Did you vote today or early? What's going on out there?
I expect some reports on this page from some the students who worked on the site this semester and hopefully other readers will chime in as you usually do. This year, we're also using Twitter to track election goings on, so I'm embedding a feed of the latest tweets tagged #OCNCelect (per last week's survey).
Issues:
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Comments
Call if interested in working at polls
1 - For those people working the early voting sites, Saturday would be "their day off" except for the Saturday in which early voting was scheduled.2 - Workers at the early voting sites don't work 1/2 days. so you volunteering for the afternoon shift isn't possible.3 - Each time I have voted, there has been a sign-up sheet on the table for people interested in working at the polls. They also accept telephone calls from interested people. Oh, and you mentioned those "smug, pointless, probably relatively expensive I Voted stickers" - You'd be surprised how many people want that sticker.I suggest you contact the BOE to find out where you might be able to work with coming election - you may have a better understanding of the process.
I do understand
and have some understanding of the process. In fact I was a worker at a poll site at the church on Sage Road for a couple years in the 90's. I really don't understand at all why citizens would accept all the rules if we really believed it important to change them to have a better democratic process. Just doing things because that is the way it has always been done seems lame to me. But...I agree it would take several years of hard work to have things changed - and whether it would be worth it would depend on how many people thought it was important enough to invest in time. I said nothing about the stickers and do like mine, so I guess that wasn't directed at me. You made several assumptions about me that just aren't true. All rather insulting, I might add. What gives?
I think this response was
I think this response was aimed at me. Re. point #1, I'm not sure what you're saying. Are you saying that we should cut people that work the polls on Saturday a break because Sat is their day off from their regular job? If so, I think you're missing my larger point. The main point of having early voting is that Sat (and Sun) are the days off of a huge chunk of people, not just poll workers, and therefore those people can vote on those days. If lots of voters can't vote because they work M-F 9-5 then what's the point of havig BOE people taking off work M-F 9-5 to man the polls?OTOH, lots of potential voters have all day off both Sat and Sun. Wouldn't it make sense to have the polls open at a time when many voters aren't occupied doing something they have to do (work for pay) in order to survive? Re. #2, if workers at early voting sites don't work half days then how can they have half day voting on Saturday like they do now? And Re. #3, call me crazy, but when I go up to the table to vote, I engage the human being sitting there rather than ignore them and read the papers on the table. I assume the purpose of the human sitting there is to tell me what the papers mean since that would be much more efficient than having me read them all the papers for myself.
Chief Judges and Judges can't work "shifts"
1. This year the Early Voting workers worked M-F 8-5 and half day on Saturday which (on that Saturday) after they closed the polls, cleaned up, loaded up supplies and delivered them to the BOE office it was mid afternoon. Any voter who did not find it convenient to vote on that Saturday or during the times in the 2 week period prior to Election Day, could have voted anytime between 6:30 a.m.-7:30 p.m. ON ELECTION DAY. Very few jobs have those hours.2. Workers cannot work "shifts" during the time the polls are open - they must stay the entire time the polls are open (whole days or half).3. I invite you to work a polling place for 13 1/2 + hours with 2 or 3 other people and have as few as 30 voters all day long. I invite you to sit and stare at the door waiting for voters to arrive. Sometimes, there is only so much conversation that can occur between 3-4 people. The best solution would be so many voters lined up, there not be time for a newspaper.
Training?
Like many similar (responsible) voluntary pursuits, like holding babies in the NICU, poll working would seem to entail some preliminary training.
paid training
every early voting poll worker in Wake County was required to have four hours of paid hands on training.
