Election Poll Worker

Earlier this year my mom asked me if I wanted to work as a Poll Worker for the SL County Clerks Office. I have always had an interest in politics, and I love being involved in community events, so I happily agreed. I've worked three elections this year, including the one this past Tuesday. I was really nervous to work this election because I thought it was going to be very busy and with being pregnant, I wasn't sure I could handle being on my feet for 14 hours. The polls are open between 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., but we have to be there at least an hour early to set up and don't get to leave until everyone has voted and then we have to tear everything down. I work as the Technician. Here are some of this positions duties:

# Oversees voting equipment set-up
# Troubleshoots and provides instructions
# Monitors and maintains machines as needed
# Assists voter with touch screens as necessary
# Reconciles Election Day activity
# Transports supplies
# Must have access to a vehicle and be able to lift a minimum of 35 lb

Anyway, my worries were unwarranted. This was one of the slowest elections I've worked yet. I was so surprised! We processed 182 voters between 7:00 and 8:15 a.m. (which was pretty busy) but then from then on it was very slow. We had 13 machines set up, which probably helped with keeping the lines down, but still, for a presidential election I was shocked at how low the voter turn out was for my area. I kept expecting this huge rush around 6-7 p.m., but it never came. We tore down the voting equipment around 7-ish and had one machine up for the last hour. I was pretty disappointed.

If anyone is interested in working for the County Clerk's office visit the following website: http://www.clerk.slco.org/elections/votePollWorker.html. It is a paid gig.