Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - View Single Post - Has anyone worked in a polling place before?

Supple Cow · 06-23-2004, 07:16 AM

I'm assuming you mean the place where people go to vote on election day. In that case, I've done that before. I had to arrive at 5:30am to help set up the tables and put up signs. Polls opened soon thereafter and people trickled in slowly until the big rush around lunchtime. People came in, I asked for their name, looked them up on a sheet of paper and had them sign next to their name. I directed them to the old style voting booths (non-electronic, of course) that we have in New York City. I got a two-hour break during which I had lunch and ran to my polling place to vote. I worked the machine for a while, which meant pulling on a great lever attached to the back after each voter had cast her/his vote. More of the same. We finished at midnight I think, and we stayed another 45 minutes or so to complete all the paperwork and pack everything up to give to the officer who came to pick it up. A few weeks later, I got my check for $235 ($200 for election day and $35 for having been to a 3-hr training class a few weeks earlier).

Advice: (1) Do it because it's only one day and it's a chunk of cash. (2) Don't act like you're smarter than the people who have clearly been doing this for years to get extra cash, even if you are smarter. They are often older folks and they don't appreciate uppity youngsters who move more quickly giving them unsolicited advice. (I learned first-hand.)

Do you need "knowledge of technology" because you're using those new computer touch-screen ballots?

06-23-2004, 07:16 AM	#6 (permalink)
Supple Cow Americow, the Beautiful Location: Washington, D.C.	I'm assuming you mean the place where people go to vote on election day. In that case, I've done that before. I had to arrive at 5:30am to help set up the tables and put up signs. Polls opened soon thereafter and people trickled in slowly until the big rush around lunchtime. People came in, I asked for their name, looked them up on a sheet of paper and had them sign next to their name. I directed them to the old style voting booths (non-electronic, of course) that we have in New York City. I got a two-hour break during which I had lunch and ran to my polling place to vote. I worked the machine for a while, which meant pulling on a great lever attached to the back after each voter had cast her/his vote. More of the same. We finished at midnight I think, and we stayed another 45 minutes or so to complete all the paperwork and pack everything up to give to the officer who came to pick it up. A few weeks later, I got my check for $235 ($200 for election day and $35 for having been to a 3-hr training class a few weeks earlier). Advice: (1) Do it because it's only one day and it's a chunk of cash. (2) Don't act like you're smarter than the people who have clearly been doing this for years to get extra cash, even if you are smarter. They are often older folks and they don't appreciate uppity youngsters who move more quickly giving them unsolicited advice. (I learned first-hand.) Do you need "knowledge of technology" because you're using those new computer touch-screen ballots? __________________ "I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six times I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed." (Michael Jordan)