11-3-20

I worked as a clerk or poll worker for the General & Constitutional Amendment Election on November 3, 2020. This was the second time I have worked an election, the first being a run-off election earlier this summer. I was surprised at how easy it was to sign up to work and I’m really glad I did. Folks were making a big push this year for people to sign up to be poll workers due to the coronavirus pandemic since a lot of poll workers tend to be older and would be potentially more vulnerable to the virus. Also, we needed more people to work so polling locations could stay open making it easier for folks to vote. And, because there were expectations that more people would be turning out to vote in this election.

So, I went in the night before to help set up the location (unpaid), and then arrived at 6AM morning of the election. Polls opened at 7AM and we had a line until 8:45. The rest of the day was a constant stream but I was surprised that we didn’t get an after-work rush. We closed the polls at 7PM having processed 1807 voters through the precinct, just over half of the precinct numbers [our voter numbers doesn’t include those who might have voted absentee/mail-in, those are processed by the county election officials]. We cleaned up, boxed up counted ballots, and went through the rigorous process of accounting for every ballot. Luckily all that went smoothly and we were able to get out of there just after 8PM, 14 hours after first arriving.

I am glad and proud to be able to serve my community as a poll worker and to be part of this historic election. And I am amazed and inspired by others who have been working elections for years, for instance, I just learned about Martha Tucker, a 93 year old woman who has been a poll worker for 57 years!

***6AM-starting work as a poll worker***

***ballot counting machine all closed up***