honestly, from what I remember, everyone at AnimeIowa was just happy to be there in general; it probably helped that, after that first disastrous year, Registration opened a good three or four hours before any panels did, and even when we got the afternoon rush, by that time we were working like a well oiled machine and got people through the line right quick. We recently added Thursday badge pickup as well, for anyone who pre-registered. So for the first few hours, not a lot of people are in that much of a hurry (nothing to do yet!), and then for the later hours, we tended to get through longer lines in one heck of a hurry ourselves! I used to try to recruit volunteers and staffers to Registration with this schpeal: "It's the most rested and cleanest you'll probably see most of these people all weekend, they're super excited and happy to be there (so probably won't give you a hard time), and you get to sit down for most of it!"

Re: It's both mundane and thrilling!

[jesse_the_k]

It's the most rested and cleanest you'll probably see most of these people

ha ha ha!

When I started WisCon concom, I remember some folks taking pride in how underslept and over-caffeinated members would become over the long weekend. Weird, now that I think of it, or maybe just age: under slept ≠ fun for me anymore.

[mistressofmuses]

Excellent all around! I hope that you get a good response to your application.

[soc_puppet]

Same! I told Dad I applied, and he told me that he thinks "poll worker" is the kind of job that's always hiring and hungry for new people, so I'm leaning optimistic. (Also we're good friends with at least one of the county supervisors, so that may give me an extra nudge, should he see my application.)