Posted: 4/27/2012 9:34:48 AM EDT
| Has anybody here volunteered to be a poll watcher? What was it like? Will/would you do it again? |
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Quoted: Quoted: Has anybody here volunteered to be a poll watcher? What was it like? Will/would you do it again? Yes. Boring. Sure. The best part of the whole experience was the vaguely threatening letter I received from the DNC. |
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I don't know exactly what a "poll watcher" is, but my Mom and her husband have been election workers for years. They get paid a very small amount, similar to what you get for jury duty. On a typical election day, they're at the polls by 0530, and are there until 2100, routinely. During a general election, like the one we're going to have in November, it's not uncommon for them to be at the polls until midnight. Even though the polls close at 1900, there is a lot of work for them to do. The workers at each polling location have to stay at the polling place until the ballots (or machines) have been picked up.
I make sure to always thank the election workers where I vote, and express how much I appreciate the job that they do to preserve this most essential American right. |
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Has anybody here volunteered to be a poll watcher? What was it like? Will/would you do it again? Yes. Boring. Sure. The best part of the whole experience was the vaguely threatening letter I received from the DNC. Yes. Do tell. Posted Via AR15.Com Mobile |
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Quoted:
I don't know exactly what a "poll watcher" is, but my Mom and her husband have been election workers for years. They get paid a very small amount, similar to what you get for jury duty. On a typical election day, they're at the polls by 0530, and are there until 2100, routinely. During a general election, like the one we're going to have in November, it's not uncommon for them to be at the polls until midnight. Even though the polls close at 1900, there is a lot of work for them to do. The workers at each polling location have to stay at the polling place until the ballots (or machines) have been picked up. I make sure to always thank the election workers where I vote, and express how much I appreciate the job that they do to preserve this most essential American right. As I understand it, there are also people there that watch the whole process to see if things are being done in a hinky manner. |
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Has anybody here volunteered to be a poll watcher? What was it like? Will/would you do it again? Yes. Boring. Sure. The best part of the whole experience was the vaguely threatening letter I received from the DNC. I'll have to see if I can dig it up when I get home later this weekend. It was during the 2008 election, and all of us from the local GOP who were going to be watching our polling places received the same letter from the DNC. The letter basically was a reminder that they'd be watching us, and if there was anything going on, like voter intimidation, they'd bring any and all legal actions available against us. Of course, the entire letter itself was written in a way to be as intimidating as possible itself without being overt threat. Being a lawyer myself, and discussing the letter with other attorneys who had received it, we all thought it was kind of funny in a "Oooh, I'm soooo scared" kind of way. In all seriousness though, it did seem as though it could have intimidated some into not volunteering to watch the polls. I was quite proud of having received such a letter from the DNC so I kept it, but I never did get around to framing it.  I just gotta remember where I put the damn thing when I moved.
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I don't know exactly what a "poll watcher" is, but my Mom and her husband have been election workers for years. They get paid a very small amount, similar to what you get for jury duty. On a typical election day, they're at the polls by 0530, and are there until 2100, routinely. During a general election, like the one we're going to have in November, it's not uncommon for them to be at the polls until midnight. Even though the polls close at 1900, there is a lot of work for them to do. The workers at each polling location have to stay at the polling place until the ballots (or machines) have been picked up. I make sure to always thank the election workers where I vote, and express how much I appreciate the job that they do to preserve this most essential American right. As I understand it, there are also people there that watch the whole process to see if things are being done in a hinky manner. Yes, the local political parties can send a representatives to the polling places to observe the goings on so long as they do not interfere. |
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I don't know exactly what a "poll watcher" is, but my Mom and her husband have been election workers for years. They get paid a very small amount, similar to what you get for jury duty. On a typical election day, they're at the polls by 0530, and are there until 2100, routinely. During a general election, like the one we're going to have in November, it's not uncommon for them to be at the polls until midnight. Even though the polls close at 1900, there is a lot of work for them to do. The workers at each polling location have to stay at the polling place until the ballots (or machines) have been picked up. I make sure to always thank the election workers where I vote, and express how much I appreciate the job that they do to preserve this most essential American right. As I understand it, there are also people there that watch the whole process to see if things are being done in a hinky manner. Yes. Those are election "judges". For a few years, my Mom wasn't up to working the elections, so her husband did it alone. Since he had a lot of experience, he was made an election judge. He was to oversee every aspect of the voting process, from check-in to receipt of the ballots by the election board. He was a judge in the 2008 election, and it was that time that he was not home until well after midnight, and had to return to the election board office very early the next day to oversee the unsealing of the machines for the tally. When you watch election results, and they say, "with 87% of precincts reporting" it's because there was some delay in getting the machines (or ballots) collected and delivered to the election office, for whatever reason. They were both allowed to work at the same polling location because he's a registered Republican, and she's a registered Democrat. Married couples can only work at the same polling location if they're registered in different parties. |