By During the last presidential election there was a LOT of drama here in Georgia. I know conspiracies abound here about who did what…and we still have some drama that has dragged on (IMO – give it a REST – let’s move on, people!). Politics are dirty…maybe dirtier than ever before. Or are they? In Rome, Julius Caesar was assassinated when the political parties of that time were sick of him (‘et tu, Brute?’ – Mr. Gavett would be so proud of me!).
Regardless of which party you are part of and even if you are independent, it doesn’t look good for our electoral process. I made up my mind to do something about it. So….last week there was a job fair for Fulton County pollworkers. I attended and have signed up to be a poll worker. I haven’t been chosen yet.
There was an application on-line, but they took removed it. The workflow seems to be simple: attend one of these sessions and sign-up; a manager will call you and I guess vet you for the position; if chosen attend a training session and you’re good to go. You can be an advanced voting poll worker, a ‘day of’ poll worker or both. The time commitment for the advanced voting one was a bit much, so I signed up for the ‘day of’ one.
The job fair on Saturday was insightful. The presenter ran through a 10-15 minute slide show constantly (as soon as she finished the last one and answered all questions, she took a few minutes break and launched the next one). She was very good and answered the questions (you know I couldn’t contain myself and asked 2 questions!). I would guess there was about 10-15 people in attendance for the sessions I saw (I sat through 2 because I came in late).
The brutal reality is the time commitment – from 5 am to 10 pm on election day. What?! How dreadful. I almost backed out. But…I am seriously concerned about this election. So I’m going to get a dog sitter for Mavis (again presuming I’m selected) and commit.
It’s not for the money. I am doing this because I believe in our country.
For those of you wondering, this job is for the folks who validate your id and then hand you the ballot. The poll watchers are apparently roles filled by political parties. I’m not affiliated with a party, so I’m going to leave that to someone else.
Deadline to register to vote is in February. You can find out more here or here
I’ll keep you posted if I get selected!
