Public Service Announcement: Election Workers Needed

You guys know I rarely abuse my position here for something OT, but this is one of those rarelies, because it's important.

My full-time job is MGoBlog, but as I've mentioned a few times on the blog or the pod, on election days I'm an election worker.* And with a presidential primary and presidential election coming up this year you are needed as well, especially if you live in Michigan, and especially if you think you might be from an underrepresented party in your community.

Election work is not partisan--every one of us is there and oathbound to assist the voters--but most of the tasks election workers do require the presence of two parties. Unless your city or township is like 50/50, your clerk's biggest headache right now is probably struggling to match numbers. The better mix of locals, the less those of us willing to travel to another community get asked to do so.

I don't know the rules in other states but in Michigan you do not need to live in the community you would be working--you only have to be an elector in the state of Michigan--though most people work in their home precinct or close to it. If you have high schoolers, in Michigan 16- and 17-year olds may also work elections (they do not have to be electors). I know for a fact this is something that admissions (for at least 1 school) at Michigan notices.

It's not super hard. You do a couple of trainings, learn each station, and whichever one you end up working you'll get the hang of pretty quickly. If you want to be even more useful, sign up to get trained on the Electronic Poll Book (it's no harder than navigating this site) and become a fellow laptop swiper person, because we're always in especial demand. 

It is rewarding. Oh is it EVER rewarding! If you've ever wondered how secure our elections are, you'll see for yourself how hard it is to break the system by even one vote. If you've ever despaired that others don't share your patriotic enthusiasm for a strong democracy, it takes less than a day to restore your faith. Then you get a paycheck, and people thank you and stuff, and then you'll look at them quizzically like "Don't thank me; this was actually pretty fun."

I'm recruiting you people specifically because the MGoBlog community is filled with exactly the kind of people** that clerks have been trying to get.*** If you want to look into it, the fastest way is to look up your local clerk. Michigan also has a state portal here: https://www.michigan.gov/sos/elections/pollworker

Also if you happen to be voting at Lone Pine Elementary in February or November, and I'm not obviously helping a voter, come say hi to your precinct co-chair.

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* I don't say "volunteer" because we get paid. I started as an inspector in 2020 because a lot of the older workers couldn't do so during the pandemic. Usually I've been the laptop-having ID-swiper guy, until I got bumped up to precinct co-chair.

** Don't try to argue otherwise--I sell the ads around here, and make a decent living at it by peddling demographic numbers that prove you're more intelligent, patriotic, community-minded, and--importantly for this purpose--remarkably politically balanced.

*** Also it's nice to be working with more Michigan fans, especially when it's the late afternoon downtime in November.)