As a small, unimportant gear in the complex mechanism of a Michigan election, I can attest that the state’s voting system shines.
My wife and I both have worked in our local township during elections in recent years, most recently the August primary. We plan to work again in November. The tasks we perform are small. But we are glad we can help the electoral process operate as it is intended, to make known the will of the people.
A pollworker’s Election Day is long. My wife and I each worked about 14 hours the day of the August primary. The day of the last presidential election, it was closer to 16 hours. Training time also is required before voting day. And my wife and I both helped set up the polling place the day before. The job was tiring, but we’re both glad we can do our little part to help locals’ voices be heard in Lansing and in Washington, D.C.
Like most good things in my life, working the polls came about because of a suggestion from my wife. She always has great ideas to keep me out of trouble.
Ideas like hauling several pickup truckloads (each load weighing close to 1,000 pounds) of mulch and unloading them across her gardens with just shovels, a wheelbarrow and muscles. That one keeps me out of trouble for three days straight every year, and sore for at least a week after. Or the idea to ride our bikes from Charlevoix to Petoskey and back a couple of summers ago when the temperature was in the upper 90s. Or the idea to repaint a room in our house that I think looks good as-is. We’re still going back and forth on that one.
It hadn’t crossed my mind to help run an election. That idea sprang from my wife’s endless fountain of ideas soon after we both retired. I’m glad it did.
The experience has educated me about the intricacies of the electoral process.
The amount of preparation performed by the township clerk and staff is massive. The voter registration database must be maintained securely and accurately. Ballots must be designed, created, tested, ordered. Absentee ballots must be mailed to eligible voters, checked and recorded when they are received back, and stored, unopened, until counted on Election Day. All of this must be done securely.
The laws dictating how the tabulating machines are chosen, purchased, stored, maintained and operated are precise. Other laws specify how polling places are physically arranged to ensure vote secrecy.
Each task performed by poll workers is done by a bipartisan team: at least one Republican and at least one Democrat working together. Care must be taken that each voter’s choices remain secret. Through the whole of Election Day, tallies of ballots taken in and votes recorded must match exactly.
The total number of processed ballots is checked several times during the day and again after the polls close. After results are collected at the county level and sent to Lansing, each township clerk can look at the posted numbers and ensure they match what was recorded on the local level — which ensures no electronic shenanigans after the numbers exit the paper trail.
My faith in the security of our elections has never wavered. The recent experience actually working at the polls has reinforced that faith. The system works.
My faith in my wife’s great ideas, though, has wavered on occasion. Like this idea she floated recently about adding another flower garden. I’ve argued against that, bringing up the fact that deer eat most of what she plants. I haven’t told her, actually I’m thinking about the additional two pickup loads of mulch we’d need to haul home and spread around. My muscles ache just thinking about it.