I'm publishing this post at 3:30 a.m. At this very hour, exactly two days ago, I was getting up to grab a quick breakfast, have a shower and a shave, brush the ol' pearly whites, dress (mustn't forget that!) and get to the polls by 5:00 a.m. I had signed up to be an election official for Virginia's off-year gubernatorial and state legislative elections.
Before I had this experience, I hadn't thought much about everything that goes into making our system of free elections possible. It's worth taking a moment to appreciate. Things may vary from one jurisdiction to another, but I think my experience is fairly typical.
First, a look at the typical "election official's" day. Your hours are from 5:00 a.m. to whenever votes are tallied and equipment put away, ideally by 9:00 p.m. -- but later, maybe much later, if there are any problems. Bring food and water for the day because you can't leave the premises except for short breaks on site; and wear comfortable shoes because you'll be on your feet for at least 10 or 12 of the next 16 hours. For your trouble, you'll be paid $150 for the day.
Except for the standing, the work isn't physically demanding but every step of the process is swathed in detailed directions that need to be followed precisely, from set-up (e.g. opening/connecting/zeroing the voting machines), through checking in voters (e.g., exactness of names, addresses, and sometimes birthdates, is key) to casting the ballot (e.g., how to assist a voter who isn't clear on how the voting machines work), and after the polls close (e.g., checks and doublechecks of the machine tallies, and a complex multi-level reporting system). The instruction packet for poll workers is 120 pages. A lot of that deals with situations that you hope won't occur, and most exceptions are handled by the precinct chief, but still...
For your 16 hour day you'll be paid $150 (pre-tax). Chiefs have more work to do; they may come the day before to post signs, they hand-carry some of the equipment, they handle all the problem cases, they're responsible for the count, the double-checking, and the endless paperwork needed to close the polls and tally results; and they take the results to the county election board after everybody else goes home. (They get $25 more.)
So, why do people volunteer to do it? I don't think it's the pay. Luckily, we seem to have enough people willing to spare a long day of their time to make the mechanics of our election process run smoothly. I would recommend that everyone who can spare the time should sign up to work the polls at least once. But if you can't, here are three little thoughts I would share:
Appreciate your poll workers. Not me, I'm a novice. But many of the people I worked with have been doing this for years. They're the ones answering the 3:30 a.m. call at the grass roots level to preserve our democratic system. (In fact, several voters did thank me for my role.)
Recognize how expensive it is to hold an election. We had 11 "election officials" for our small precinct, just about enough to handle the constant flow of voters we got. More would be needed for larger districts. Five voting machines, three notebook computers containing the county voter registration rolls, signage, paper ballots, miscellaneous equipment, the costs of delivering the equipment to each polling place and picking it up again -- all this replicated in hundreds of precincts. Add in the personnel and equipment infrastructure required at the county and state levels, and various other costs, and you've got a considerable expenditure for just one state election.
Feel confident that our elections are fair and secure. With the many controls and checks involved, the review and signing of results by all poll personnel including our ordinary citizen-officials, the decentralization of the process (each voting machine keeps its own tally), and many other safeguards, I think we can rest assured that the electoral process is about as tamper-proof as we can make it (though certainly improvements may come along in future).
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