The ten of us arrived on election day promptly at 6:00am. One of the volunteers brought coffee for all of us as we stood outside the community center waiting for the doors to open. Sally finally opened the doors. We walked into an empty room typically used for community events such as dances and public speakers. Its maximum capacity was 110 people. Earlier that morning the county election officials had placed voting booths, computers, computer vote tally machines, and other materials in the room. All were locked up according to state security protocols.
Sally put us immediately to work. We set everything up based upon the specifics stated in state election law. On the right as you enter, we set up two tables with the three computers that had access to the names and addresses of those who were registered to vote. This was the check in area. We set up the tables where the voters could pick up their ballots after they had checked in. We then assembled 10 voting booths in the very middle of the room where people could mark their ballots in secrecy. We then set up two computer vote tally machines just to the left of the exit doors. We set up four chairs for party election observers on the back side of the room. We put up the necessary signs to guide voters through the process and to limit anyone from campaigning closer than 150 feet from the entrance doors to what was now an official polling place. We had all received a training class, but it still took about 50 minutes to get the room prepared.
While setting up the room and throughout the day we got to know each other. Eight of the ten volunteers were women. The voting or precinct clerk, Sally, was a retired public-school teacher. Joan was a professor at the local law school where she taught classes on healthcare law. Kelly was a professor of sociology at the local historically black college. Susan was a staff research assistant for the state legislature. Vicki was an accountant for a local business and Sherry owned a small flower shop down the street. Renee was a lab assistant at a local pharmaceutical firm. Nancy was a self-described “stay-at home mom” who was raising four children all under the age of ten. She laughed and stated that what little she got paid would go to the baby-sitter. The other male, John, was a retired contractor who had spent his entire adult life building houses. We had all voted prior to election day either by mail or early voting.
We fully understood that our purpose was to make voting easy, understandable, fair, safe from intimidation, and transparent. At 6:55am we welcomed three election observers. We told them that they were to sit in the chairs across the room and that they could not approach the voting area. Their job was simply to observe the process. The voting started almost immediately as there were several people in line when the doors opened at 7:00am. Over the course of the day, we all rotated from check in, to the ballot table, to voting booth helper, to computer vote tally machine helper, to welcoming voters outside the door. I started out at the voter check in tables. People arrived in waves with the busiest periods in the morning before work, lunchtime, and at the end of the workday.
The first two voters were a woman and her 18-year daughter who was a senior in high school. The daughter was a bit tentative. Her mother told us that this was the first time her daughter had ever voted. We made her feel right at home and when she put her ballot into the vote tally machine, we all stood up and clapped for her. You could see the pride on her face that she was now a real participant in democracy. We got her a "first-time voter" sticker and her mom got an “I voted today” sticker.
We had five other 18-year-olds come in and vote for the first time. When they put their completed ballot in the vote tally machine, we all gave them a standing ovation. There was one man who had immigrated from Cuba and had just become a citizen. He was voting for the first time. I chatted with him in Spanish. When he finished voting, he also received a standing ovation from us. We had two blind and one deaf voter that we accommodated based on law. Many came in with their young children and we made sure that they could see exactly what their parents were doing. They all received “Future Voter” stickers.
By law we could not leave the polling place once voting started. We were able to go to the kitchen area to take a short break or eat the bag lunches we had brought. We got to know each other throughout the day, and we all indicated that the primary reason we had volunteered was to make the voting process fair and legal.
At 7:00pm, after a long day, the polls were closed, and we followed all the state laws as to how to shut down the polling place. I took the completed ballots out of the vote tally machines and followed all the state mandated security measures. Everything I did was watched by Sally. We both had to sign off at every stage of the process. She collected the paper version of vote tallies from the machines to take to the county office. She also sent the electronic results to the county office over a secure line.
We finally packed up all the equipment and finished by 8:15pm. Sally thanked us for our hard and honest work. She also gave us a phone number to call should we receive any threatening email, text, or phone calls. We looked at each other and said that we would be working the next election and that we would see them then. We were all very tired, but we knew that we had done a good job. Democracy was well-served today.
Shan picked me up outside the community center, “how did it go today?”
As I got in the car, I said, “As always, I love to do this because you get to see how strongly committed Americans are to the democratic process.” I thought for a minute and added, “You know, this is happening in hundreds of thousands of precincts across the country and it is why I know that we ALWAYS have the fairest and safest elections in the world. People that have never worked on election day will never experience and nor really know that.”
This short story is dedicated to all election workers who make democracy work.
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