I just got hired to be an election poll worker

[Seedersandleechers]

Kansas City just got new Diebold voting machines and when I read in bradblog this morning that poll workers in California’s 50th district got to take their Diebold voting machines home with them, I called the election board in Jackson County to see if I could be a poll worker too. The person answering the phone asked me if I was a Democrat or Republican, so I answered Democrat. I was then referred to a Democratic official. This official said the pay was only $100 a day to which I replied that I was not doing it for the money. She then lowered her voice and said, “You know, we just got those new voting machines” sounding somewhat disgusted. I was assigned to a 3 hour class on July 19, and also got an assigned polling location about 2 miles from where I live downtown. I’m going to have a lot of questions….

KCdemocrat

[RufusEarl]

1. Good for you,

I hope you'll post the answers you get when you attend the class.

[Thickasabrick]

2. That is great news and thank you for volunteering! Good luck

and hope you will be posting your findings in the future.

[Nimrod2005]

3. Our own embedded poll worker? Can you sneak in a camera?

I am the class is going to be taught by Diebold themselves.

[liberal N proud]

4. Glad you could volunteer

Doing your part to try and make Democracy work.

[xxqqqzme]

5. Good for you!

I have been trying 2 get people 2 be poll workers - it is the best way 2 see how it all works. CA is an open primary so if you are register as 'declined to state', you can choose a party ballot; the roster index sign-in book even has 'D', 'R', 'G', 'AI' etc. boxes so the person can indicate their choice. When I took over the index duties, I started asking people which ballot they wanted, the other person had not done this; a young mother carrying her a 6 week old baby signed in, she was a registered Dem but after signing her name she said "I want a paper ballot". No problem, she got one.

Go to that class; take notes, ask questions - You are the insurance that everyone gets 2 vote.

The trainer I had, this is CA, was very clear, repeating it more than twice - everyone coming 2 the polling place gets a ballot for voting - period. It may be a provisional ballot but they leave having voted. We had people in the wrong precinct, we had people who had not voted for a few years, people who were not in either roster but they ALL voted! That's your job!

[Seedersandleechers]

6. I can't understand why, when I called,

they wanted to know what party I was registered to. Aren't elections bi-partisan? Why did I have to talk to a democratic official? Like I said-I will have a lot of questions..

[xxqqqzme]

10. that is odd - if you are registered as a Democrat

you would think they would know......asking is strange. No one has ever asked if I am registered w/ a party affiliation.

[cinci_democrat]

11. Dem/Rep Poll Workers

I was a poll worker in Ohio last year (first time for Diebold machines in our county too). Each precinct must have an equal number of dem and rep workers...in my precinct that's 2 each, but not sure if that is the standard everywhere.

[MADem]

13. Maybe they operate under a quota system, so one party can't say

that the other is over-represented. Then, the party officials vet and provide the workers.

[dysfunctional press]

7. i've served as an election judge in cook county IL...

and after/during the 2000 coup, i even got to talk greta van sustren for 20 minutes about punch card ballots, and the differences between ours and those in west palm beach.

i didn't serve in 2004- but i ended up working at the polls anyway for about 8 hours- unpaid...because the old ladies running the show at our precinct that day just couldn't handle the job...so i sat in.

[Seedersandleechers]

8. Were you still using punch cards or voting machines?

[dysfunctional press]

9. punch cards- although that's changed this year...

to optical scan equipment...the primaries were a fiasco...my wife and i tried to vote at 8:30 am, and the polls were not even open yet, because none of the old ladies knew how to run the equipment, and the ONE who did, hadn't shown up.

[Seedersandleechers]

12. That's why the whole diebold voting machine is fucked!!

If you were able to step in and help out, what would keep you from switching the memory?