The Things You Learn as an Election Judge

[SavageDem]

I took the oath and put on my “Election Judge” sticker for the third time last week. ‘Twas quite a departure from a year ago: as opposed to the nearly 2,100 voters passing through my precinct then, we had merely 85 (including five absentee ballots!) yesterday. The only offices on the ballot were city council and school board, but still…a disappointing turn-out.

Sitting at the polling place for 14¹/₂ hours did, however, give me an opportunity to converse quite a bit with my fellow election judges. What an eye-opener! I found out many things:

• Health care is just fine in the U.S. – if you can afford it – so we should stop trying to make it so “socialist.” Especially because there was this one person from Poland who said that their universal health care was OK most of the time, but he knew a woman who died from breast cancer because she had to wait a month for a mammogram.


• ACORN has been changing elections with their wicked ways.


• The “Big Bang” theory is ridiculous. God created the Universe.


• If you fill a write-in vote with a nonexistent candidate then your entire ballot should be discarded.


• The Internet is funded entirely by pornography.


• The United States is a Christian nation, blessed specifically by God in the Bible.


• People in the U.S. don’t care about life any more because of the millions and millions of babies we kill every year with abortions.


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[derby378]

1. One election judge to another...

...this sounds like electioneering at the polls. You do have the power and ability to silence these people at the ballot box, right? I sure hope so.

Me, the worst I had to deal with were all these people making comments about how they wished we had Voter ID. That and the one Tea Party Republican who managed to sneak her partisan badge past myself and the clerks. But that's about it.

[SavageDem]

2. I forgot that one!

Yes, we had a former - Caucasian woman in her mid-60s - Ohio resident come in complaining about the lack of voter ID requirements in Minnesota. She received affirmation from several of "my" judges. I couldn't stomach the thought of the sociopolitical argument I would have had to make, and the ensuing rejection thereof. Plus - as you say - it's not really my place to be making those statements in the capacity of Election Judge.

[derby378]

3. I am always quick to point out that judges and clerks cannot discuss politics

Last week, our precinct was voting on state constitutional amendments, but I didn't feel comfortable even discussing those amendments with voters. There was one fairly conservative voter who seemed frustrated with my inability to talk about the proposed amendments, but I did show him an information packet from the state legislature that discussed the amendments and various pro-and-con arguments concerning each amendment. He was welcome to sit down and take as much time as he needed to go through the packet and learn about the ballot initiatives. Took him about 15-20 minutes, but I think he appreciated that we could inform him about the issues without influencing his vote, accidentally or otherwise.

I just want people to vote. I don't want to coach them, and I don't want them coaching each other at the voting booth. That's one thing I have to be careful about; not even husbands and wives are supposed to kibbutz once they step up to the booth.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

6. We just had Texas Legislative Council literature laid out on a table

When they asked about the amendments we just pointed them to the table and suggested they read up a bit before they got their voting code. Some studied it for around 30 minutes before they took to the voting booth.

I was surprised by the number of people who walked in and didn't even know it was a constitutional amendments election. It was the only thing on our ballot after all, since we had no local elections being held.

I had one lady actually say in a loud voice she'd been listening to Glen Beck and he was "preaching truth to power" about this election. I asked her to please refrain from discussing the election once she'd entered the polling place. The funny thing is I really doubt Glen Beck had one damn thing to say about our constitutional amendments election. Not surprisingly she was one of the uninformed people who didn't even know what she was coming to the polls to vote on. :eyes:

[SavageDem]

7. It was difficult NOT to say anything to the voter ID woman...

...but I wasn't about to engage voters in any political discussion. The aforementioned ACORN conversation occurred during one of our many lulls where only we judges were present.

[alfredo]

4. We don't allow political talk, newspapers, or political reading material.

We find plenty to talk about at the polls without talking politics.

My polling place is in a retirement home. There we get a glimpse at our possible future.

[zbdent]

5. "died from breast cancer because" ... wow ...

with that line of thinking, we, the human race, would have starved ourselves out of existence ...

I heard some numbnuts almost died because he (allegedly) choked on a pretzel ...