I Worked the Polls in Trump Country — and Left More Confused Than Ever
There aren’t a lot of Democrats up here, which is why I got the job
I didn’t check the box volunteering to be an “election inspector,” as poll workers in New York state are called, just to have an excuse to stay off my phone on November 3. That would be the bonus. I did it to be civic-minded. To support the democratic project at a time when it seemed uniquely threatened. To thwart whatever chicanery the powers that be in my newly adopted rural burg might have up their sleeves. And mostly to spare at least one of the seniors who show up year after year for the $250 fee — “their Christmas money,” as my board of elections trainer put it — from having to expose themselves to the virus-shedding electorate.
The Covid-19 crisis created a nationwide shortage of poll workers this year as the retirees who have long kept the system humming along opted to play it safe. (In 2018, according to a Pew analysis, 60% were over 60, and 30% were seventysomethings.) As a result, many states have shut down polling places — sometimes in a craven attempt to disenfranchise voters on behalf of the GOP. While that didn’t seem like a danger in New York, a shortage of workers could nonetheless prove disruptive. It seemed like the least I could do. Of course, I wouldn’t be the only one…
