working the polls
i for the first time was a poll worker on the biggest election day in our history
it was the longest day ever.
first to work the polls you need to be there at 5:30
i was late.
i'm not exactly a 5 am person to begin with. and i needed coffee
and food.
but at least i showed up which is more than i can say for the person who didnt show up leaving us short a poll worker.
i got my letter in the mail telling me where to work on saturday.
it didnt leave me much time to prepare.
i didnt realize i was made coordinator
in facet i didnt even know what the fuck that meant.
i found out when i walked into the madness that was setting up for the election.
i was scheduled to work at bishop ludden high school
geddes districts 21 15 and 11 were there.
district 21 was short a person and the women who were there were not experienced
no one knew what to do.
it wasnt good.
district 15 and 11 were pretty good set up wise and they ran smoothly.
i was stuck with district 21 trying to figure out what we needed to do.
these women were older much older than myself. i was the youngest person there though district 15 had a young man working with them
i'm still unsure but i thought he may be gay except i kept catching him staring at me. he wasn’t very subtle about it either.
why i was made a coordinator i have no idea, this was my first time working the polls i thought i'd have plenty of people who knew what they were doing but of course i was wrong.
well we got up and running we had a line of people waiting for the polls to open before they went to work. tension was high needless to say. as they day went on we got the hang of things. my main job was greeting people as they came in and directing them to their proper districts, a job made much easier by a stack of papers clipped together with all three districts voters names in alphabetical order and the number next to the names.
i also became chairperson of district 21. the women i worked with didnt want the responsibility and no one wanted to take the time to figure out what needed to be done, so i ended up being the one to do it. i read through the notes went through the blue bag and got everything organized and made sure we had everything set up properly. we were missing things we needed, i didnt open the bag so i had to spend time tracking down everything that came with it. they didnt send adequate supplies which was no surprise to me. when you get everything set up before the polls open there are numbers that need to be recorded off the machine which of course were not done. i figured this out at about 10 am and took care of that. martha one of the women i worked with was "so glad" i was there and relieved that i had decided to take charge.
overall it was a good time. the women i worked with were funny and had their moments. martha can be very snippy though i don't think she intended it to come out that way. the voters came in steady numbers, it wasnt madness after the first morning bunch it settled down. there were blocks of quiet and blocks of people. i left at 8 to go vote as they never sent my absentee ballot and there was no way i wasnt going to vote in this election.
people were friendly, the kids at the high school had a bake sale and they sold almost everything. it was a great idea. i myself bought some muffins which were really good.
we didnt have too much trouble, a few people came to the wrong voting place and we helped them figure out where they needed to go vote. we didnt have any challenges or paper ballots, nothing crazy thank goodness though we would have figured it out. we did have a few things that we should have done differently but nothing that would really affect too much.
closing the polls was a challenge none of us knew how, the seal was put on wrong (yes by me opps) and i ended up having a women from district 11 come help because we were all kind of fighting and i was losing my temper. i was burnt out at this point and just wanted to go home. i still had to take the bag down to the town hall. Martha ended up doing that for me, she told me as we walked out that i had done an amazing job and she hoped that i would come work the polls again. she told me that i was going to go very far in life. i took that as a compliment though i didnt think i had done nearly as good of a job as i should have. I was not prepared for this at all really but i took it in stride and just did what had to be done. chris came and saw me twice, he brought me dinner which was nice, i was suppose to go to OCC and pick up the food they had for us but I didnt end up getting there so I had brought enough stuff to eat except for dinner. the girls had ordered a pizza so i wouldnt have starved i just didnt have any cash to throw in for it so I didnt want to eat it. though they wouldnt have cared.
all in all it was a good experience and I'm glad to have done it. i think i would be willing to do it again. it's true they really do need some young blood in there, people who arent medicated and in wheelchairs and are 90 years old. people who have a take charge attitude and energy. we need a serious reform in how things are done this was highly unorganized and a giant mess. we need some serious reform. i think my generation is the one that needs to step up and do something about how we run our country. Iguess thats why so many of us voted for obama. people are so afraid of change they cling to a dying system and refuse to let go. where is the innovation? why is it that in this day and age we have so much technology we make damn sure that the things we use in our everyday life are top notch, we want the best of the best from our computers tv's dishwashers, but when it comes to our voting system the majority of us dont have a clue how it works. all we know is we walk into a booth pull some levers and leave. if we even do that. they dont see the blue bag with it's poorly supplied tape and tacks. the uselessness of it all. martha brought her own bag of supplies thank god. it's all so silly. but this is america and this is how the best country on earth does things. throw a bunch of inexperienced people together give them half of what they need to run things properly and hope for the best. it's what we do.
god bless america.
