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so you better all be registered....
i volunteered to be a poll worker in the primary election next week, so i spent this morning in a training session. sounds like it will be a very busy day - they are expecting a large turnout, and you are supposed to be there from 5:45 am to 9:30 pm - and there is all manner of checking and counting and tracking and what-have-you in between. i was wondering before whether i should bring my knitting, so i will have something to do (if necessary) - sounds like that may not be a problem.
it was interesting to see the distribution of people at the training session. there were about 30 people there - one guy looked to be in his twenties, 2 or 3 women were in the 40ish to 50ish range, and the rest were all clearly well into their retirement years. they have the most free time, of course - but it's interesting that so few younger people were willing to give up a day of their time. i don't know how (or how often) they recruit people - i just got a letter in the mail last week, asking if i would consider volunteering. i asked one of the trainers how they chose who they contacted, and she said she didn't know - but that they were pretty desperate this year (although she quickly assured me that was clearly _not_ the case with me). it could, of course, have been just that class - but all the poll workers i remember seeing tended to be well up there in years. i don't know whether other people think their job just can't get along without them, or that their vacation time is better spent fooling around somewhere, or whether they really don't care....
personally, i was excited to have the chance to help. it makes me crazy when people say they don't vote, for whatever reason. i've always figured that if you don't vote, you can't complain - and that's the best thing about political discussions, complaining about who's in office, and what all idiotic things they are doing. you hear things like "my vote doesn't count" - well, how _can_ it, if you don't cast it? it's interesting to find out just how much of the process is in the hands of we, the people - it really is _our_ election - from the voters, to the people who offer places for polling sites, to the poll workers in charge of keeping track of all the ballots and making sure everything is accounted for and that the process goes smoothly, and everyone gets their chance to vote, privately and securely. this election they are testing some new touch-screen voting machines, just for vision-impaired people, so they won't need anyone to read the ballot to them or record their vote. you can even do curbside voting - if you are too disabled to get into the polling place, a worker will take a ballot out to you. and of course, there is always absentee voting - in california, you can be permanently on the absentee list, and you don't need to have a reason. so at least around here, there is really no reason not to vote.
so everyone out there - make sure you go vote, whenever your primary election is! and if you aren't registered, go do it now, so you can vote in november!
and this time, of course, some lucky precinct will have _me_ to help out! so all must surely go well.
it was interesting to see the distribution of people at the training session. there were about 30 people there - one guy looked to be in his twenties, 2 or 3 women were in the 40ish to 50ish range, and the rest were all clearly well into their retirement years. they have the most free time, of course - but it's interesting that so few younger people were willing to give up a day of their time. i don't know how (or how often) they recruit people - i just got a letter in the mail last week, asking if i would consider volunteering. i asked one of the trainers how they chose who they contacted, and she said she didn't know - but that they were pretty desperate this year (although she quickly assured me that was clearly _not_ the case with me). it could, of course, have been just that class - but all the poll workers i remember seeing tended to be well up there in years. i don't know whether other people think their job just can't get along without them, or that their vacation time is better spent fooling around somewhere, or whether they really don't care....
personally, i was excited to have the chance to help. it makes me crazy when people say they don't vote, for whatever reason. i've always figured that if you don't vote, you can't complain - and that's the best thing about political discussions, complaining about who's in office, and what all idiotic things they are doing. you hear things like "my vote doesn't count" - well, how _can_ it, if you don't cast it? it's interesting to find out just how much of the process is in the hands of we, the people - it really is _our_ election - from the voters, to the people who offer places for polling sites, to the poll workers in charge of keeping track of all the ballots and making sure everything is accounted for and that the process goes smoothly, and everyone gets their chance to vote, privately and securely. this election they are testing some new touch-screen voting machines, just for vision-impaired people, so they won't need anyone to read the ballot to them or record their vote. you can even do curbside voting - if you are too disabled to get into the polling place, a worker will take a ballot out to you. and of course, there is always absentee voting - in california, you can be permanently on the absentee list, and you don't need to have a reason. so at least around here, there is really no reason not to vote.
so everyone out there - make sure you go vote, whenever your primary election is! and if you aren't registered, go do it now, so you can vote in november!
and this time, of course, some lucky precinct will have _me_ to help out! so all must surely go well.