a hard day of workin' the polls

Robin inspired me, on our trip to Milwaukee, to earn a little extra income by working the polls.

The Election Polls, perverts.

In Franklin County, you don't get much money. It averages out to be around $7.50/hr between your two hour training class and a 15 hour work day. You get a $10 bonus if you show for a practice session. I signed up because I get free Poll Worker leave from work, so I really rake in the cash. ooh.

I was selected to be a provisional judge. That means I am the democrat that oversees the provisional ballots (my opinion on those is a whole different story). After a bunch of confusing trainings, I feel relatively un-confident in my ability to handle it.

But, 4:15 AM today rolls around. I get up, shower, make a delicious breakfast, pack some snacks, and head to my precinct. I arrive to find a overly friendly man trying to figure out how to set up his equipment. He turns out to be the Presiding Judge (a.k.a. my boss). He's with a high school girl who is part of the special vote team program they have going on for kids that are about to graduate. I know nothing about anything, so I just try to set up my stuff. A couple arrives (the republicans) and I find that the only people who have an idea of what is going on are me and the high school girl. Everyone is freaking out and trying to do things how they were done last election, which have changed quite a bit. No wonder there's always drama at important elections, like that whole 'hanging chad' debacle.

We finally get set up and are ready. Too bad voter turn out was pathetic. I spent 15 hours sitting on my ass actually wishing I was at work.

or did I?

First of all, we were to report at 5:30 AM to our precinct. If you don't show, you can be charged with a misdemeanor. One of our workers didn't even show until 8:30 AM. She claimed that she was out of town on a family emergency (in my line of work, that's the oldest excuse in the book.) She then later talked about how she cooked turkey for dinner at her home the other night. She was the Presiding Judge last year - the boss - how does this woman not show for her one day job on time???

It turns out that our new Presiding Judge happened to be an author. He has just published a book. It is one of those motivational books. I'm not one for identifying the culprit, so I'll just say this - he was like a joyologist with a prostate problem. He primarily spent the day performing magic. and performing more magic. And doing some origami. And more magic. He ran around talking about his theories on his favorite subject and encouraging everyone to go on amazon.com to buy his book. I wondered if, after providing me a long explanation on his beliefs in the "A's" and "R's" of joy, I should pay him. Don't get me wrong, though, ee was very nice and brought us homemade treats to munch on during the long, painful, godawful day.

Where do they find these people? Or where do these people find them?

I'm not sure I'll do this pollworker thing again. I know the next election is the Primary, so it will have a larger turn out and the busy-ness should make the day go by faster. But, I don't know that $7.50 is worth what I went through today.