Davison's Doodle

Vote Here: Reflecting on a Day Working a Polling Place Nov 3, 2020

It has taken some time to gather the words to describe my experience on Election day.

A Summary

• My expectations of government, government officials, and the people that represent Americans in government is profoundly different than the overwhelming majority of my neighbors in Oklahoma.
• Affirmed a philosophical commitment: I can walk a mile in your shoes, but I cannot completely understand the world or society exactly as a neighbor. Atticus tries to help Scout understand this important lesson. I owe my neighbor that courtesy without reciprocity. Maximum empathy employed, I cannot understand the unquestioning commitment of my neighbors for the sitting President.
• Based on the vote, an overwhelming majority of my neighbors in Oklahoma are comfortable with or approve of the current President’s use of racism, with might makes right, and his “enthusiasm for the politics of personal and institutional contempt.”(1)
• Many of the young people that turned 18 and voting for the first time are excited. Most have a parent is with them. Some look apathetic about the whole thing.
• What would we do without a device in our hands to entertain us?
• The system we use for voting in our State is archaic, requires an oversized commitment of workers, caters to persons with time to vote, and, like public education, is under funded. That may explain why it is somewhat “hack” proof and people only participate in BIG elections.
• Our voting systems in Oklahoma don’t help first time voters know “how” to vote.
• Mainline Protestant leadership and ecumenical prophetic authority in secular society is dead.(2)
• If you thought the 1980’s and 1990’s were focused on greed and hyper individualism, have you seen what’s happened since?
• My concern for my colleagues that are part of mainline Protestant and Catholic ministry is justifiably high. If I was a weekly preacher in Oklahoma I would be wondering, “Is anyone listening? Am I doing a bad job representing the good news of God? Is Jesus just an insurance policy for the afterlife or does Jesus’ ethical eschatology matter?” Is it time for works to matter more than faith?”(3)
• Though 95% of voters were wearing a mask, Covid-19 seemed of little concern this day.
• I am grateful for the election officials I served with on Tuesday.
• My economic comfort allowed me to take time off to serve, observe, and comment.
• I should have worked a polling place years ago. My penance for not voting all those years will continue.

A Narrative

I park at the big box church at 6am. It’s my first time to serve as a poll official. I’m an “extra” clerk for the voting precinct where I normally vote because the County Election Board is expecting heavy turnout for this Presidential election year. I learn late in the afternoon that this is the second largest voting precinct in the county. The training information for poll workers states that poll workers must arrive at 6:30am, to prepare to open the poll at 7am. It’s pandemic time. Had this crew of five people arrived at 6:30am, we could not have been ready to open at 7am.

The basic crew for a polling place in our State is an “Inspector” who has oversight for the entire process at that polling precinct. The Inspector also serves as the “Provisional Voting Officer” if someone needs to cast a provisional ballot, and the Inspector handles voters with problem and problem voters. The “Judge” is the person greeting a voter and making sure that the voter’s ID is valid, and that their information in the registry is “true and correct.” Allen, the other first timer on this crew, volunteers to serve as a 3rd judge for this day rather than be the other “Clerk” which is what first timers do. The clerk, my position for the day, manages the ballots, gives each voter their ballot by tearing it from a book once cleared to receive a ballot by the judge, and handles the spoiled ballot process. It is pandemic time so I also need to keep the area next to the judge stocked with disposable pens for voters to take to fill in their ballots. Many leave the pens behind in the voting booths or on the tables scattered in the room for those not needing privacy. Our crew is five people: Inspector, three judges, and the clerk. It takes 45 minutes to set up and we open on time.

The poll opens at 7am. The first 7 ½ hours are a blur. At one point it was a 3 hour wait to get to the door to be greeted by one of the judges, and then get your ballot from me. After you mark your ballot with a pen (color inside the box to make your choice) it could take another 20 minutes to get to the machine to scan your ballot. Somewhere around 9:30 am, a guy walks up and says, “You have to do something. This is taking too long. Can’t you open another line? You have to do something.” We can’t do anything. He pulls out his phone to take photos and record video all the while muttering something about how overpaid we are to be this incompetent. The Inspector is helping provisional voters and it out out of earshot to hear this guy. People look at him, briefly. I can see a few shake their heads before looking back to their phones or returning to conversations they were having with those around them.

A few families vote together. Many couples vote together which makes it easy for the judge when comparing names. Moms with kids in tow: young ones, stroller ones, and infants. No dads with young kids. Some people in wheel chairs or using walkers. I want to ask them about the first time they voted, but there is no time for casual inquiry.

From 7 am to 7 pm, I am standing, standing, and then seated, and then standing. I am positioned between the three judges. Two to my right and one, the other new guy, to my left. The soundtrack of the day.

Judge: “Step on up. I hope you didn’t have to wait too long. I need to see your ID or voter registration card. How are you?”

Voter: The number one answer is: “Frustrated, but I know you are doing what you can. Thank you for doing this.”

Judge: “Here you are in the book. Please verify that your information is true and correct. Please sign on line . . . Ok, you get two ballots today, a white and a pink from the guy at the little American flag.

Clerk (me): “Here is your general election ballot and here is your Tulsa ballot. Be sure to use a ballpoint pen and there is a sticker (I voted) if you want one.”

At least two dozen times a person arrives to a judge only to realize they are in the wrong voting precinct, or not in this precinct book. “You need to see the Inspector.”

At 2:30pm, the lines shorten to a couple dozen people in each. At 4:00pm, voters can walk up to a judge or a very short wait. It’s like an amusement park just after it opens or just before it closes. Time crawls between 5pm and 7pm. The other poll officials talk about how this is what it is like for local elections or votes on bond issues or budgets. Few participate. I’m guilty of allowing the few to decided for the many locally.

At 7:00pm, the poll closes. It takes 50 minutes to do the work to get the ballots out of the scanning machine, packed up in boxes, sealed, print reports from the ballot scanner to put with other reports, sign all the appropriate forms, and load up the Inspector’s vehicle. He is heading back to the county Election office with all the information.

I pull into my garage at 8:15pm. I met almost 2000 of my neighbors today. I begin to consider how close I was to people and remind myself that I was cautious. I should be fine.

Almost a week later, I know that 70+ million Americans voted for President Trump. I begin to wonder what my price is, because apparently we all have one. At what price or personal benefit would I enable a person like Trump in government, Church, or congregational life to get what I, or my tribe, wants? Maybe the better question is, “What am I willing to give up in order to resist that kind of leader or leadership?”

We all have to decide each election cycle.
We all have to decide every day.
We are everyday people.

Note
1. John F. Harris, “Democrats Look at Trump Voters and Wonder, ‘What the Hell is Your Problem?'” Politico Magazine, politico.com, 11/04/2020
2. Ross Douthat, “The Religious Roots of a New Progressive Era.” Opinion, nytimes.com, 07/07/2020
3. I actually wonder about this often as I observe evangelical Christianity becoming American Nationalistic Christianity. I would prefer moralistic therapeutic deism, though not ideal, as an alternative Christianity to what has become the apparent mainstream of Christian faith that demands special rights. This christianity’s transaction with President Trump paid off with a remake of Federal judiciary as Sen. McConnell did the bare minimum during President Obama’s eight years to fill vacancies. Trump gave evangelicals and GOP the judges they think will overturn laws they find objectionable to their theological and ideological sensibilities. As if they can undo the forward motion of the New Deal, Civil Rights Era, and Equal Rights Era. Maybe they can.