Election Judge

 I recently decided to be an election judge. I thought this would be a chance to learn something new, engage with people in my community, and try something different. Yesterday was the primary election and I worked 14.5 hours from 6 in the morning until 8:30 at night. That. Was. A. Long. Day. I was not needed at my voting location. I was assigned to a location in west Duluth. So I didn't really meet anyone from my community but I did meet people in the Morgan Park community. I arrived and met Marilyn, the head election judge and the other judges Annette, Katie, and Sarah. Only Marilyn lived in this area. The rest of us were all new and from other parts of town. Luckily Marilyn knew what she was doing. She had 16 years of experience as the head judge. Her mother was an election judge at this location before her. The five of us worked well together. The polls opened at 7 and every hour we rotated jobs. The jobs were greeter, registration table, handing out ballots, keeping an eye on the voting machine and sanitizing voting spots and pens. The person who handed out ballots had to give a mini civics lesson on primary voting and sticking to one party. As the day went on the explanations of sticking to one party got more and more detailed. People acted as if they understood but many did not. If they made a mistake the machine would tell them. The ballot would be rejected by the machine and the voter was given another ballot to try again. The most common problem is that people voted in one of the two main parties and also voted in the Cannabis and Marijuana parties. The second most common problem was that they stuck to one party but voted for every single person in that party. Of our total 196 ballots cast in person we had 33 spoiled ballots. A couple people had to do it over 3 times before they got it right. Both of our machines broke down but a city employee drove out to fix them. Sometimes we had to call the city for advice. For example a person came to vote but told us she got a mail in ballot yesterday which she left at home. The advice was to allow her to vote and ask her to tear up the mail in ballot when she got home. The city also took her voter number down. I was impressed at how careful and efficient the process was. When the polls closed we counted the tickets to see if they matched the number of ballots the machine processed. The voting machine spit out a seven foot long piece of paper that detailed the results. The judges signed that piece of paper in three spots. We put the ballots into an envelope and sealed it. All the judges signed the envelope. We put all the supplies back in boxes and hauled them out. The community center we were at had closed abruptly in March and this is the first time it has been used since then. Most likely the center will remain closed until we vote again in November. By 8:30 I was tired of being indoors all day and tired of wearing my mask. Marilyn asked if I would come back in November. I think I will. November should be a busier election and the day will go by faster. For the most part people were very nice. I had a good day but I am still content with being retired.