#poll worker

[whenweallvote]

Pennsylvania still needs poll workers, especially in Allegheny County! 💛🖤 Visit weall.vote/recruit to become a poll worker in your community.

[mikerickson]

Dispatches from the Frontlines of Democracy: 11/4/2025 NJ Gubernatorial Election

I had a very long day yesterday.

Woke up at 4:50 AM and got to the polling station at like 5:05. Unlike previous times, I got all of the equipment and machines for our district up and running completely before we were due to open at 6 AM sharp.

Around 5:50 AM, eight cop cars rolled into the school's parking lot and a whole bunch of cops came into the building telling us we had to evacuate because there had been a bomb threat on our specific polling location. We left everything in place and shuffled out to a strip mall across the street while they brought in two bomb-sniffing dogs to check the entire high school. We eventually got the all-clear to resume around 7:10-ish and didn't have any further threats throughout the day. Honestly if it had been called in between 4-6 PM it would have been insanely more disruptive and chaotic.

While waiting outside, one very animated voter got himself riled up over the delay. "If they find the guy who did this, just give me three minutes with him, I just wanna talk!" kind of stuff while cracking his knuckles.

Also during the downtime, me and some of the other workers grabbed breakfast in a bagel shop where the TV was talking about how Cheney had died. Probably one of my more unique "where were you when you found out" instances.

I felt super guilty about setting up a live ballot counting machine and then walking away from it for over an hour, but it was still zeroed out before we started letting voters in so I don't suspect foul play.

Much higher turnout than the primaries and pretty much equal to last November, which the more experienced poll workers seemed surprised about. It was also interesting that I recognized a handful of voters from the last two times I did this and two of them also said they remembered me specifically. I guess being +20 years younger than all the other poll workers makes me stand out.

We had two instances of little kids turning off the ballot printers and causing their parents to panic.

I had to issue a provisional ballot to a woman whose signature didn't match the one we had on file. She explained that that was her old signature, before she got married and changed her name. She was adamant about stressing that she was divorced to that asshole, but she still kept his name anyway.

We had trouble looking up this one young woman because she was an identical twin who lived at the same address as her sister and shared the exact same name with her mom. When we scanned the barcode on the back of her driver's license it pulled up her sister's information, and when we manually entered different information it pulled up her mom instead. Ended up running her provisional as well, and I begged her to sort it out with the Board of Elections so this wouldn't happen again.

Different woman tried dropping off her mail-in ballot at the polling location and I had to turn her away because we don't accept them there. There are other, specially designated boxes to do that at, but the closest one was a 30-minute walk away and she said she didn't have a car. I don't know if she ended up making it or not.

About a dozen people showed up who were supposed to go to a different polling location. Every time I redirected them to where they were supposed to go I was met with some variant of, "Oh yeah, that's where I did it last time. I don't know why I came here instead..."

The Ciattarelli campaign had a challenger sitting at our table the whole day to contest whenever a voter's name and address didn't match what she had on record (which didn't end up happening once). When we had some downtime she mentioned, "I wish there was a way to purge the voter rolls more often because there are always strange irregularities. Like sometimes there are multiple people with different last names living at the same address, which seems suspect to me." Apparently the concept of gays and/or roommates eludes some people.

The most contentious moment happened to the district table next to mine. Basically you go to a computer touchscreen to make your selections first and the printer underneath the screen prints out your double-sided ballot, which you then take to a separate machine that actually counts and logs your vote. An older gentleman didn't understand why he had to insert his ballot into what (admittedly, in his defense) kind of looks like a paper-shredder and raised his voice to another poll worker. It took a bit of coaxing, but they got him to do it before he stormed out.

Another guy later in the day also expressed discomfort with the counting machine. He complained to me, "I don't like all this technology, we should just go back to paper ballots." I told him, "You're holding a paper ballot in your hand right now." He didn't speak to me for the rest of the interaction.

When trying to figure out what to do for lunch, I kept gassing up a local Vietnamese restaurant that was nearby. I convinced another poll worker to go there too, but no one was picking up when I called. I drove over there and saw that the only day of the week they're closed for is on Tuesdays...

The very old, definitely-grew-up-under-communism Polish guy who doesn't speak a lick of English that I remember from previous elections showed up again. He flashed two 'V' hand gestures to us as he walked out grinning.

Somehow an in-joke started among the other workers when someone asked, "Can I steal a pen from you guys?" and someone else replied, "You can't use the 's' word here!" That call-and-response happened a dozen times over the day.

