proof that I am too unbalanced to be allowed near a polling station

[Lisa]

I can't believe I just did this. I signed up to be a scrutineer in the BC provincial election, from "eight to the count" -- 8AM until the polls close at 8PM, and then for the counting, which usually lasts an hour or two (I hope that's all).

Why do I do these things to myself?! No newspapers, no magazines, and of course no DU in the polling place.

BCers, be sure to cast your ballots tomorrow. A lot of the ridings are "too close to call".

[jasmeel]

1. Someone's gotta do it! =) n/t

[kliljedahl]

2. a "scrutineer"?

Is that anything like a Musketeer or a Mouseketeer? Hi Lisa, thanks for the videos. They're making the round of our local DU group as I type.


Keith’s Barbeque Central

[Lisa]

4. elections monitor ...

The candidates are allowed to send representatives into the polling place, to check whether people not on the official list and lacking proper ID are being allowed to vote (and also whether legitimate voters are being denied ballots, or whether people are attempting to influence the voters in the polling place). And we're also allowed to watch the counting, lodge protests if we feel ballots are being discarded or accepted when they shouldn't be, and basically serve as witnesses in case anything weird happens.

I am going to stock up on snacks and beverages at the grocery store, because sometimes the campaign HQ forgets to send in food for us.

[kliljedahl]

5. I knew that

Just trying to be humorous. Sometimes it doesn't work too well. Good luck & have as much fun as you can. Sounds like a grueling day.


Keith’s Barbeque Central

[beam me up scottie]

3. Good for you.

I'd like to think I would do the same if we ever hold free elections here.
:patriot: (sorry, the flag should have a maple leaf on it)

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

6. Ahem.

[Zuni]

7. but having legitimate poll workers would help make sure elections are free

[ironflange]

8. I was a scrutineer once, Alberta provincial election

What a drag. About all that was expected of me was to stand around and look alert and interested. Luckily, it was only a four-hour shift.

OTOH, those scrutineers that Reform recruited practically followed you into the booth. Bunch of really cranky old guys, there.

[CanuckAmok]

9. Thanks, Lisa!

It's nice to know my vote will be counted.

[arikara]

10. I worked at the election yesterday

I would have scrutineered if I hadn't got the job. Why couldn't you take a book? They told us that we could read a book or magazine if it wasn't busy. We had a really high turnout, nearly everyone in my book voted.

[Lisa]

11. alas, most of my library is boring textbooks ...

Or long novels that I need some time to get into -- not really possible, with having to jump up periodically to deal with stuff. In training they asked us to avoid magazines that had anything political in them, whether it was our country or not (which kind of let out most of the magazines I would have wanted to read, anyway).

They asked me to monitor 3 or 4 of the tables, so actually I was pretty busy. The only major infraction that happened was ironically right when I was helping a new first-time scrutineer get settled in -- I'd had to leave my poll to do this, and (as our scrutineer at the next table explained to me later) there was some apparent coaching by one of the polling clerks about which option to pick on the STV ballot. Since I wasn't there at the time, I asked him to write down details of the incident, to report to our office.

[iverglas]

12. it's the "no news" part ;)

Books are dandy, but they don't tell ya what's goin on in the outside world.

I've scrutineered every damn election in about the last 30 years (federal, Ontario provincial, municipal, by-, ... well, except the times I was a candidate) and every time I manage to forget quite how mind-numingly boring it is. And you really just don't have a clue what's happening in any sense other than how many people in your polling station don't seem to know why they're there.

So much depends on personalities. I've usually been lucky, and had DROs and poll clerks who were at least pleasant, if not my party's appointee. But I've hit some doozers in terms of both incompetence and rudeness.

It's the other parties' scrutineers who provide for the most entertainment. My favourite was the Liberal, two federals ago, who kept challenging ballots where the vote was for *his* candidate, and there was nothing particularly wrong with the mark. Excessively scrupulous about being honest, or just dumb? Of course, scrutineers live for a ballot to challenge, to alleviate the boredom. I just shrugged every time, and concurred when he withdrew all his challenges at the end.

That same election, one of the poll clerks from another room finished early and came over to harass the worker at my poll as she counted (and did all the other tedious crap, counting leftover ballots, marking envelopes ..). He was old and male, she was young and female, and so she plainly needed him to tell her what to do. I complained to the senior polling station official -- it was quite against the rules for him to even be in our room -- and he waved me off. Then the old fart made a remark about the lousy immigrants voting, so I tried telling that to the senior official guy, who just happened to be a first-generation southeast Asian immigrant himself, and old fart found himself out the door.

The Liberals tend to send baselessly arrogant little snots to do the job. It's always fun smacking them into proper submission. Or equally baselessly self-important men in suits who dash in and dash out and don't make eye contact with the enemy and expect the poll workers to cater to them. The Conservatives are a motley crew, generally quite ordinary and easy-going, in my experience. Damn I hate Liberals.

But all in all, by the time the tiles come off the doors and you phone your numbers in and you get out into the fresh air, it's dark and it's all over, and you don't know what happened until you get home (or to the party) unless you buttonhole a stranger on the street, who probably doesn't care what happened. No watching as the returns dribble in on TV, no watching the numbers get written on the big boards at the rented hall.

For excitement, we career scrutineers have to watch US elections on TV. ;)