Wednesday, November 05, 2008
A Glimpse Into The Election in California
Well I for one am glad this election is over, and not just from the standpoint of being an inspector for a precinct. Now I don't have to worry about what will happen if the McCain / Palin ticket wins which would not only put a Bush in McCain clothing into office, but also put a book banning, right wing, unqualified, wolf killing maniac second in line for the presidency. (see my hubpage on this issue at "Risky Business- Republican Candidates")
Ok, so here is what it was like for me as an inspector at a polling place this election. I started out with dread of the voters being semi-educated on the "Steal Back Your Vote" issue that has been online for sometime that failed (in my opinion) to point out that if you happen to live in a state where the legislature was NOT predominantly Republican then it was not likely that this would be an issue. Why dread? Well, one of the things the videos I saw stressed was to "refuse a provisional ballot and demand a "real" ballot. This was of concern because provisional ballots ARE real ballots IF you really are a registered voter. They are provisional because at the polls there is no way to verify that you in fact are a registered voter. There is no access to all the registration information when you are out there collecting the votes.
My fears were not to be realized (and being a believer in Murphy's law I believe this is because I was ready to handle it if it came up and I also did a little extra training of my pollworkers on WHY this was not an issue in California so they too were prepared.)
On arrival at my polling place, there was already a line of ten to twenty voters.. some had brought their folding chairs which made me wonder if they had been there all night. The line continued to be twenty to forty deep throughout the morning hours but tapered off slightly between about 12:30 and 1.30pm and while there was a steady turn out the rest of the day, it was the morning that was the rush.
Thankfully I had a really great team, most of whom were students (one who was not yet old enough to vote) who worked hard without complaint. They usually declined breaks of any length when offered and really put in a very full day. I could see them starting to tire as the day wore on, but they remained curteous and helpful and on the look out for the most common problems of a polling place. At one point I started giving them assignments to go take a walk around outside to stretch and get some air just so they would get a second wind. I also opened up my ice chest and shared raw almonds, string cheese and kebasa with some of the crew I knew had worked steadily and refused to take breaks. Another thing I did towards the end of the voting day was to assign them each some time to review the materials on closing so we would all be on the same page. Only one of my crew failed to do that, and it was not one of the students.. and sure enough, he was the one who everyone else had to stop from putting the wrong thing in the wrong place when we were packing it all up. (sadly this retired person thinks he is never wrong, it is never his fault and it was my third time having him as a poll worker under me. I finally felt I had no choice but to talk to the district co-ordinator and request he not be assigned to me again should I continue to serve as an inspector.)
Over all the voters responded well to my working the line and asking them to remove their political buttons that constituted electionering and reminding them that everyone who was processing them was a volunteer who had a very long day going, so please to be patient and kind to my crew.
We probably had less errors and problems than the average precinct since the district co-ordinator (mine had 8 precincts to deal with) only managed to visit me once during the day and that was very late in the day.
There were a couple of highlights to our day at the polls. The first was during the morning when no one got a break. I had taken a walk to reassure the line we were processing them as fast as possible. On my attempt to re-enter the polling place, my way was barred by a 4'10" viet namese woman (she barely came up to my midriff) and said "you have to wait in the line". I was getting tired by this time and all I could manage was to look down at her and say softly, "I'm the inspector here dear, I need to get by." She gave me a look that appeared to doubt my veracity but she let me pass. The next was very late in the day when a woman came in wearing a very short trench coat ... to be honest I don't know that there was any clothing under this as none showed.. who was all excited about this election and chatted with my whole crew as she filled out her provisional information. She invited my whole crew to her house to party when we closed the polls. I would be hard pressed to explain the entertainment value of this, but the crew chatted back and seemed somewhat enthusiastic over the prospect of a party. It gave them an extra lift to their day so all in all I deemed it to be a good thing.(the woman's boyfriend seemed somewhat less enthusiastic over the prospect of a house full of stangers for a party.)
At the very end of our day we did get one complaint, but considering we processed over 670 voters I would say this was all in all a very good day for our precinct. This was no doubt a record turn out for this precinct, and we all survived in relatively good spirits. I got home just before 11pm, fed my Mother and went to bed.
