The Election Inside Scoop

In 2005 I fell for it.  A member of the Republican party stopped by and asked if I would consider replacing an older but ill friend who had served as Judge of Elections for many years.  They told me there wasn't much to it, so I said yes.  I was retired and could do this community service.   Then I found out that it meant getting a petition signed, running for election, recruiting a team of workers, and hours of training and work.  Then they surprised me with a switch in location and after learning how to operate the voting machines, they adopted a whole new system - more training and more work.  But eight elections later I am still doing it - with another new location to break in this year.  Right now I am taking a break in preparation to try to maintain my sanity.  This time it has meant hours of work to find and arrange for the new voting location.  I've spent weeks delivering signs to notify folks of the change and weeks printing out signs for tomorrow and scheduling workers. We've been to two hours of training.  I've worked this whole weekend preparing the books and forms and then today I've been at the location for almost seven hours setting things up.  Tomorrow it will be about 16 hours of nonstop work, handling a multitude of problems and probably complaints.  The best part is that I now have a very good, experienced team that will work with me tomorrow.  And we will have plenty - actually too much - good food, if we have time to eat it.  Tomorrow, among other things, I will file reports in envelopes lettered from A to Z.  I will handle provisional ballots, absentee ballots, affirmation forms, spoiled ballots, canceled JBC forms, forms for assistance in voting, payroll forms, verification and identification of voters, zero tapes, tally tapes, write-in tapes, pole watchers, final result forms, and swear in (not at) my precinct board.   And after we pack up the escans, the eslates, the 18 privacy booths, the tables, the chairs, the signs and all sorts of other items, we'll justify the results and post them on the door.  Then I'll carry all the ballots, reports, forms and computer tapes to the other side of Lancaster.  Now that is the inside scoop of what goes on and I haven't really even talked about all the forms involved - government regulations are unbelievable.   I never had any comprehension of all that was involved.  Then a few weeks from now I'll get my reward - $5 for attending the training session and about $1.50 an hour for all my work.  So you see we don't do it for the money but I guess we do it for our country and for our community.  Thankfully, there are thousands of folks like us  who give of their time - democracy in action.  Enough for now - I have more prep to do yet tonight and hopefully I'll get a few hours of sleep before we get on site at 6 a.m.   Morning will come too quickly and probably more quickly than night will come.  Don't forget to do your part and vote.