Being a poll worker for the November 3rd election was an incredible experience! It’s one I would do again in a heartbeat. I worked with a great group of people and we processed around 650 voters, which is less than I would have expected for a presidential election, but that’s probably due to lots of people voting early and mailing in their ballots.
My day started super early with my alarm going off at 4 a.m.! Whew. I didn’t need to get up that early, but I didn’t want to be rushing around before I had to leave. So I gave myself plenty of time to get ready, eat a bowl of cereal, and make some coffee before heading out the door at 5 a.m. My polling location was an easy 10-minute drive and I arrived to see a handful of poll workers already there and settling in. At 5:30 a.m., we all took an oath and then set up our stations. I worked as an Inspector during this election (the person who verifies voter eligibility and gives voters tickets that are exchanged for a ballot). Thankfully, I wouldn’t be working alone! There was another Inspector, H., that I would work alongside. I loved H.! She was my age and hilarious and we both had the same type of sarcastic wit, which made working together so much fun. She had also worked the previous election so she knew what she was doing more than I did. 🙂
We worked quickly to set up our station and then got to relax for a bit before the polls officially opened. One of the poll workers brought in donuts, so I wasted no time stealing into the kitchen to enjoy a donut and coffee! (I was really worried about having a hypoglycemia episode as a poll worker, but thankfully, the bowl of cereal, donut, and copious amounts of coffee kept my blood sugars normal. I also took one of the earlier lunch breaks at 11:30, which was right about when I was getting hungry.)
When the polls opened at 7 a.m., we had a long line of voters waiting. (It was about a 30-minute wait, nothing too crazy.) So the first hour went by quickly! Checking in a voter was easy: I scanned the ID, verified that the address was correct, and had the voter sign their name on the signature pad. Checking the signatures could be a little nerve-wracking since it had to match the ID. I hated asking a voter to re-sign! (I was worried they would be confrontational about it, but nobody thought it was a big deal.) I would clear the signature and ask them to sign their name the way it looks on their ID. (I could even show them the ID if they needed to remember how they had originally signed their license.)
There were several Covid policies in place at my polling location. We had social distancing lines to keep everyone six feet apart and had to ensure the polling location wasn’t over capacity. We used disposable Q-tips for signing the signature pad. (Who knew you could use a Q-tip to sign?! Haha. So many voters thought this was ingenious.) And the privacy booths where people would take their ballot to vote were spaced apart for social distancing, too. We also sanitized all of the pens after they were used.
One Covid safety requirement that we couldn’t enforce was wearing masks. All of the poll workers were wearing masks, of course, but we could not legally require mask-wearing since voting is a Constitutional right. (Going to Target, on the other hand, isn’t, which is why they can enforce masks.) Thankfully, our county has a mask mandate so everyone around here is used to wearing masks when indoors so it wasn’t an issue. (I only saw one person come in without a mask.)
After having a rush of voters when the polls opened at 7 a.m., things slowed down right around 8:30 and then we never had more than a few people in line at a time. We didn’t have a ton of downtime (maybe 5-10 minutes at a time) as we had a steady stream of voters coming in. It was enough to make the day fly by without it being super crazy and stressful.
While the check-in process was easy-peasy for most of the voters, it wasn’t uncommon for a voter to be at the wrong precinct. (Always double-check your polling location! It will save you a lot of hassle.) When this happened, I would send the voter off to the clerk (the head honcho who oversees a polling location) who would fill out a form so they could skip the line at their actual polling place and get their ballot immediately. We also ran across voters not being in our system, having an address that didn’t match their ID, and one voter who showed up without any photo ID at all. It was very nice to just send these voters off to the clerk, haha. Not an issue I have to deal with!
Around 3 p.m., right when we were all getting tired from being up early, H. put in a Starbucks order for all of us. We’re not allowed to leave the polling location so thank god for UberEats! That grande caramel macchiato was the punch of caffeine I needed to make it through the next few hours.
I was really worried we were going to get a major after-work rush, but it never got busy in the evening! When the polls closed at 7 p.m., we had two people who were getting things straightened out with our clerk so they could vote (and both were able to vote – yay!), but there was no crazy line of voters. That meant we could start our closing procedures!
