Zoey Alzate, a junior at New Trier High School in Winnetka taking an Advanced Journalism class, below recounts her experience as an election judge on Nov. 5.
To say being a poll worker is hard would be an understatement. The process is long and difficult, leaving you saying “more work?” But to say it isn’t rewarding would be an outright lie.
To become a poll worker, at least a student one, you have to manage your grades and keep your grade point average above a certain number. There is paperwork, but that was mostly filled out by my parents since I am not yet a legal adult.
There are two parts to the training: online and in person. I found the in person training much more helpful.
Your day actually begins the day before election day, when everyone in your precinct meets at your assignment building to set up the equipment. Depending on the experience of the other
members of your group, this could range from 30 minutes to three hours. My group members were on the older side, and all but one was a newbie. That meant it was me and him setting up the whole machine for two hours while the rest of our members stared helplessly into their guidebooks. Needless to say, I was quite frustrated as I got into bed at a ripe 8:30 p.m.
The actual election day is very mundane, at least in the area that I was placed in. You have to get to your assignment at 5 a.m. to make sure everything is up and running for the opening at 6 a.m.
Between 6 and 9 a.m. is the morning rush, where parents, teachers, and everyone in between comes in before work. My high school had a day off, but I was surprised to learn from parents that their young ones still had class.
After 9 a.m., it was mostly quiet. Only a few elderly people and a couple students popped by before heading to lunch at nearby restaurants.
The next big rush was from 5 to 7 p.m., when most people’s jobs had ended for the day. It wasn’t as big as the morning, but there were still a good amount of people.
Thankfully, the mundane time in between the two rush periods flew by, and I had enough time to write, do my homework and even read my personal book. After the initial awkwardness, I got to know my fellow precinct members despite the age gap. It was nice to know that I was not alone in the process, and that all of us were biting our nails in suspense and fear that something might go wrong.
The only really eventful thing that happened was closer to the morning rush. One of the rules of the voting buildings is that you are not allowed to wear anything that may pertain to an election
candidate. This is called electioneering. This mostly includes candidates’ names, or anything that asks voters to vote a particular way.
In walks a woman in a bright red “Trump-Vance” shirt and matching hat. Earlier, we had had a similar issue of someone wearing a “Kamala” shirt. We politely asked her to zip up her coat and she did so gladly. We expected the same from this woman, and kindly asked her to button up her trench coat. She looked around, aghast. “What,” she said, “are we in North Korea?”
We were all shocked, and rightfully so; we didn’t expect someone to be so nasty about a simple thing such as zipping up a coat. The older woman proceeded to sit down and wait for her turn on the electronic polls, complaining the whole time how busy it was and how many people actually wanted to vote this early in the day (8 a.m.). We told her about the morning rush, and she refused to believe it was true. Not wanting to upset her any longer, we let her be and were unbothered the rest of the day.
All in all, I was lucky. Lucky that I didn’t live in a swing state, lucky that people here were respectful, and lucky that no one was violent. I had seen and read many interviews on the news of poll workers that were preparing to fight for their safety in case of a voter getting angry.
My experience was quite the opposite, and I was pleasantly surprised at the peacefulness of it all. I would wholeheartedly recommend this experience, and hopefully I will be able to work as a poll worker for the next presidential election (one I can vote in, which is crazy to me)!