Day 44- Poll Working

Day 44-Poll Working

Yesterday was what many have dubbed "the Potomac Primary". Maryland, Virginia and The District of Columbia all voted their primaries.

When I registered to vote in the District, I noticed a call for poll workers. Apparently, there is a national shortage of poll workers by nearly half-a-million! and the median age of workers is 72! I spent my day working the polls.

I must say, the lack of workers was evident. Our team of five had to cover a total of (ideally) eight positions. And our line that started before the polls opened at 7am did not let up until polls closed at 8pm-it was a constant stream of people.

First time voters, lapsed voters, experienced voters, young, old, black, white, latino/a, asian, recent citizens, peace activists and vets. They all came. We ran out of ballots- twice!!! It was wonderful helping people participate in democracy.

We worked hard to get people out of there as quickly as possible, but rushes were tight.

While I was working, I thought of a lot of policies that could be adopted in order to make voting more smooth.

These include but are not limited to Opening closed primaries and Same day voter registration.

But what would really make voting easier for every one would be having an influx of passionate, helpful, young poll workers.

That is where you can step in.

Please volunteer to work the polls in the next elections. If the Primary season is any indication at all, the general election is going to be huge!!! We had twice the expected ammount of voters yesterday and Primaries are never as large of voter turn out as Generals are.

It is a great way to meet your neighbors and help democracy in our nation work. If you have ever been nervous about voting irregularities or illegal actions at your polls, then what better way than being the worker who counts the votes and welcomes the voter?

Plus, you get compensated for your time (snowflake alert).