I’m still having trouble writing but that’s more reason to write today especially as I did not leave the house. I’ll start off easy, talking about things I did. Back on Tuesday I worked the polls on Primary Election Day. That was a long day. I had to be there at 5 AM and I didn’t go home until 10 PM. I had two one hour breaks. The school is only five minutes from home that made it a little easier.
It’s always fascinating and disquieting to see how the sausage is made. I will say straight off that nothing happened that at all affected the results we reported. There were missteps and glitches but those were all about inconvenience. The worst jolt was first thing in the morning. The supervisors arrived before I did and found that we had to set up in a different room than we were prepared for. There was construction going on in the school so we couldn’t use the Gym, we were in the cafeteria. Why is that a big deal? We have a floor plan that shows where everything is supposed to go, and they did not update that. We had to wing it. You know how we decided where the privacy booths went? I looked around and decided to where they could fit. That was all on me. There is a special machine to help disabled people mark their ballots. That is under extra tight security. One part was already plugged in, and we were not allowed to unplug it without compromising the security. I don’t know the procedure we’d have to follow if we did, but I know it’s not pretty. That was not part of my official job, but I got friendly with one of the women doing it and I helped. The way it was initially set up anyone could stand over the voter’s shoulder and see how they were marking their ballot. We had to turn the machine around. Then came the hard part, finding a way to position it to allow access by someone in a wheelchair. We finally got it done. There was one volunteer in a wheeled walker, and I asked his opinion if what we did was adequate. He said it was.
My job was Relief Clerk, a job not listed in the manual. I think it meant I was to relieve the desk clerks, the people you go to for the ballots when they had breaks. I ended up never doing that. The disability access clerk never showed up and I took over that job. That’s ironic as what I had been doing all morning was exactly the access clerks job description. I had the best job there. Instead of sitting in the hot cafeteria with people who for the most part weren’t wearing masks. I sat outside in the shade to help anyone disabled. That never came up. The only work I ended up doing was greeting voters and making sure that they weren’t showing the campaign materials people had been handing out. I also had to tell people they were in the right place. Because of the room change people couldn’t enter at the location on the voter postcards they were went. We were all the way around the block, and they had to walk under the construction shed put up to protect people from things falling from the roof from the construction. Shed is the name for the structures you see at construction sites all around the city. Everyone would peek down the alley and ask, Is this where I vote? We did not have enough of the “vote here” arrows to place on the entire path to the entrance.
To make things even more fun there was redistricting, I know longer have the phonograph voting book, 78AD – 33ED. That means people had to find out where they were supposed to vote. Many had switched to different polling sites, none of which was close. That was extra difficult for disabled people. I believe they were given affidavit ballots, but I am not sure. That happened inside.
I got in a fight with a Trump supporter. We don’t get many of those in the Bronx, especially not black women. The only one found me and decided to tell me that it would be the end of New York of Kathy Hochul was elected. She’s the incumbent. The state hasn’t been destroyed. What I should have done was tell her that I am not allowed to discuss politics. I didn’t. I argued for just a bit but that was a bit too much and she kept ranting. I will be better prepared next time.
Whenever you get a group of people thrown together like the election workers there’s going to be a mix, people you like, people you don’t like, and people you don’t notice. I spent far more time with the people I liked. I did get to hear about the people others didn’t like. One woman wondered off from her station for 45 minutes to eat. That was in addition to her two breaks. Another took a two-hour break and one of the people I liked had to have his lunch an hour late.
My natural position would have been supervisor. That’s what I do naturally. I’m not experienced enough yet to do that. During closing, after my official job was done, I wandered around helping where I could. Others didn’t.
The best part was the young people Two young women came in and when they left one cheered, “I voted!” She was excited. I’m sure it was her first time. One of the workers looked too young to vote but she wasn’t. She was a college student being a good citizen. I know that the young have the lowest voting rates but there are some that are aware of its importance. I wanted to give them all prizes.
I forgot the best part. When one voter left the polls she looked at my name tag and asked, “Are you Gordon from folk music?” I’m folk famous! She knew my name from being in the community too. I asked her name and found it was someone I had met twice. She’s not a musician but a musician’s rep. We exchanged contact info. She lives in the area.
I wrote more about that than I planned. I guess I should be grateful. Now to get myself to write tomorrow.
Wise Madness 