Gloria Ferris

Yes, I survived my 17 hour marathon yesterday to blog today.  Let me first say, that these are my own personal observations, thoughts and experiences on election day. I am sure that many other people have different thoughts about their experience of yesterday. I hope that they comment here so that I can take these concerns forward to the Board of Elections because I intend to inform them of what I saw that went right, what could be greatly improved, and those things that definitely need to be fixed.  My hope is that this post serves as an education piece on how we can do elections better and find the positive points in a day of long lines and frustration for many people.

THE GOOD:

My assisting judges, EDTs  (Electronic Device Technicians) and my student poll worker. I was lucky I had a full complement of judges, TWO EDTS and a super student poll worker assigned to my precinct.

The first time voters.  We had a huge number of  young people with those strange driver licenses show up to VOTE! It was great.  The other good thing was the number of parents who accompanied these first time voters and proudly told their friends and neighbors that their son or daughter voted for the first time.

The number of voters.  Personally, I think it must be a near record for a midterm election.  The numbers at our precincts were close to presidential numbers.  If you add in the absentee votes cast, I bet we do rival those numbers. Over 1000 people voted at our polling place!

The voters who brought the brochure they received from the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections.  It had the Precinct prominently displayed by the ward. And also, the ones who brought well-worn cards that they have had for years.  

The civility of the people who live in Old Brooklyn.  Many people stopped by to thank me for working the polls and commented that  they thought we all were handling the crowds and complaints quite well. The way they used their waits in line to catch up with neighbors and friends making the best of what could have been a bad situation. 

The voters who just like me were okay with lots of people and waiting on line because it meant that a LOT of people were voting.

To all of you who thought about leaving but stayed because I told you the wait really wasn’t that bad, and please don’t leave because you’re here now and the line might not be shorter later. I apoligize.  I know that your wait was probably longer than you intended, but thank you for staying and voting. 

The policeman who helped me by explaining to the voters that double parking could not be allowed in the parking lot.  And who told me that I should call the Second District if I had any more problems.  He would make sure that they were aware that we were having a problem.

And to the man that I could not help for his thank you.  He said that it was enough that I had spent time that I did not have to listen to his complaint He said that the whole time we talked he never felt like I wanted to be anywhere but there.  He said “you listened, and that is enough!”

The luck we enjoyed.  Our machinery worked.  We only had three hours of long lines of voters and even then from some of the things I’ve heard things still went relatively smoothly at our polling location.

The Bad:

People who commit to being a poll worker and then do not show.

I lost my provisional vote judge and my student poll worker to another precinct who had one lone woman to man the polls.  Without their help, there is no way the woman could have handled her precinct.  I was glad that I had a full complement so I could share.

Poll workers that decide that treating a polling location like a waiting room is a good thing.

People who do not know their voting precinct.  This would be my number one reason for the slowdown of voting.  We needed a better way to determine precinct designation.

People who come to vote after work and expect no line.  How could this be? After work, is always the busiest time. Although I realize that some people can only come after work, is it really necessary to blame the long lines on disorganized polls and inadequate poll workers?  More people, longer wait. 

The small room that previously held two precincts with an approximate vote tally of 700 voters from previous vote tallies I have seen now held THREE precincts essentially adding another 350 voters.  It was a tight squeeze, but we survived.

The extremely ugly:

A precinct map that was printed on October 25, 2006 was incorrect.  Our precincts M.N. and G had apparently a superimposed map of we believe Fairview Park because for some reason W.220 and other 200 streets appeared as our numbered streets.  Our actual numbered streets are eleventh, twelfth and thirteenth.  Hence, the difficulity of determining what was the voting precinct.  We used an elector worksheet throughout the day but this became extremely difficult as the crowds grew.  It would have been helpful to have had the map so that people could determine for themselves.

Provisional voting. Only one precinct had the luxury of a fourth judge to serve in this capacity.  But the biggest problem was the contridictory instructions on how these votes should be handled. Enough said for now, but I intend to help in any way I know how to make this part of the voting experience better.  I will first offer to help the Board of Elections.  I will keep you posted.  And for those people who voted provisionally at our polling place, I intend to be your advocate to see that each and every one of your votes are counted.    

 I don’t think that we lost many people because they saw large lines. I hope not.  That would be extremely ugly.

And, in conclusion:

All in all, my first experience as a poll worker was a good one.  The number of gracious people certainly outweighed the handful of disgruntled people. Of course, there is room for improvement in the process but after all, there always is room for improvement.  In fact, I would like to bring back the tradition of posting the number of votes cast in each precinct at each polling place.  I believe that this would be a good place to start building trust and integrity with the voting public.  And frankly, I don’t understand why we are not doing that.  When you are staying until ten o’clock anyway what is ten minutes more?  

And, my wishes were granted.  People voted!  My other wish was that I would have a good group of people to work with and that together we would make election day an experience to remember.  To all of my co-workers at the polls yesterday: You are a great group of people and without you, I would not  feel the sense of accomplishment I feel today.  Thank you!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 8th, 2006 at 5:28 pm and is filed under Cleveland, Ohio, Old Brooklyn, developing community. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.