This is 100% anecdotal, but at the end of the night the counting machine prints 4 copies of the exit results, and when I took a look at them I clocked that Sherrill had a noticeably bigger lead than Harris did last November, so I kind of expected a big performance then.

I'm coming down with a sore throat now, so I definitely caught something from one of the +300 people I spoke face-to-face with yesterday.

[tomorrowusa]

Trump aide seeking New Hampshire House seat voted in 2 states in 2016

Matt Mowers cast an absentee ballot in New Hampshire’s 2016 presidential primary.

We hear Trumpsters screaming a lot about “vote fraud”. Perhaps that’s because they are worried about others following GOP examples at cheating in elections. 

A former Trump administration official now running for Congress in New Hampshire voted twice during the 2016 primary election season, potentially violating federal voting law and leaving him at odds with the Republican Party’s intense focus on “election integrity.”

Matt Mowers, a leading Republican primary candidate looking to unseat Democratic Rep. Chris Pappas, cast an absentee ballot in New Hampshire’s 2016 presidential primary, voting records show. At the time, Mowers served as the director of former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s presidential campaign in the pivotal early voting state.

Four months later, after Christie’s bid fizzled, Mowers cast another ballot in New Jersey’s Republican presidential primary, using his parents’ address to re-register in his home state, documents The Associated Press obtained through a public records request show.

I’m SHOCKED. SHOCKED that a Trumpster Republican would do such a thing! 😏

Seriously, if Republicans are looking to enhance “election integrity” then the first place they should look is at a mirror.

Mowers is just the latest former Trump administration official to draw scrutiny for potentially violating voting laws.

Mark Meadows, a former North Carolina congressman who served as Trump’s chief of staff, was registered in two states and listed a mobile home he did not own — and may never have visited — as his legal residence weeks before casting a ballot in the 2020 election. North Carolina state officials are investigating.

This Republican fraud is not exactly new. In 2004 the NPR program This American Life did a segment in Episode 276 which detailed egregious cases of Republican attempts to subvert “election integrity”.

There’s more, but I don’t want you to get tired eyeballs from reading about Republican electoral subversion. Listen to the segment or read the rest of the transcript later (Act Two: Cold-cock The Vote) here.

276: Swing Set

There are numerous more recent incidents. But what’s necessary to know is that Republicans have it in their DNA to try to steal elections – and when they still lose anyway they claim the Democrats stole it.

If you want honest elections then it’s necessary to get involved with them locally. Volunteer to be a poll worker; in most jurisdictions you actually get paid a modest stipend for your work. Contact your local county clerk or board of elections for details. Everybody should be an Election Day poll worker at least once in their lives. The 2020s are an excellent time for that experience.

[randomfandomteacher]

Y’all I’m so tired.

Been up since about 4:10am. We had to finish setting up the polling place at 5am. Then we ran the polls from 6am to 7pm, then we had to transmit the results and balance our ballot numbers. Then we had to take our ballots to the collection station. Finally I got home at 10pm... it’s been a rough day but we had sooooo many first time voters, we registered at least 15 new voters, so making sure we enabled them to vote today felt really good.

[taytay4ever]

I’m working as a poll worker today to help make sure our elections are fair and safe. If you haven’t voted yet, today is the last day!

[yesmadamepresident]

Power the Polls

America is facing a record shortage of poll workers this year due to the coronavirus. Sign up now to make sure we have a safe, fair, efficie

Our country is experiencing a severe shortage of poll workers this year due to the pandemic. A large number of poll workers are over 65 and understandably fear exposure. Lack of poll workers means polling places are closed, making it harder for people to vote, especially minority groups who already have enough trouble getting their voices heard. Please consider applying to be a poll worker! In some states you only have to be 16 years old. Depending on your area, you might get paid. But most importantly you'll be one of the cogs in the democratic machine that keeps our country running.

[lizardears24]

If you’re 16/17 and can’t vote yet but want to participate in the election!

Look up your local election supervisors office and preregister to vote (this can be done as early as your 16th birthday) and they will automatically send you your voter registration on your 18th birthday!

If you’re over 16 and preregistered to vote- you can sign up to work at your polling place for the day, helping people to vote and checking voter registration stats!

I know it sucks not being able to make your voice heard yet but you can still be a part of the process and help people vote correctly and easily!

Every correct vote matters and even if you can’t cast a vote yourself you can darn well help people cast theirs!

(Also it pays pretty well for a day’s work)

[femininefreak]

I applied to be a volunteer election day poll worker in my city.

Submit your Micro Objection to the Trump Administration. View all submissions at femininefreak.org