I am now officially trained and ready to be a poll worker. I even had to say an oath. The instructor of the training was really good. Funny and engaging and passionate about democracy. He gave a little speech at the end that was pretty inspiring, about restrictions on voting rights in North Carolina's past, and how in 2008 anyone* can vote freely, with respect and privacy, without fear or intimidation, and how it's our job to make that happen.
I'm much less worried now about how much there is to remember, because I learned one key fact: no one deals with fixing problems except the "exceptions table," and no one is assigned to the exceptions table without separate "exceptions training." I didn't do that training, so I'm in the clear. It seems that you get assigned to one station for the day, and that one station has a narrow set of responsibilities, and you can just focus on that area of responsibility and not worry about everything else.
Funniest thing: the instructor had this transparency which said "Because It's The Law," and throughout the session he kept saying "Why do we do X?" and then he would put up that transparency while everyone called out, "because it's the law!" Then late in the session he was explaining that everyone gets to cast a ballot, no matter what. Even if it's pretty clear that they aren't legal to vote (for instance they are a resident of another state), we just give them a provisional ballot and let the board of elections sort it out. "We never turn anyone away, and why don't we?" he called out. As the room responded with the expected "because it's the law!" he put up a transparency that said, "Because We're Not Florida."
Second funniest thing: "Don't sell Tupperware inside the voting area" is a rule. Yes, it is a rule because they caught somebody doing it a few years ago.
Weirdest thing: I said the pledge of allegiance for the first time in my life. What can I say, I always went to weirdo schools that didn't say it, and I was never a scout. Somehow the opportunity never arose before. I have mixed feelings about swearing loyalty to a flag (a country, okay, but a flag?), but I didn't feel right about refusing. So I said it. I did not say "under God" as that is the one part of the pledge I strongly object to.
Coolest thing: finding out that one gentleman in the training session had been a chief judge for 55 years! The whole room applauded him.
After the main training I did equipment training. There were 3 of us in that training session (as opposed to 100 in the general training session). It was run by the guy who maintains the equipment and it was much more low-key. He showed us how to use the machine that tabulates the votes, and the machine that helps people with disabilities mark their ballot.
It's actually a really cool machine. It has all kinds of options for whatever assistance a voter might need: a touch screen, and Braille buttons, and a jack for a "sip and puff" which is a tube that lets someone control the system by blowing into the tube. But the voter has to provide their own "sip and puff" if they need one. Which makes sense: I wouldn't want to stick a tube into my mouth that strangers had used too. Anyway, once they get through making their choices, the machine prints the ballot and then it goes into the tabulating machine as usual.
*everyone except a convicted felon who hasn't finished serving their probation or parole, but we won't go into that.
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