Put your money where your mouth is: work November election

[iris lily]

Given the unfortunate political environment of my blue city where Republicans are few and far between (but we picked up some with the Paul people) we have a hard time recruiting Republicans to work at the polls. Our voting laws require that one Republican and one Democrats head up the workers at each polling place.

I dare you all who think you care about the political process: volunteer to work at a poll. Here the hours run from 5 a.m. to when-they-pick-up-votes which can be as late as 8 pm. The pay is $89.00. That's about $6 per hour pay.

DH work the polls and has been for years. He runs his own business and so, doesn't get any kind of employer pay for that day. I figure that's a big enough sacrifice from my household, I won't do it until I retire. That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it. What's yours? Especially for those who are of the "wrong" party when compared to others in your area, go forth and volunteer.

[LDAHL]

My department of our County government operates a (hopefully irrelevant) backup system to the County Clerk's vote count, so I'll be working election night. Since I'm on salary, it amounts to unpaid overtime. I like to think of it as being good for nothing.

[ApatheticNoMore]

doesn't get any kind of employer pay for that day

there exist people that would get employer pay for working the polls? I've never heard of such a thing (just ocassional jury pay and not most places I've worked). Weird, government work is an entirely different world I will never understand I guess. I just figured you were asking us to take a vacation (or "sick day") to work the polls, which might be an interesting change of pace, but if it's $6 an hour then minimum wage is more than that here, so it's really just volunteering with a small stipend. I'm not registered with any party so I rather doubt I could formally represent any anyway.

[JaneV2.0]

I volunteered to do office work for the cause, but they were looking for people to go door to door, so that went nowhere. Since we changed over to statewide vote by mail, poll workers are an anachronism.

[iris lily]

there exist people that would get employer pay for working the polls? ...

No. I mean that I could use a vacation day and be paid for that while working at a poll.

[ApatheticNoMore]

True, the pay you would earn that day would be easier to give up than the vacation day though. :) Btw, did spend 1 vacation day (out of 10 a year) volunteering already.

[Gardenarian]

I volunteer for a few days each summer, encouraging people to register to vote. A lot of people don't want to register because they think they will more likely get called up for jury duty. (This is not true, at least not in California.) It's good work, and surprising how many people - even older folks - say they have just never "got around" to voting.

[ApatheticNoMore]

Then how do you get called up for jury duty in CA? It's the drivers liscenses isn't it? :) They are right to fear jury duty in CA, in this state there have been many years when I seem to be getting called in as soon as the grace time from my last time expires. Then since employers haven't paid me for it, I don't actually EVER get put on a trial anyway (never even got to voir dire!). Other states seem to call people in for jury duty a lot less frequently (although maybe they actually see trial when they do get it).

[bae]

Alas, here we no longer have polls, we are purely vote-by-mail, and I think the civic experience is the poorer for it.

[Rogar]

I requested to be a volunteer two years ago Apparently in my neck of the woods there is a waiting list of volunteers and I wasn't selected. Maybe this time.

[treehugger]

I requested to be a volunteer two years ago Apparently in my neck of the woods there is a waiting list of volunteers and I wasn't selected. Maybe this time.

Same with my area, and I think it's great there is so much interest.

Kara

[The Storyteller]

Some live their politics, some volunteer occasionally, and some just talk.

[redfox]

Alas, here we no longer have polls, we are purely vote-by-mail, and I think the civic experience is the poorer for it.

Ditto, Bae. I LOVED working at the polls when I lived on Lopez. I was the keeper of the sign in book for the 300+ voters in our precinct. Every vote counted. I miss going to the polls.

[Lainey]

I've done some mail-in early voting, but I still prefer to go to the polls. When I went for our primary this past week it was pretty slow. Polls had been open about 40 minutes and I was the first one who actually voted. Total voter turnout was about 28%.