Has anyone worked in a polling place before?
 

I'm applying to perhaps work at a polling place. They say that polls set up at 6h in the morning and then close at 21h30 at night. That would be a 15 and a half hour day, and they say polling clerks make 80$ (a day, I think?).

Has anyone had this experience, and if you have, could you share it?

Since nobody has responded, I'm guessing it's the same as me ... no.

I'm just curious why you'd want to work at a polling place.

I think it would give me good experience, since I'm 18- and usually 18 year olds could care less about the voting process. Also, the job calls for knowledge of technology...and I certainly have that. Heh...

Knowlege of technology = data entry at a computer.

What I would imagine this job is, is calling people, to get their opinions on various things. I'd imagine more than 50 percent of the people will hang up or worse.

Polling is legal telemarketing.

I get a lot of pollsters calling me, about local politics, and other things, sometimes I'll talk to them, sometimes I won't depending on the person who's calling.

Evaluating the data would be way more interesting than doing the actual polling to me.

i'm confused. when i hear someone say they'll be working in a polling place, i immediately think of the old ladies that check off my name when i go in to vote on elections and local ballot measures, then shove my ballot card into the reader when i've made my marks.

what i'm hearing is that a polling place is a call center where you contact people and conduct surveys over the phone.

which kind of "polling place" are you applying for, l.p.moi?

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?

Yeah, they mention the new computer touch-screen ballots in the letter they sent me. It sounds like a very long day to me, but if I make money, hell- I'll do it.

My dad has worked at the polling place for elections for several years now. It's not a fun day for him, well he's 83 now. I don't think he does it for the pay. But you meet all kinds of people throughout the day. Since most states have gone to computer type voting, they need people that can help those that have no understanding.

If you want more specifics, PM me.

I worked a poll in my small hometown once time for $75 for the day. It wasn't bad considering I was the youngest person working there by at least 30 years. I took some advice from my grandmother who had done it and took a book (it was for the primaries) and just chilled most of the time. Every once in a while a person would walk in. We didn't have fancy voting booths, the ballot was a piece of paper and you went into a seperate room to fill it out with a No. 2 pencil. My job was taking the ballot from them in a special plastic thing and putting it in the box.

It wasn't bad work and I kind of enjoyed it.

just over $5.15/hour... you'll be doing it for the experience more than the funds...

i'd say go for it if you can commit to the time since it's an experience.

It's pretty cool to be an active part of the electoral process, too. Very patriotic of you, LPM!

Hey, and if they're Diebold voting machines, see if you can hack them and cast all the votes for Libertarians, just to screw things up!