As an Inspector, my closing tasks weren’t too difficult. Working with H., we placed all of the materials at our table (signs, checklists, forms, etc.) in a special envelope and then helped to break down all of the privacy booths. We also had to pack up the machines we used to check in voters, carefully placing them in a specialty carrying case, as well as break down the AutoMark machine (which is an ADA-compliant voting machine for people with disabilities). Once we were done with that, our duties were officially complete but we stuck around to help our fellow poll workers with the tasks they needed. I left the polling location at 8:30 p.m.
This post has gotten long, but I wanted to give a really detailed overview of what my day looked like in the hopes that it sheds some light on the voting process from the perspective of a poll worker! And encourage anyone who wants to be a poll worker to do so—it’s a long day for sure, but an incredibly rewarding one.
Would I do it again? While I definitely had first-day jitters in the days leading up to Tuesday, once I got to the polling location and met the people I would be working with, I was completely stoked. I had the best day and it was an experience I will never forget. I loved everyone I worked with and I’m so glad I had the guts to sign up to do this! (It’s hard for me to do new things, especially new social things, with my social anxiety.) I would work another election in a heartbeat, and I hope I get the chance to! It was an incredible day, and so special to be a part of this side of democracy.
I was looking forward to this post! Thanks for the insight, really interesting. Although we’ve gone into a month long lockdown here in the U.K. today, our main news headline is the US election!
I was hoping you’d do a detailed post on this. I was thinking of you on election day and if I had your phone number was thinking of texting you – but actually now I realize I do from when we met up the 2 times I’ve been in your area – duh, Lisa!!
I am glad you had such a great experience and worked with cool and fun people. That makes a big difference. I’m really proud of you for doing this. It was something way out of your comfort zone but you did it!
I’m so bummed about our election. Even if Biden wins, which seems increasingly likely, I’m devastated that so many people voted for such an awful, vile, science-doubting, climate-change-ignoring, xenophobic, racist man (and the list goes on and on). I just thought this vote would condemn his character and rhetoric but it shows us that many Americans are A-OK with the way he is running things. I’m embarrassed to be an American, honestly, but am relieved that I live in a Blue state.
Voting day was pretty anticlimatic for us since I we voted by mail in last September. It was weird to not vote in person, but the right decision for us given our circumstances.
Do the poll workers get a chance to vote themselves or did you all do early/absentee voting?
It was so interesting to read this. I’ve always wondered what it was like to work the polls – it definitely sounds like it’s not the job for me if you can’t leave all day, but I’m glad there are people who do it!
This was so fun to read! I’m glad it was a good experience!
Wow! This is super interesting! Thanks for sharing it! I am so glad you had a good experience and had energy all day. H sounds fab! Do you think you will keep in touch with them?
I would feel nervous asking people to resign too! I am glad they are cool! I was nervous about that with my mail in ballot. I had no idea which signature of mine they would reference since it was mail in! But it got accepted.
The q-tips is genius. I had no idea. Also had no idea about wearing a mask in Target vs anywhere else, lol.
You’ve inspired me to volunteer to be a poll worker! It sounds really rewarding! Thanks for doing this! I bet the people who went to you precinct thought you were very helpful and will remember the nice lady in the yellow top!
Oh, wow! Thanks for writing about your experience! I didn’t encounter any poll workers (voted absentee early and used the dropbox) but it’s fascinating to read about how those who work the election facilitate and support the process. I am so glad to hear that it was rewarding, and even (maybe?) a bit fun at times! H sounds like a lovely person to share the day with, and I’m wondering (along with Kim) whether you’ll keep in touch? I also really appreciated learning that those who go to the wrong polling location were given a “skip the line” pass… after waiting in line at one location, I would not have wanted to wait at another! That’s a very smart move by the elections officials, to allow that.
Did you look at the returns from the location where you worked? I wasn’t sure if they were made available immediately or not. I would have been curious!
And now, of course, we know the nationwide results (YAY) but need to navigate the hideous attempts to subvert democracy from the current occupant of the WH (I refuse to say “President” in reference to that individual…) and his minions and followers. It’s going to be (another) long couple of months…
I think it’s so amazing that you did this, Stephany! And thanks for sharing your experience with us. I am glad it was such a great experience for you.