One Election Worker’s Perspective

For the past ten years, I have worked as an election worker in my precinct, checking in voters and handing them their ballots. But it is getting harder. We used to have at least six workers at every election, but as technology has improved, we are down to four in all but the Presidential election.

I worked the primary election on August 7  this year. My precinct is one of the largest in terms of registered voters in our county.

My three co-workers and I (divided into two teams, each consisting of a Republican and a Democrat) gave ballots to 1,139 voters over the course of the thirteen hours that the polls were open. That’s 43.8 voters per hour that each team of two election workers serviced, or about one voter every 1.37 minutes.

In that 1.37 minutes, we had to view the voter’s photo ID (or other permissible substitute), look up the voter on an iPad (called a Poll Pad), get the voter to verify that his or her address was still correct by signing the Poll Pad, initial the Poll Pad ourselves, and initial the ballot we were handing the voter. Because our precinct is split into two state legislative districts, on August 7 we had eight ballots encompassing the various races and parties. Each voter could choose from among all the party ballots for his or her legislative district, and we had to be sure to give the right ballot—and only one ballot—to each voter.

In fact, the time we could spend with most voters was less than 1.37 minutes. Many of the 1,139 people who voted in our precinct are elderly. Some people took several minutes to check in. Occasionally, a team of two election workers had to go to the curb outside to assist a disabled voter who could not come inside, which reduced the capacity to process voters by 50% for the fifteen or twenty minutes that assisting that individual took.

Other voters had problems completing the ballot correctly and needed us to spoil the first ballot and give them another.

And these 1,139 voters do not include all the people who showed up at the wrong precinct and had to be directed to their correct voting location, nor the people who weren’t registered in our county at all (”Oh, you mean I can’t vote here because I live in a different county?” “What do you mean I have to register in advance—I can’t just vote?”). Some voters had changed addresses within the county and needed to have paperwork completed before they could vote, or be sent elsewhere to vote.

(As an aside, based on my ten years’ experience, it isn’t illegal immigrants attempting to vote who cause the most election fraud. It is Americans who lie about where they live. This probably matters most in local elections. There is nothing election workers can do, if voters state they live at the address where they are registered—we must accept them at their word.)

In addition to processing voters, election workers are held accountable for making sure that people canvassing for candidates and issues outside our voting location stay at least 25 feet away from the door—the door we can barely get to because we are so busy. (In fact, we often have trouble getting bathroom breaks.)

Other issues also crop up during the day requiring our time. On August 7 we were told by the roving deputy election officials that we couldn’t put the ballots where we had been putting them for the past ten years, so we had to negotiate where it was acceptable to put them. We were also called by the county election office because a campaigner outside our building had been given wrong information by a volunteer for the church where we were located—our team had not caused the problem, but we were asked to spend time remedying the situation.

My fellow election workers and I were at our precinct location at 5:00am, and we didn’t leave until 7:45pm. One co-worker and I then took the ballots to the county seat to turn them and all our equipment back in. I didn’t get home until 9:00pm. (Plus, the day before, I had picked up all the equipment and ballots at the county seat, which took another hour of my time. I also charged the Poll Pads at home to be sure they started the day well-juiced.) My pay for all the time I spent working this election—and believe me, I don’t do it for the pay—turned out to be slightly less than minimum wage, plus mileage.

What do I get in addition to the small stipend for the day?

Some voters thank us for serving. But more of them complain about the lighting in the space where the church puts us, or the crowded nature of our voting tables, or the uphill hike from the church parking lot to the entrance. They sigh loudly when they happen to be in line behind an elderly person or behind someone we can’t find in the Poll Pad.

Since the August 7 election, I’ve read complaints from other people on Facebook or in the newspaper about their experiences in other voting locations. The Kansas City Star described many problems during the election process in Kansas, including equipment issues and poll workers giving different instructions in different locations. These problems delayed the determination of the Republican candidate for governor until a week after the primary.

Yes, I’m whining. No, I’m not saying our election process couldn’t be improved.

But when I read and hear all these complaints from voters, I’d ask them to look at the situation from the other side of the table. Your election workers are providing an essential service that enables you to vote. They provide that service for a very small stipend.

If you have issues, complain to your local election board, not to the election workers. We are not perfect, but we are doing the best we can with resources that are not sufficient to do a good job in many precincts.

And maybe, just maybe, consider volunteering to serve as an election worker yourself.

Democracy depends on it.