Election Judging

Four o’clock in the morning is early to wake up. Four o’clock in the morning to wake up for a 15 hour work day is way, way too early. On February 2 I dragged myself out of bed, quickly consumed my morning bowl of frosted mini wheats, and then headed over to my assigned precinct for my very first time election judging. I arrived at 4:55. Everyone was required to be there by 5. There were three other election judges already there. We set up voting boots, various sheets of paperwork required for voters, stacks of ballots, and finally set up the tabulator; a machine that counts ballots.

Each election judge was assigned to a particular station. The first was verifying the signature of the registered voter, the second station distributed ballots according to the voter’s indicated party, and the final station was to stand by the tabulator and explain to voters how to use it. Our very first voter came in at 6:05.

We weren’t expecting a lot of voters. It was a primary election. From 6:00 to about 9:30 there was a slow trickle of voters, and then it was pretty much dead. It picked back up again around 5:00 p.m., when people were starting to get off of work. Voting hours were from 6 a.m to 7 p.m. and there were a total 156 voters all day, an average 14.18 an hour. Other precincts were much busier, and had a steady stream of voters. The day was certainly long, but it really didn’t seem to drag on. The fifteen hours surprisingly flew by. We started packing up at 7:00 p.m. and we were out the door before 8:00 p.m.

“Election judging was sweet! Except for the whole getting up at four in the morning part,” said fellow election judge Annie Valocchi. “Feeling like I [was] helping people get their voices heard gave me such a good feeling and I definitely plan on doing it again in future elections.”

To be an election judge you need to be sixteen, and simply have to fill out a couple forms that you can get from Mr. Pollack. It’s $120 for the day, and there’s a training session you have to attend that takes about two hours. Check back during the next election to volunteer as a judge.