As some of you may be aware, the primary elections were held on Tuesday in Minnesota and I was involved as an election judge in Ramsey County. This is my first experience of doing this type of duty and although it was much more difficult and even less rewarding than I anticipated, I am quite certain I'll continue my service through the general election. My tasks on Tuesday required a 16 hour shift (6 AM - 10 PM), with one half hour break around noon, and 120 miles put on my car. Aside from the hourly wage (which doesn't quite live up to "living wage" standards), the only benefit provided was the personal knowledge that the precincts I was involved with adhered to the law and that the process moved along as efficiently and orderly as possible. And also that every vote did indeed count (take that Katharine Harris!)--and counted only once (take that Al Gore!). This benefit is not exactly fame and glory, and heck it's not even faint, vague recognition and mildly pleasant satisfaction. But if your country is in the business of democracy, the job's successful completion is absolutely necessary and that's enough for me, and for the roughly 600 other judges who also served (time) in dank church basements and turkey gravy smelling elementary school gymnasiums all over the city of St. Paul.
The role I was assigned was a new one for the county, that of ward supervisor, meaning I needed to provide technical support, procedural interpretation, and logistical support for the judges at the 16 precincts in my ward. Specifically, this means things like helping out any judge crews who aren't able to get into the building at their polling location at 6:00 AM, helping those that can't figure out how to get their tabulation machines working, helping those with information on how to properly register new voters, delivering supplies for any location running short on anything critical, and also the distribution of completed absentee ballots. All these issues, multiplied by 16 locations, results in 120 driving miles, despite the fact my ward was maybe 10 square miles in area. I was zig zagging and haphazardly putting out fires all day long.
The main advantage to my position was getting to see so many precinct judging crews in action. And all of them, every single one, operated competently and efficiently and with generally good morale. Let me just restate, being an election judge assigned to an individual precinct generally sucks, by any conventional interpretation of the word ("suck - the state of being bogus or generally wack"--the New Merriam-Webster College Dictionary). You need to work all day and half way into the night without an official break or even time away to eat, the procedures you need to follow are detailed and numerous, the physical environment is typically claustrophobic, the pacing is at times frenzied but mostly tedious. And to top it off, you get absolutely no recognition or feedback from your overseers in the county elections office. In fact, the judges get treated with disdain by the paid government employees, who are officially in charge of how elections proceed. This is the reason my particular position exists at all, because the county doesn't want to be bothered by the desperate calls from the outposts in the hinterland, lest they be interrupted from their own official duties. From my observations, their official duties generally consist of snacking at the morning breakfast buffet, trying to choose which kind of pizza they want to try next from the 30 or so Domino's boxes lined up for lunch, and making sure they get chipotle salsa with their enchiladas when they're delivered for their dinner. (Yes, the county employees get all the food they need all day long, presumably paid for out one slush fund or another).
But I don't want to engage in the condemnation of the government types, I'm here to celebrate those poor bastards in the trenches, the election judges. Upon further review, I'm not quite sure how a society creates a class of people like this. To put up with what they do and for no appreciable benefit, other than the fulfillment of a personal sense of duty. All of them, worked liked dogs, treated like dogs, yet still managing to operate their locations with efficiency, fairness, attention to the law, and generally good spirits. Despite recent efforts by the county to recruit new, younger judges (a process of which I am a product) I'd say more than three-fourths are 55+ in age and I wonder how much of the high quality character of these people is dependent upon their generation alone. Some of these individuals were of the WWII generation, some just after that, but very few of the baby boom generation or later were present.
Perhaps this is just a reflection of life stage commitments. Most boomers and Generation X'ers are parents with young families, and taking an entire day off from their responsibilities to their families and jobs would be a significant burden. And the older folks probably do have extra time on their hands. But that's not to say service as an election judge isn't a burden to them as well, especially given their increased physical ailments and age-related limits on their physical energy, attention spans , and cognitive abilities (plus dealing with the blatantly "ageist" stereotyping of their ward supervisor).
But this older generation just seems more willing to bear burdens for the good of their society than the following generations. And for this reason elections have generally gone smoothly (at least in Minnesota). As this generation passes away and leaves the ranks of public service, I question the quality of their replacements. Because without a certain level of altruistic commitment among the general populace and the unquestioning will to do whatever needs to be done, there will be problems in running something as large and complex as an election. It appears the problems we witnessed in Florida, both in 2000 and even this year, on Tuesday, are a reflection of this trend. And if the modern generations prove to be incapable of living up to their responsibilities as citizens, we can expect these problems to become more and more common.
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