When I got up in the morning the only down side to the election was the passage of Prop 8 which is in direct violation to certain sections of the California Constitution (specifically the Human Rights Amendments)so now I wait with the rest of California to see the outcome of the court challenges that will happen that we all as taxpayers will be paying for.
Ok, so here is what it was like for me as an inspector at a polling place this election. I started out with dread of the voters being semi-educated on the "Steal Back Your Vote" issue that has been online for sometime that failed (in my opinion) to point out that if you happen to live in a state where the legislature was NOT predominantly Republican then it was not likely that this would be an issue. Why dread? Well, one of the things the videos I saw stressed was to "refuse a provisional ballot and demand a "real" ballot. This was of concern because provisional ballots ARE real ballots IF you really are a registered voter. They are provisional because at the polls there is no way to verify that you in fact are a registered voter. There is no access to all the registration information when you are out there collecting the votes.
My fears were not to be realized (and being a believer in Murphy's law I believe this is because I was ready to handle it if it came up and I also did a little extra training of my pollworkers on WHY this was not an issue in California so they too were prepared.)
On arrival at my polling place, there was already a line of ten to twenty voters.. some had brought their folding chairs which made me wonder if they had been there all night. The line continued to be twenty to forty deep throughout the morning hours but tapered off slightly between about 12:30 and 1.30pm and while there was a steady turn out the rest of the day, it was the morning that was the rush.
Thankfully I had a really great team, most of whom were students (one who was not yet old enough to vote) who worked hard without complaint. They usually declined breaks of any length when offered and really put in a very full day. I could see them starting to tire as the day wore on, but they remained curteous and helpful and on the look out for the most common problems of a polling place. At one point I started giving them assignments to go take a walk around outside to stretch and get some air just so they would get a second wind. I also opened up my ice chest and shared raw almonds, string cheese and kebasa with some of the crew I knew had worked steadily and refused to take breaks. Another thing I did towards the end of the voting day was to assign them each some time to review the materials on closing so we would all be on the same page. Only one of my crew failed to do that, and it was not one of the students.. and sure enough, he was the one who everyone else had to stop from putting the wrong thing in the wrong place when we were packing it all up. (sadly this retired person thinks he is never wrong, it is never his fault and it was my third time having him as a poll worker under me. I finally felt I had no choice but to talk to the district co-ordinator and request he not be assigned to me again should I continue to serve as an inspector.)
Over all the voters responded well to my working the line and asking them to remove their political buttons that constituted electionering and reminding them that everyone who was processing them was a volunteer who had a very long day going, so please to be patient and kind to my crew.
We probably had less errors and problems than the average precinct since the district co-ordinator (mine had 8 precincts to deal with) only managed to visit me once during the day and that was very late in the day.
There were a couple of highlights to our day at the polls. The first was during the morning when no one got a break. I had taken a walk to reassure the line we were processing them as fast as possible. On my attempt to re-enter the polling place, my way was barred by a 4'10" viet namese woman (she barely came up to my midriff) and said "you have to wait in the line". I was getting tired by this time and all I could manage was to look down at her and say softly, "I'm the inspector here dear, I need to get by." She gave me a look that appeared to doubt my veracity but she let me pass. The next was very late in the day when a woman came in wearing a very short trench coat ... to be honest I don't know that there was any clothing under this as none showed.. who was all excited about this election and chatted with my whole crew as she filled out her provisional information. She invited my whole crew to her house to party when we closed the polls. I would be hard pressed to explain the entertainment value of this, but the crew chatted back and seemed somewhat enthusiastic over the prospect of a party. It gave them an extra lift to their day so all in all I deemed it to be a good thing.(the woman's boyfriend seemed somewhat less enthusiastic over the prospect of a house full of stangers for a party.)
At the very end of our day we did get one complaint, but considering we processed over 670 voters I would say this was all in all a very good day for our precinct. This was no doubt a record turn out for this precinct, and we all survived in relatively good spirits. I got home just before 11pm, fed my Mother and went to bed.
When I got up in the morning the only down side to the election was the passage of Prop 8 which is in direct violation to certain sections of the California Constitution (specifically the Human Rights Amendments)so now I wait with the rest of California to see the outcome of the court challenges that will happen that we all as taxpayers will be paying for.
