Birthday And Elections

Well my birthday came and went.  It was a pretty quiet affair.  Gary and Jennifer took me out to dinner at La Chalupa and that was it.

Tuesday I helped work the primary elections.  I have been helping the elections office for the past month.  She had a helper in her office, but couldn't really count on her.  One day last month she came up to my office and asked if I could help her stuff envelopes for the absentee voters.  No problem, got envelopes ready to go for her.

The county commissioners asked if I would work in elections as needed until this election cycle was over.  My boss didn't have a problem as long as I got my work done. 

I worked two days in elections on Monday and Tuesday.  In the 27 years of working in this building I knew the elections office was busy, but just didn't know how busy they really were.  There is more to elections than counting ballots.  Alot of paperwork for a primary because in Montana we are dealing with two ballots.  Montana is an open primary so a voter can choose which party to vote for in the primary.

Monday was just a regular day but we had to get all the ballots and stuff ready for the election judges to pick up for their precincts.  This county has 20 precincts, with Crow having to have two boxes as that is the biggest precinct.  I helped carry these heavy ballot boxes out to cars for some of the judges. 

Election morning I worked all day.  It has been a long time since I've put in hours like that.  I worked my regular 8 hours, then an additional 10 hours for elections.  We didn't get done until 2:00 am. then turn around and work the next morning.  What held us back was the counting machine.  That machine did not like the absentee ballots because they were folded or the ballots with write ins. 

My job that night was running the jogger.  One person would receipt in the ballot boxes and hand them to me.  My job was to put the ballots in the jogger, make sure that they were all aligned correctly for the counting machine.  What a jogger does is just shakes the ballots into a neat pile better than what a person could do by hand.

I now have a greater appreciation for election administrators and I learned alot more about the election process.  The saying that your vote counts, it really does.  I won't be here for the general election, but will be able to help with all the before stuff.