My stint as a poll worker: I have a whole new appreciation for folks helping run elections

WASHINGTON – There was a hum as the ballot glided into the voting machine. I scanned a barcode and confirmed with the voter that the information on the screen was her precinct and, yes, that was her political party.

I pointed to the far side of the room where she would take her completed ballot. Then I stepped away, giving her privacy as she cast her ballot in the nation’s capital primary.

I helped my first voter that recent morning. This veteran journalist also became a poll worker.

For two days last week, I joined the ranks of thousands of poll workers across the country who help run elections in their communities. This army of retirees, students, neighbors – and yes journalists ‒ not only navigates voters through the process, but also help protect it.

I have a whole new appreciation for poll workers.

I must have interviewed hundreds of poll workers over the years questioning many about why they do it. I’ve talked to young folks who stepped up to do the work. I’ve written about election officials desperately recruiting poll workers. More recently, I’ve interviewed some afraid to do the job because of attacks against election workers.

It was at the suggestion of Thomas Hicks, a commissioner with the federal Election Assistance Commission, that I decided to see for myself what it’s like to work on the inside.

“I wish Americans who have skepticism about the process see the hard work that their neighbors put in to serve our country and democracy,’’ he told me. “Without poll workers, there is no election.”

District of Columbia election officials welcomed the idea. So along with nearly 1,700 of my Washington neighbors and others who work for the city government, we fanned out last week to 25 early voting centers a few days ahead of the June 4 primary.

Voting machines undergo rigorous testing

Weeks earlier in April, I waited in the lobby of the operations center until 10 a.m. when the public was allowed inside a huge room to watch technicians verify the accuracy of the voting machines.

“You can start,’’ someone yelled out.

Inside the brightly lit room, technicians stood in front of rows of electronic voting machines. They checked each machine wiping off any previous elections, verifying ballot information and making sure each complied with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The process could take up to 30 minutes per machine depending on the information on the ballot. That day technicians would spend hours meticulously checking 94 machines that would later be sealed to await delivery to voting centers.

By election time, district technicians will have checked about 300 machines.

The verification process "is basically to demystify elections and then to just have complete transparency with the process,'' Monica Holman Evans, executive director of the District of Columbia Board of Elections, told me. "We're not trying to operate in the dark or operate in secrecy."

Poll workers go through training class

My journey as a poll-worker-in-training started in April with a mandatory four-hour training class.

By 9 a.m. that Tuesday, I joined about a dozen other would-be ballot clerks in a room with a white board and a big screen at the front of the class. We watched a video about cybersecurity and another about making sure polls were accessible.

“Transparency is built into the election process,’’ a person on the video told us.

There is no one system for running elections across the country. In Washington, voters affiliated with the Democratic Party, Republican Party or DC Statehood Green Party can vote in the primary. Others can only vote in the general election in November.

Unlike in many places, noncitizens in the nation's capital can vote for local elections. Officials also set up in-person voting at the Department of Corrections where 252 incarcerated people had voted by Thursday. Some served as poll workers.

Elections officials have ramped efforts to engage voters and recruit more poll workers, including turning to social media, radio and posting signs in Metro stations.

“There’s a lot that goes into elections behind the scenes,’’ Evans said. “I think that when people have a greater appreciation of everything that goes into elections, then that means they have a greater appreciation for us and what we do and for the electoral process.”

In the training class, instructors explained our role as ballot clerks and how to help voters cast their ballots using voting machines or paper ballots. The session included hands-on simulations.

I teamed with a classmate to test our new knowledge. We coached each other, sharing reminders about what we had just learned.

Then we returned to the classroom for a quiz!

'Our people died for the right to vote'

Lights were still low when I walked into the Takoma Recreation Center last Wednesday for the six-hour morning shift. It was so quiet in the community-room-turned-polling site.

I set up at a table with the bold ‘’ballot clerk’’ signs. Steps away were six voting machines.

Many of my fellow poll workers had served in the past and had mastered the machines. They knew where to steer voters. Me, not so much.

The day before I reread the 265-page spiral bound “Vote Center Operations Manual” officials gave us during training. I had aced the quiz after class, but couldn’t remember whether to put the ballot in the machine first or to first scan the barcode with the voter’s info. In my defense, the class was a month ago and I didn’t have a voting machine at home to practice on. I'm sticking with that.

Seasoned veterans kindly offered a mini refresher.

Others clearly were not new to this. I watched as Bernice Rink walked into the polling site, plopped her bag on a clerk table and greeted everyone on her way to sign in. She sported a name badge encased in a clear plastic cover. She told me later she’s had it for more than 20 years.

The 74-year-old poll worker had worked nearly every position – voter assistance clerk, registration clerk and ballot clerk. She particularly liked greeting voters.

“Have you voted today?’’ she would ask.

Rink said as a child she marched for voting rights in places like Selma, Alabama. That work, she said, isn't over. “We’re not treated equally yet,’’ she said. “It still takes a vote.”

For some, working the polls is also a way to make a few extra dollars. Poll workers here get paid $100 per six-hour shift, including the training class.

Nehanda Headley, 44, first worked at the polls years ago when she was a student at Howard University, a historically Black college in Washington, D.C. “I needed to pay for school,” she said.

These days, she also encourages others, especially young folks, to work the polls and to vote.

“Our people died for the right to vote,’’ she said. “It should be respected.’’

The few voters who did come to the center seemed excited. Some were downright appreciative. “Thank you for working the polls,’’ one voter told us.

At times there were more election workers than voters. Election officials said mail-in ballots, which were sent to all registered voters, contributed to less traffic at the polls.

A few voters trickled in to drop their mail-in ballots in a white box sealed with red tape. One voter told me she didn’t trust the postal service.  

Primaries also tend to attract fewer voters, officials said. Still, they said, that morning was extra slow.

“There’s usually a nice flow,’’ said Terri Butler, a site coordinator, who had worked three elections. (She also happened to be an instructor during my training class.) “It’s good that people are still voting. They’re just not coming in.”

Some wait to vote on Primary Day or Election Day in November, Butler explained. They come as a group and make it a celebration, then go out for lunch.

“They come in so happy,’’ she said.

Voters trickle in, but are excited to cast ballots

The next afternoon I was assigned to the Raymond Recreation Center where the gym had been converted to a polling site. Voters inserted completed ballots into a tabulator near a basketball hoop.

The huge gym felt cavernous with the four voting stations and eight voting machines. Election workers here also outnumbered voters.

Voters trickled in. There was a bicyclist wearing a helmet. A woman gripping her mail-in ballot. By the end of the day, only 71 people had cast ballots there during the early voting period.

At one point, a center employee (not part of the elections team) walked into the gym and announced that Trump had been found guilty. “I don’t know how ya’ll feel about that, but I’m happy!’’ she yelled.

No one reacted. Election sites are nonpartisan. But that was the most excitement all afternoon.

There were more quiet highlights during my short stint as a poll worker. I met many people who really cared about helping others vote. 

I’m going to donate my stipend to College Bound, a wonderful nonprofit that helps students prepare for college.

By the end of Thursday's shift, I had helped only a handful of voters, but I smiled when 30 minutes before closing a family with 8-year-old and 6-year-old sisters walked in. The parents were excited to show them how voting worked.

I learned too and I left with my own “I voted’’ sticker.