On Poll Workers

I'll now officially announce that I have been working as a trainer of election workers over the past month. (I haven't even worked elections, but they assured me they they would teach us that stuff first and then bring in poll workers for us to teach.)

It's an interesting part of the economy.

I asked several of the poll workers what drew them to this work. I got several different answers:

1) A little extra spending money, aka "egg money." In my county, poll workers are paid $8 - $12 per hour, depending who is paying them (the parties or the county) and their job title. I'd always thought they were volunteers. But not quite.

2) Civic duty.

3) Social pressure. The political parties or neighborhood association may ask you to help, and a friend or neighbor who is working the polls may ask you to help.

4) Socializing. One person's wife was working for several years before he decided to join her. Several people use this opportunity to talk with other people in their community--this seemed especially common in the middle-of-nowhere polling places.

5) Getting out of the house.

As you may have noticed, the vast majority of poll workers are retirees. A few civic-minded folks do take a day off to work election day. But folks working early voting are needed for a lot more days.

Even among the trainers, most were retirees (it seemed like most people were sixty years old). However, there were a few younger people between jobs. And one self-employed person who was in a slow period, though of course by the end of the month he had three jobs lined up. And I think one or two people who enjoy short-term jobs. Two trainers lived nearby, but most had very long commutes; I'm thinking the folks who can only afford to live in lower-cost parts of town are the ones most likely to be in need of extra cash.

I wonder how much of our economy is reliant on retirees, specifically pensioners, and whether the plummeting of pensions will have a very negative impact on these parts of the economy.

Managing voters versus blood donors

Yesterday, while donating blood, I noticed some similarities between how I am treated as a blood donor and how I am treated as a voter. In both cases, they ask me over and over again to confirm my identity.

In the case of voting in my county, I actually know why.

Station 1: You are looked up on the voter registration list and asked to confirm your address. They need to make sure they are checking you off the list and not someone else with a similar name.

Interesting note: If, when your voter registration card is mailed out, it is then returned in the mail, the county assumes you might have moved. You get flagged, and if you don't confirm or update your address, you might be kicked off the registration rolls.

Station 2: You are asked to confirm that the sticker they just handed you is yours. I guess technically, two people could drop their stickers at the same time and pick up the wrong ones. I've heard of cases where the person manning station 1 hands your stickers directly to the person manning station 2, but things are so crowded that things get mixed up.

Station 3: A receipt-looking thingy is printed and you are asked to initial your sticker if the number on it matches the number on your receipt thingy. I now know that you are proofreading the typing of the person manning station 3 to make sure you get the correct ballot for your precinct, school district, etc., and, during primaries, for the party in whose primary you are voting.

Interesting note: It is sadly not as uncommon as one would hope for people to walk away before they see the waving flag that shows they have cast their ballot. It's easy to imagine that once you've made all your selections, you do not then click through the summary ballot and then press the "Cast Ballot" button. Of course the election workers are not allowed to cast your ballot in your absence--for all they know, you left in disgust because you could never figure out how to select the choices you actually wanted.

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While donating blood, they also hand me stickers to pass from station to station, each time asking me to confirm my full name and birth date. They really need to know which blood is coming from whom just in case something terrible is found in your blood--they can let you know and, if necessary, prevent you donating again in the future.