On Poll Workers
Mar. 12th, 2018 10:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
livingdebI'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.
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.
no subject
on 2018-03-14 02:06 am (UTC)Sally