Hudsonhubtimes.com

Pole Worker Improvements Desperately Needed

November 6, 2007

I'm sorry if any of our poll workers take offense to this. It's not my intent to bash anyone in particular. I am, however, deeply bothered by the fact that we have inept people in charge of one the most important duties we all have as citizens of this city/county/state/country. Voting.

I can site several examples of my experiences over the years but I won't bore everyone with the details. Consistently, I have found our poll workers to 1) lack any kind or sense of urgency, 2) get easily confused by the stacks of paper they have to navigate through just to allow one person to vote, and most importantly 3) lack any kind of technical understanding of the equipment they are responsible for.

My angst comes primarily from the last two elections. I'm usually one of the first at the polls and the last two elections I have not been able to cast my vote electronically because the poll workers couldn't figure out how to work the scanner. Two times in a row!!! I had to leave my ballot in a mail slot with the hope (but not expectation) that my votes would actually be cast for me. They've done nothing to instill any confidence in me to this point so have no reason to believe it will be handled effectively.

We should have learned a valuable lesson from the debacle that was the 2000 presidential election. When our future hinges upon a hanging chad or poll workers who don't know how to do their jobs, we have a very big problem. It's time for our board of elections to either hire people that actually know what they are doing or do a far better at preparing them for their job.