The Greene County Clerk’s Office says over 180,000 people are registered to vote in Greene County. Serving even just a fraction of that population means managing dozens of polling places scattered across rural and urban corners of the county. It also means managing election judges to staff those polling places. We caught up with a few poll workers during a training in July, ahead of the August primary.
David Burton: The training here is for supervisory election judges. We go over the equipment and the procedures and the manual that we have and that we get to read over in our spare time as well. I think it's really kind of designed to make sure we cut down (on) as many mistakes as possible on election day. Make sure we're all on the same page.
I've been an election judge for a long time, and I have some stories. Anytime you deal with people, right, you have things that can come up. My precinct sits just outside the Springfield city limits. So, one of the common things that happens in mine, if there's a city measure, say you have some rentals and people that move in and out, they have a Springfield mailing address, but they're not in the city limits. So that's a common thing that comes up at our precinct. Why isn’t the city measure on our ballot? And then people do move and it's a different legislative district. So, that's a common thing they get confused about.
It is a long day. It's about a 15-hour day. So, you get to your polling site at 5 a.m. and get the door opened up. You need to have things all set up by 6 a.m. to start receiving voters in and then you close the polls at seven. Depending on the size of the election, it could take 30 minutes to an hour to shut down your poll and gather everything together. And if you're a supervisory judge, you have to bring it to the courthouse. And there's usually a line and things to drop off. So, it's a full, complete, long day.
I think that's another reason for the training, just so you are equipped to handle some of these things that come up that could derail a day or make it seem longer or more difficult than it should be
My grandmother was an election judge. She worked through a committee person, at that time you had to be nominated, and got me a chance to work in 1989 when I was just out of college. And I originally thought maybe I'd want to run for political office. And so, this was kind of a step into that, you know, to get nominated and get to see part of the process. And it's just one of those things I've ended up sticking with when I decided not to run for political office. This is a way to be part of the process. And we want fair and open elections, right, for everyone who's eligible. And you can be part of the process to help make that happen. And I think that's really an important thing and a fun way to be part of the process."
Julie Germann: Election Day really is highly dependent on what poll location you're at, but usually there's people right there at 6 (a.m.) ready to come in to vote. And some places are busy all day and other places there's a long gap, and sometimes it gets kind of slow and a little tedious.
Ninety-nine percent of it is smooth as silk. It's just there's always going to be one little hiccup somewhere that you just need to be prepared for.
The biggest issues that I've faced personally have been things having to do with the change of address, and they come to my location thinking that they're going to get to vote there, but their address change puts them in a different precinct. And some people are very accepting of that information and others, not so much. So, you have to do a little explaining and empathizing with them about that.
It seems like there's the hype out there that there's always going to be problems. We get great training. We're always prepared. There's always somebody on the other side of the phone that's willing to help us through. And it's very rare that there's an extreme issue that we can't solve either ourselves or by calling the clerk's office.
I would put our clerk's office up against anybody in the state as far as being prepared for every possible issue that may come up and always having someone on the other end of the phone that's well prepared to answer our questions or help us with a solution to whatever challenge might come up.
I used to be a school administrator in a school that was a polling place, and I always enjoyed watching how they interacted with the voters and seeing that process from the other side of being a polling location. So, when I retired and had the time to do that, my daughter and my husband both had already become election judges. And so, I just thought I'd give it a try and then, as luck would have it, or maybe not luck, I don't know which way you want to look at it, I think maybe the second time that I was asked to be an election judge, I was asked to be a supervisory judge. So, once I got involved with it, it's just something I look forward to, getting to interact with people and see the process work.
Wes Zongker: I can remember my first time as a judge. I think I've been doing this probably about 14 years. I walked in, and they made me a supervisory judge on the very first day and it's like, but I know nothing. And it's like, you'll be fine.
Presidential elections are very busy pretty much all day long. Off-year elections, you know, we get to know each other because we have an opportunity to do a little bit of visiting. The same judges typically work my polling location, which makes it really nice.
I would say that the neatest thing for me is that I work in my precinct, so I know many of the voters when they come in, and they know me. And that makes it kind of fun to catch up with people that I may not see very often.
But I will say that no matter what polling location I've worked at, I've worked in some in the county outside of Springfield, some in Springfield. Every single polling location I've ever worked, people have come through to vote that I've known, which is kind of cool to me.
Make sure you have your photo ID. You know, coming in (with) the proper identification speeds things up. If you can have it out and ready before you walk up to the table, that certainly helps the judges process people a lot faster. It's really an easy process. I mean, you know, just getting them checked in, making sure that they get the correct ballot and assisting voters whenever they need help.
I was an elementary school principal in Springfield for 21 years. And after I retired, I was looking for something else to do. And so, I became involved in my local party and then through that branched out into working elections. I've done that ever since. I've expanded my role in not only serving as an election judge, but I help with the pre-testing and post-testing of the machines. Every time I get involved in something, I'll learn something new, and it's just like you get one more piece of the puzzle and how this whole election process works and what all it takes actually to run (an) election. I've been involved in the pre-testing, post testing, hand counts, you know. Afterwards I've been included in counting out ballots to make sure that every precinct has the correct number of ballots. So, each piece of that, I've just learned something new. And it's fun.