I worked my ass to the bone (I wish) in this election not the normal way.

[LiberalFighter]

A team of us made continuous calls to find workers to work as poll workers at each election site in our county. It started in early September and lasted into Election Day afternoon. Our county has 146 voting sites with about 300 precincts. A total of 521 workers were initially assigned and then there were about 50 cancellations mostly and some promoted to a higher position. In addition, as a result of long lines in 2 precincts there were an additional 3 poll workers approved and added by the county election board.

The work required notifying the Election Board of our assignments. Initially, we arranged to provide a spreadsheet on a flash drive showing the assignments and needed data about each assignment. In the last ten days we then began faxing each assignment or cancellation. In previous elections we had taken hard copies down to the Election Board for them to process. We reduced paper usage by about 50% saving maybe about 570 sheets of paper.

This was not an easy task to complete as a result of trying to assign workers to positions in precincts that they are willing to work. And many not bothering to notify us when they change their phone or that they changed their mind about working. Then we had to work with Republican Inspectors that in many cases didn't know their job. Instead of doing their job they were trying to foist their responsibilities on us.


Then there was the GOTV ride program. In our 2007 municipal election we provided 60 rides to voters. In the 2008 Primary election we again provided 60 rides. Not the case for the General Election. We provided about 170 rides to voters and that did not include the 70 provided during the Early Vote stage or the 19 that voted by mail who normally received a ride to the poll. THIS part of the program was the combined effort of our regular workers and the Obama head organizer with her volunteers involved during the Indiana primary.

We had more volunteers than we had ever had before on Election Day. Where were the McCain volunteers? They were non-existent even in a county considered strongly controlled by the Republicans.