*rolls eyes*
it was the longest day ever.
first to work the polls you need to be there at 5:30
i was late.
i'm not exactly a 5 am person to begin with. and i needed coffee
and food.
but at least i showed up which is more than i can say for the person who didnt show up leaving us short a poll worker.
i got my letter in the mail telling me where to work on saturday.
it didnt leave me much time to prepare.
i didnt realize i was made coordinator
in facet i didnt even know what the fuck that meant.
i found out when i walked into the madness that was setting up for the election.
i was scheduled to work at bishop ludden high school
geddes districts 21 15 and 11 were there.
district 21 was short a person and the women who were there were not experienced
no one knew what to do.
it wasnt good.
district 15 and 11 were pretty good set up wise and they ran smoothly.
i was stuck with district 21 trying to figure out what we needed to do.
these women were older much older than myself. i was the youngest person there though district 15 had a young man working with them
i'm still unsure but i thought he may be gay except i kept catching him staring at me. he wasn’t very subtle about it either.
why i was made a coordinator i have no idea, this was my first time working the polls i thought i'd have plenty of people who knew what they were doing but of course i was wrong.
well we got up and running we had a line of people waiting for the polls to open before they went to work. tension was high needless to say. as they day went on we got the hang of things. my main job was greeting people as they came in and directing them to their proper districts, a job made much easier by a stack of papers clipped together with all three districts voters names in alphabetical order and the number next to the names.
i also became chairperson of district 21. the women i worked with didnt want the responsibility and no one wanted to take the time to figure out what needed to be done, so i ended up being the one to do it. i read through the notes went through the blue bag and got everything organized and made sure we had everything set up properly. we were missing things we needed, i didnt open the bag so i had to spend time tracking down everything that came with it. they didnt send adequate supplies which was no surprise to me. when you get everything set up before the polls open there are numbers that need to be recorded off the machine which of course were not done. i figured this out at about 10 am and took care of that. martha one of the women i worked with was "so glad" i was there and relieved that i had decided to take charge.
overall it was a good time. the women i worked with were funny and had their moments. martha can be very snippy though i don't think she intended it to come out that way. the voters came in steady numbers, it wasnt madness after the first morning bunch it settled down. there were blocks of quiet and blocks of people. i left at 8 to go vote as they never sent my absentee ballot and there was no way i wasnt going to vote in this election.
people were friendly, the kids at the high school had a bake sale and they sold almost everything. it was a great idea. i myself bought some muffins which were really good.
we didnt have too much trouble, a few people came to the wrong voting place and we helped them figure out where they needed to go vote. we didnt have any challenges or paper ballots, nothing crazy thank goodness though we would have figured it out. we did have a few things that we should have done differently but nothing that would really affect too much.
closing the polls was a challenge none of us knew how, the seal was put on wrong (yes by me opps) and i ended up having a women from district 11 come help because we were all kind of fighting and i was losing my temper. i was burnt out at this point and just wanted to go home. i still had to take the bag down to the town hall. Martha ended up doing that for me, she told me as we walked out that i had done an amazing job and she hoped that i would come work the polls again. she told me that i was going to go very far in life. i took that as a compliment though i didnt think i had done nearly as good of a job as i should have. I was not prepared for this at all really but i took it in stride and just did what had to be done. chris came and saw me twice, he brought me dinner which was nice, i was suppose to go to OCC and pick up the food they had for us but I didnt end up getting there so I had brought enough stuff to eat except for dinner. the girls had ordered a pizza so i wouldnt have starved i just didnt have any cash to throw in for it so I didnt want to eat it. though they wouldnt have cared.
all in all it was a good experience and I'm glad to have done it. i think i would be willing to do it again. it's true they really do need some young blood in there, people who arent medicated and in wheelchairs and are 90 years old. people who have a take charge attitude and energy. we need a serious reform in how things are done this was highly unorganized and a giant mess. we need some serious reform. i think my generation is the one that needs to step up and do something about how we run our country. Iguess thats why so many of us voted for obama. people are so afraid of change they cling to a dying system and refuse to let go. where is the innovation? why is it that in this day and age we have so much technology we make damn sure that the things we use in our everyday life are top notch, we want the best of the best from our computers tv's dishwashers, but when it comes to our voting system the majority of us dont have a clue how it works. all we know is we walk into a booth pull some levers and leave. if we even do that. they dont see the blue bag with it's poorly supplied tape and tacks. the uselessness of it all. martha brought her own bag of supplies thank god. it's all so silly. but this is america and this is how the best country on earth does things. throw a bunch of inexperienced people together give them half of what they need to run things properly and hope for the best. it's what we do.
god bless america.
*rolls eyes*