So the infamous Zoom class I took earlier this week was for poll worker for early voting. (There’s a primary election coming up.) A team came out to my little town on Friday to set up the site and we were invited to observe and learn — totally optional, supposedly just to reinforce what we'd already learned. I went.
(1) Neither of the two other workers for this site showed.
(2) The setup ladies shared essential information which we would have been lost without — including where the keys are that unlock everything.
(3) I asked “who is the site captain?” and they said “you are.” I have never done this job before. I have never voted in this state before. But I’m a bring-it kinda gal so I laughed and said fine. Then the problems started appearing.
(4) They had the wrong site map.
(5) Essential supplies were missing.
(6) Turns out that, because this is a remote site, procedures are drastically different; nobody told us that during training, and the new/different instructions skip over some critical information.
(7) Even the basic instructions are pretty complicated — the kind that you’ll do in your sleep after a week but are overwhelming at first. I barely grasp them, and I suspect I’ve studied 10x as hard as the other ladies, one of whom spent the Zoom class chewing into the camera.
(8) The setup ladies answered what they could and gave me the supervisor’s number to call for the rest. By then it was already mid-afternoon on a Friday.
(9) The supervisor grudgingly and condescendingly answered most of my questions, but only after I pushed him repeatedly. He had this flat-affect voice like someone who thinks he’s dealing with a difficult customer and isn't very skilled at that. I suspect he knew before I called that there were problems. He kept saying “it’s in the instructions” when it’s not. He said they’d *mail* the missing essential supplies *next week*. The voting site opens first thing Monday.
(10) He also told me that I am not site captain. There is no site captain. We all just show up and spontaneously work smoothly together. That oughtta work fine. Now stuffing all the initiative I summoned up to deal with this back down into where it came from. Love getting yanked around like a rag doll!
My plan is to go massive CYA, do whatever I have to to survive the week, do my best to make sure none of this background bullshit affects the voters’ comfort, and then never, ever do anything like this again.
The setup ladies were as helpful as they could be, ditto the librarian where the site is. I don’t have a good first impression of my fellow poll workers, but they could still turn out to be fine — chewing into the Zoom camera is not a capital offense after all. But the HQ people! You’d think since they *know* they’re packing for a remote site where they can’t offer much support they’d at *least* take care to pack everything needed. Maybe you just get your conscience and work ethic surgically removed when they put you in management.
AFAIK they actually need me b/c there are a lot of tasks that have to be done by two people from different political parties and the other two workers belong to the same party. We’re 2 hours from HQ and nobody wants to make this trip. But I wonder if they’d even give a xit if they had to shut the site down.
It’s funny really b/c to me this was the most important thing in the world but to them it is just a nowheresville rural place and I’m just a temp worker. So I’m talking to him like my opinion really matters and I could make this thing work but ROFLMFAO.
Weirdly, the actual election day is staffed through a different department and even takes place at a different site. Hopefully that will be a little more together. Now sweeping up the remaining shards of positive attitude and putting them in a nice box in the back of my brain so I can whip up enthusiasm for election day, because I would not forgive myself if I didn’t give that a 110% chance.
But after that I’m done and intend to spend the rest of my retirement kayaking.
OK, as soon as I finish enjoying the bunnies and quail and saguaros and my lease is up. Then I’ll spend the rest of my retirement kayaking. Meanwhile even if all the work/volunteer options suck this is still a pretty cool detour.
camping solo to avoid conflicts does not always work. Yesterday it was a chipmunk getting on my case, today it is a meatball!
The original builder haunted me.
