My Poll Worker Stint Ended Today - I Got An Amazing Affiliate Surprise!

The best part of my Poll Worker job was being in this amazing mountainside location. I've lived here for almost 40 years and didn't know this haven was a 15-minute drive away. This is Dexter Park, high above the Valley in the Angeles Crest Forest.

The Community Center

The voting area was set up in the gymnasium of the community center. shown below. The weather was lovely all four days, with cool temperatures.

The air was cool and it had the ambiance of a camping retreat. I will definitely be returning here just to enjoy the park itself. AS well as to explore the surrounding canyons.

My stint being a Poll Worker ended today. I can honestly say, I'm glad I don't have a job. I did enjoy the experience of helping voters at the polling station. Four days of working for the County of LA was as much as I could take. Especially the long hours.

So glad to be back home and working on my own terms.

Interesting Anecdotes

My role as a voting clerk was to check the authenticity of voters coming to vote and print out a ballot for them to vote at the electronic polling booths. The tool I used was an iPad connected to the electoral database in our County.

We did this by either scanning the bar code on the voter's mail-in ballot or asking them some questions to verify their identity if they didn't bring their mail-in ballot with them.

In the process of carrying out this function, some interesting situations ensued which I want to share for your amusement.

Age

When we finally get the voter's details on our screen we see their name, address, and age. The question we are directed to ask the voter is what year they were born. If their answer matches, we show them the data and ask them to confirm it is them. If it is, they sign the screen. We then print out a ballot for them to take to the polling booth to cast their ballots.

One lady voter after blurting out her year of birth felt embarrassed, smiled, and made a comment I will not write here. She had her boyfriend with her who looked very much younger and told us we dare not ask him for his age lol. Fortunately, he wasn't voting. But he was all smiles and obviously very much in love with the voter.

Address Quirks

We live in an area where one zip code can be the same for several neighborhood jurisdictions. Usually, the Post Office uses the correct jurisdiction name with these different Jurisdictions. Sometimes they get them wrong.

Some voters accept the error as long as the zip code is correct. Others will not vote until their jurisdiction name is changed. The system allows us to make address changes.

Another quirk is when an address name is changed from street to road after a certain point. For example, Kagel Street to Kagel Road. Sometimes the voter receives a ballot with the incorrect designation. We can make this kind of change too if the voter complains.

Situations like these break the monotony and I welcomed them.

Blind Voters

A few of the voters who were bling came to vote. Fortunately, they came with helpers. The system allows their helper to assist them in the voting process. They have to sign a screen on the iPad to make the vote valid.

Families Voting Together

Several families came together. Not only with their spouses and kids, but also with their pets! No, the pets didn't vote HA!

It was fun chatting with them and helping them through the process. Since there were fun things for the kids to do in the park, the families lingered a while after the voting was completed.

My Conclusion

This was in my opinion one of the best voting centers in LA County. I would do this again for future elections if I could get assigned to the same location.

However, this made me grateful that I am building my own business. My time is my own and it's hard to put a price on that.

I talked to some of the voting clerks about this affiliate marketing. Sadly they were too young to qualify In fact, they were all too young to vote at 17. Here's a picture of all of us:

When I asked them what motivated them to do this job. They either wanted the money, or their teacher in school recommended them to learn something about civic duty.

The supervisors were older of course. I never spent enough time with them to talk about things other than the voting procedures.

The Best Part

After a hard day's work, the best part was the spectacular view of the valley on my drive home.

If you get an opportunity to be a poll worker I recommend you give it some consideration. You never know what delights that may bring.

Affiliate Commission

One more thing. I did nothing towards my affiliate marketing business while working this polling job. When I opened my PayPal account this morning, after I wrote the post, I noticed an affiliate commission of $161 deposited into my account. I also signed up a new affiliate. This program works, right? Sweet!

Hence, I added this addendum. As well as modify the post title. I thought I'd do this rather than write a new post.

Cheers.

Edwin