It's true that people could
It's true that people could vote on election day but although it's doable it's not all that convenient for 9-5 workers if you do that math. But the early voting on M-F 9-5 is irrelevant since my point was that the early voting isn't convenient for big chunk of people people that work M-F 9-5.And why can't workers work shifts when the polls are open? If that is a rule then it seems a silly one. If you needed volunteers for a 12 hour window of work would you insist each volunteer work the entire 12 hours or would you let people work in 4 or 6 hour shifts? Forcing volunteers to work an entire 12 hour shift is as senseless as having 95% of the early voting hours being during business hours. But as far as working at the poll being tedious when there aren't a lot of voters coming in, I don't buy that. Or at least it wouldn't be for me. One of the best things about the weekend as far as I'm concerned is that it's free time to read. I can read sitting in Morehead Planetarium just as easily as I can read anywhere else. I'd have no problem working an 8-10 hour Saturday shift so long as you gave me an hour or two break in the middle. Yeah, working a 12 hour straight shift for me would be a problem but there's no reason anyone should have to do that anyway.
early voting pollworker hours up to BoE
Hours for early voting workers are set by the county BoE. There are no statutory minimums. The last three general elections, Wake County had weekday early voting hours (as well as Saturday AND Sunday), and I worked two weeks 5 pm to close, coming over after work (which usuallly meant staying at early voting until 8 pm OR LATER since there were long lines at the 7 pm close) and I also worked the full 10-7 Saturday and 1-5 pm Sunday. Other early voting workers worked 10-5 as they were not employed during the day but had families to tend to during the evenings. Some gluttons for punishment worked 10-8 M-Saturday.
It's my understanding
...that the one Chief Judges and two Judges (a Judge from each party affiliation) at the locations can't work split shifts. Assistants can. However, with budget cuts and low turn-out, financially it is a waste of taxpayers $ to employ a Chief Judge and 2 Judges all day and then assistants that split hours doing nothing but staring each other in the face (that is tax dollars wasted). I know the Elections Bd has considered assistants and split shifts, however, if John is suppose to work as the assistant in the morning and Sally is the afternoon assistant - what happens if Sally doesn't show up for her "shift" and John can't stay. That leaves that polling location 1 less worker and in a bind and open for voters to complain that "there weren't enough workers at that polling place".
...I'd be willing to bet,
...I'd be willing to bet, if their right to vote was taken away from them, they would find a time in their busy lives to vote. Look at the countries who risk life/limb to vote.
And few people are at their jobs 13 hours straight on Election Day. If voting is important enough, they will find a way to get it done.
Where were the voters?
Low turnout is predictable for any interim-year election, but it was obvious by early April that turnout would be truly dismal -- because there was almost no media coverage for any but the political "wonks" among us until the last 5-6 days before May 4. I saw scant mention of the existence of an election, let alone the candidates or the issues. If you weren't personally acquainted with a candidate or an issue, it took a lot of research to figure out whom to vote for (grateful to OP for a lot of info). Astonishingly enough, people can drive by berm signs for days and still have no clue that there is an upcoming election! Maybe they imagine they were just early for November, or maybe left over from the last go-round. If you listened to the WCHL "man on the street" interviews, you heard more than half with no idea there was an election, and many others who hesitated to vote because they had no idea who the candidates were or what their issues were. In some ways, the only people who were at all aware were those with a "dog in the fight" already. People still nursing anger over real estate evaluations or conflicts re: school board, water, etc., or people collecting tea bags to aim at the dreaded liberals of Chapel Hill - they were ready for this election - rarin' to go, in fact. And they might even see a benefit if only those with similar axes to grind made it to the polls. Of course, it's hard to point a finger at "the media" because it's very hard to know nowadays which medium is the one that can get and keep public attention. Local TV is increasingly not local; the internet is a chaos of preaching-to-the-choir blogs; and I don't want to even start talking about the fate of community radio and newspapers. But one other point: The town, state, and nation are faced with a choice between vitriolic, antagonistic political conflict, and comforting, "whatever," apathy. Maybe having polls open outside weekday work hours would help, but first you have to have people who know there's an election and who think the results could make a difference to their lives.
Early Voted for Runoff
which brought it up to 202 votes so far.
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