CONFESSIONS OF A MIDTERM POLL WORKER

Our own Leisa St. John made herself counted in the 11/8 midterm elections as a poll worker in Shelby County, Ala. It was an intense but rewarding experience, as she relates here.

The precinct where I worked normally has about 15-18% of the registered voters vote on election day during a midterm—even on presidential election days, it's never better than about 25%, and that includes mail-in and in-person. Yesterday, we had 68% of registered voters vote in person.

We only had two ballot machines, and we started the day with eight poll workers but ended up with only five because two hadn't anticipated they'd have to work a turnout that big. I had to excuse one of our workers for making partisan comments to people.

There were people who hadn't voted in years, lots of young first-time voters (which was very encouraging) and tons of provisional ballets to deal with.

To say that I'm completely and utterly exhausted is an understatement. Poll workers have to show up at 6am to sign in everything and validate the zero starts and check the machines. And people were trying to enter the building at 6:15; they didn't understand that THE DAMN MACHINES WON'T LET YOU VOTE UNTIL 7AM. There’s normally a lot of downtime and breaks for everyone; there was none of that yesterday.

As always, it was at times uplifting—and at other times discouraging—to see the masses and watch the process. We only had a few small problems, but they were handled quickly. We closed on time, and with all the provisional and write-in stuff, packed everything up to take to the county headquarters at around 10pm.

It is exhausting, physically and mentally, but I will do it every time. I urge all of you to get involved and be part of the process—we cannot leave it to 90-year-olds who can't work the machines or the computers to sign people in. If this midterm was any indication of what the presidential election will be, WE NEED TO BE THERE TO MAKE SURE THINGS ARE DONE RIGHT. I can't say it enough: We all need to be involved—this means you.