It is election season and I am doing my part to make sure that the election goes smoothly, without drama and without suspicion of fraud. I have been a poll worker in 4 previous elections and I tell anyone who doubts the fairness of the result to be a poll worker. You will find how difficult – no, impossible – it is to steal an election. But that doesn’t mean that someone won’t try. I am doing my part to make sure that someone doesn’t steal this one.
This year I am organizing poll watchers rather than being a poll worker. What is the difference? Well, a poll worker is someone who is hired by the county to make the polling place work. The big cheese is the clerk who oversees the precinct and is responsible for reporting the results to the county. The clerk is supported by two deputies – one Democrat and one Republican – who monitor the polling place, keep the line organized and certify the results for the clerk before they are sent to the county. The worker bees are responsible for checking in the voter – inspecting IDs, verifying that they are registered and are at the correct precinct – for issuing ballots, for tabulating ballots and for providing assistance to any voter who needs help in voting. Counts of voters entering, ballots issued and ballots tabulated are constantly kept and are verified that they match every hour. It is a long day – over 14 hours – but the workers are dedicated and I have never had any doubt that their only goal is a free and fair election.
A poll watcher is a volunteer for a particular political party who just sits and observes the activity of the polling place. To be a poll watcher one must be a registered voter in the county and must receive credentials issued by the Supervisor of Elections (SOE) for the county. This year I am a poll watcher, but, more importantly, am organizing all of the other poll watchers for my party. For the general election I have 149 volunteer poll watchers whose names must be submitted for credentialling and who must, somehow, obtain those credentials when issued by the SOE. Lee County in Florida is a large county and rather than trying to single-handedly deliver 149 credentials – or to ask 149 people to travel long distances to pick them up – I have chosen to establish 8 “depots” in various geographical sections of the county where volunteers may go to retrieve their credentials. My job, then, is to sort the 149 credentials into 8 depot boxes and to deliver the boxes to the depot sites – homes of volunteers who have agreed to serve as depots and the centrally-located political party headquarters. It is still a lot of driving – over 100 miles, even with another volunteer who delivered boxes to three depots – but the system works well.
Today, five days before the start of early voting, I must call the people who have not yet retrieved their credentials, to remind them to pick them up before Monday. Monday I will retrieve the boxes and take all remaining credentials to party HQ. A lot of telephoning and then more driving.
The work of a poll watcher is, in my view, pretty boring. If the precinct runs as it should there is nothing to do except to report counts of voters. A poll watcher is not allowed to interact with any voter; he or she can only talk to other poll watchers or the clerk. He or she may, however, go outside to observe the line or anything happening there. If a problem of any sort is observed, then it is reported to the “boiler room” – the group of people monitoring election activities throughout the county – via text or a problem-reporting application. Only text messaging is permitted – no voice calls can be made.
Personally, I would much rather be a poll worker than a poll watcher. More activity, more direct contact with voters. But this year it is possible that poll watching will be extremely important.
I hope the election goes smoothly. But it is all too possible that there will be problems. The poll watchers will be the ones to witness and report any incident.