Part 1, Michigan Poll Worker

 As I mentioned in my intro post, it was sort of accidental registering to be a poll worker in Michigan. I picked up the wrong app and then realized my mistake, yet turned it in. I knew that democracy was under pressure as were all election workers. If things don’t go right this time then surely cracks in the system, in people’s thinking would only widen. I’m NOT an election denier. I believe Biden won 2020, that there was no evidence of fraud. Just a lie to provoke skepticism. Election workers are working now under undue scrutiny and pressure. If they don’t dot every i and cross every t, then the system, not just that precinct, comes into question.

That’s why the team works, past and present, to get EVERYTHING right. We are there to help people vote and, in some cases, not to vote.

The differences in process between Illinois/Chicago and Meridian Township in Michigan are numerous and not enough to delineate. Meaning pretty minor. I saw stuff I wish the Chicago Board of Elections would adopt and stuff that I was sure was just part of how a semi-rural precinct runs its operation.

Such as the school bell.

As we were setting up I saw we had a bell in our supply kit. Hmmm. What’s the bell for, I asked? And, someone said to the side: You’ll see. Or hear. As we busied toward opening the polls at 7 am the duties seemed to equal out and felt somewhat familiar. Right before 7 the “chair” finally said time to take the oath. In Chicago this was very extraneous, not part of the essential work of getting the polls open on time. We’d quickly read it. Here, it felt like a sacred moment.

Especially in light of the attacks and threats on the voting process and civil rights.

We came to a full stop and circled up as the chair asked us to raise our right hand, and swear. There is the singing of the national anthem, the thing before the big game, part of the entertainment or pre-game follies. Not here. At least for me, it meant something. I felt a catch in the back of my throat, perhaps goosebumps reciting the words. To uphold the law and constitutional rights of those entering the polling place.

Then she rang the bell and announced, Polls open!

All day people poured in. It was a split precinct where we shared the fellowship hall of a Lutheran church with another precinct. In an already small lakeside town. In a primary election. Meaning we expected low turn-out. Keep reading.

 

from worldwide web, stock photo