[EL] Essay on being a first-time poll worker

[Douglas Johnson]

This article unfortunately uses the attention-grabbing ‘hook’ in the headline and first paragraph, but the heart of the column is much more about the hands-on experience of a poll worker in California. Hopefully it inspires others to be willing to spend a day in service to democracy. 

 

Amidst all the vitriol and anger of this campaign (and on this list lately, unfortunately), I thought this might be a refreshing positive note about how everyday people are the backbone of our election system:

 

http://www.zocalopublicsquare.org/2016/08/19/take-poll-worker-system-isnt-rigged/ideas/nexus/

 

A snippet:

“As I reevaluated the experience, I realized it didn’t matter that we weren’t the dignified bearers of democracy I had envisioned: the system had worked. On the day I worked, some 9 million people voted. Many were given provisional ballots, either because they had lost or never received their mail-in ballot or because they didn’t appear on the voter rolls. While some claimed those votes were ignored, the reality is that they were assiduously counted in a thorough process that took weeks to complete. Although they called the primary before every vote was accounted for,  <http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/06/29/us/california-today-presidential-primary-vote-count.html?_r=0&referer=http://www.nytimes.com/section/us?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&region=TopBar&module=HPMiniNav&contentCollection=U.S.&WT.nav=page> officials continued to count the ballots, ensuring that every provisional and mail-in ballot was recognized and that no one voted twice.”

 

If you know anyone thinking of volunteering, or anyone thinking of being an angry poll watcher, perhaps pass this along to inspire them to be a poll worker. While it’s likely too late to sign up for this year, as most on this list know, we need hundreds of thousands of them every election.

 

-          Doug

 

Douglas Johnson, Ph.D.

Fellow, Rose Institute of State and Local Government

at Claremont McKenna College

douglas.johnson at cmc.edu

direct: 310-200-2058

 

 

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