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One hour to open the polls, but three hours to close them. Part of the problem was trying to sort out all of the forms and make sure they all went in the proper envelopes. Another problem was that some giblethead unplugged our ADA touchscreen machine before I had a chance to close the polls. I finally got hold of someone at the county elections office, and they walked me through the process.
And yes, I removed the memory cards from both the iVotronic and from our optical scanner. I heard that the election administrators will make you go back to the polling place and get them if you leave them behind, so you don't wanna do that. They could even send sheriff's deputies to bring you in for a talk if you screw up too bad, so I wanted to be careful.
I had plenty of help at the polls. Jeff, our Republican alternate judge, was very knowledgable and helpful. Susie, Mary, Doris, and Luz were all lifesavers as election clerks. The idea was to make the process as painless as possible for clerks and voters alike, and I hope most of the voters left happy. We did have some grumpy voters who just couldn't be satisfied no matter how much we tried to help them, but that's the way it goes. Nobody tried to disrupt the polls, which I was a little worried about - it was all peaceful and largely pleasant.
Lots of first-time voters! We were very happy for each first-timer who came by.
I brought plenty of I Voted stickers, which I was happy to share with both precincts at the polling place. I closed the polls too late to use my sticker to get a free donut from Krispy Kreme (Star-shaped donuts? And I missed that? Waaah!), but I made sure that our election clerks had plenty of pizza and soda to keep them going. I even had orange juice available for the one clerk who wanted to avoid soda.
My suggestions for first-time election judges:
* It's a real struggle, especially if you've got constant traffic all day long, but try to keep your stuff organized. Otherwise, it'll take longer to close the polls at night.
* Since you're responsible for placing the distance markers outside the polling place, invest $15 in a Stanley 100-foot tape measure, complete with a carrying handle and hand crank. This is a big help not just for you, but also for poll watchers, campaign representatives, and the oft-overlooked poll greeters.
* Make sure you have your cellphone fully charged. If you don't input the county election office numbers into your contact list, at least have a paper list of those numbers readily available.
* Try to go the extra mile for each voter. We were trying to locate this one voter on our rolls without luck; she was sent to our precinct by some other election judge. Turns out, however, that the woman's registration card wasn't printed with the correct precinct number - part of the number had actually been obscured somehow, and if that election judge had just done his job and looked up her information on the first place, that poor voter wouldn't have gotten frustrated with the whole affair when I told her that she needed to go back to that precinct to vote. Now she may not have even cast her vote because she was so frustrated.
* Make sure that every voter registration certificate is signed before you look up the voter in the poll book. I caught a lot of unsigned certificates just by keeping my eyes open; don't let yourself get rushed into forgetting the little things.
* You're going to work at least 12 hours, so dress comfortably. In my case, I wore some roomy tactical fatigues with boxer briefs from Under Armour and an undershirt from Potomac Field Gear, along with comfortable boots with plenty of cushion and support. This meant that I stayed dry, comfortable, and relatively cool even when the pressure was on. I kept my cellphone and an emergency flashlight on a utility belt that I wore around my waist. This outfit is a holdover from my days as a poll greeter, when I worked to make sure that voters and my fellow poll greeters were taken care of. Besides, our polling place was in a school, and our students have to wear uniforms nowadays - being the egalitarian sort, myself, if those kids have to wear uniforms, then so do I.
* Watch for voters with Bluetooth headsets, MP3 players, etc. All of that is a no-no within the polling place - you want to avoid any means by which an outside party can dictate ballot choices to a voter.
* Here's one idea from crispini - swear in your election clerks while the voters are watching and waiting in line for the polls to open. It gives the voters something to watch while biding their time, and reassures them that we really are trying to be fair and impartial.
Will I ever serve as election judge again? Probably. I feel a little burnout after my trial by fire, but there's also lessons learned from my own experiences. And I also feel privileged and humbled to serve my home precinct as the person who is responsible for make sure that everyone's vote gets counted.
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