Their preparation for this task actually began in April when a number of them, including me, were contacted by the Humboldt County Elections Office to serve as precinct inspectors for the various precincts. Every precinct with a polling place needs a precinct board, generally of four people, to manage and facilitate the voting in that precinct. This board consists of an inspector and three clerks. One of the clerks is sometimes called a judge.
I got into what I think of as front-line democracy in action because another inspector, Myrna Kemp, asked me to serve on her board. Myrna drove me and the other two clerks she'd recruited up to Eureka for training. Every election, the Elections Department holds trainings for everyone who is going to work in the many precincts. These trainings are very important because there are long gaps between elections and all precinct workers benefit from a refresher course on the many details and procedures common to every election, plus a heads-up on whatever new requirements have been imposed by the state or federal government.
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Marling was a fellow first-time board member seven or eight elections ago, when Myrna recruited us. Both Myrna and the other board member quit after that election, but Marling and I have done five or six elections together since then. I served as an inspector and she has served both as judge and inspector. For the June 3 election, Marling was the inspector for 2SHS7, the “in-town” Redway precinct. I was the inspector for 2SH-7, the “out-of-town” Redway precinct.
The secret to running a good election at the precinct level is putting together a good precinct board. It can be incredibly difficult to recruit board members who are willing to do all that running an election requires. Things like stamina, determination, attention to detail, and so on. It's a paying job. Everybody does get paid an amount that comes out to be about two or three dollars per hour, and since 2005 at least, each board member gets a commemorative lapel pin for each election. But in my experience, most people serve on precinct boards because we think it's a seriously important civic responsibility. It's seriously important that ordinary citizens participate in the execution of elections. At the precinct level an election is a sharing of democratic practice among neighbors. Elections shouldn't be things that are done for us, but something we do for ourselves. What better way to make sure our elections are honest than to participate in the running of them?
Just about every precinct worker I've ever talked to says pretty much the same thing: the best part of any election is seeing all your neighbors. June 3 was a particularly enjoyable election at the two Redway precincts.
When my board member Patte Rae and I attended the training, Carolyn Crnich told a story about the Ferndale precincts who deck the polling place with patriotic bunting and open their polls by clanging a cow bell. Patte went out and spent probably all she's getting paid for the election on patriotic decorations for our polling place at the Healy Senior Center. When we all gathered at the center the night before to set up the polling booths and do those things we are allowed to do the night before the election, Patte strung up shiny strings of red, white and blue stars. She brought red, white and blue helium-filled balloons to mount outside to get people's attention and remind them to vote. I brought a coaches' whistle and blew it to inform the town that the polls were open. Too bad no one was there to hear it but my fellow precinct workers.
We brought food to share as well. I baked a cheesecake, made fresh pesto and French bread on which to spread it. Patte made applesauce bread. Marling ordered two pizzas for us. Scott Bliss brought his special coffee blend, kept the coffee pot going and passed out home-baked cookies.
When Terri from KMUD came to ask us how the election was going, we asked her to go back to the radio station and put out a call for more voters. In the morning, when the pace of voting was very slow, we began to worry about our local democracy. But then in the later part of the day when things picked up, we began to feel energized by the neighborly energy.
In the mid-afternoon, word must have gotten out, as the pace picked up and we were too busy to be tired.
We were lucky enough to have a couple of first-time voters - local kids who have reached the age of 18 and were voting for the first time.
I've been voting in every election since 1960, and voting in Southern Humboldt since the seventies. In that time, I have participated in many elections and remember quite well voting in precincts run by familiar faces. I can remember Amy Hensell talking about being a precinct inspector back in the day when that included hand-counting the ballots. She said they were sometimes there until two in the morning. We stand on the shoulders of giants.
There's talk now about going more and more to mail only voting. It certainly would be cheaper for the county than the in-person voting system. Oregon has a mail only ballot. It hasn't increased participation as was expected, but they don't seem to be having any problems with it. Some local communities have lost their polling places and become mail only precincts. The reason used at the time those polls were closed was the difficulty of finding poll workers, but I believe at least some of those residents miss their polling place enough to volunteer if they were given the chance.
Coming together to vote is a good thing. It's not about the outcome; it's about the process.
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