beyond voting
in today’s honolulu advertiser, there is an article about the severe shortage of polling place workings for the primary election on september 23, just ten days away.
With the primary election just 10 days away, the state Office of Elections said it is “substantially short” of the 2,400 temporary workers needed to run polling places on O’ahu.
As of yesterday, the office needed nearly 900 more people to staff O’ahu’s 217 precincts for the Sept. 23 election. If these workers aren’t found, voters at polling sites across the island can expect longer waits, said Rex Quidilla, state voter services coordinator.
my first thought was ‘i can’t believe there aren’t more people who want to participate in the election process beyond the ballot box and the voting booth.’ then i remembered in which country i live. i could go on and on regarding my thoughts on people who don’t vote, or even people who ONLY vote, but i’ll save that for another time.
for my part, i will be serving as the precinct chairperson at a polling place near where i live (not my own, so i need to vote early) for the primary and i’m guessing for the general, as well. i signed up because i’m committed to learning as much as i can about the american political system and i wanted to help. when i was told workers (i guess i can’t call them volunteers) actually get a stipend, was really surprised. a little extra money is always good, but i would have done this for free.
i want to call on everyone to call the office of elections and ask if workers are needed in your district. it is so important that all the pollings places are well staffed. if voters have a smooth, easy, glitch-free voting experience, they will be more likely to vote again in the future. these days, it seems like people need just the slightest excuse not to vote.
sure, 530am to 7pm is a VERY long day and i’m not particularly excited about waking up and heading out before the sun, but i think its important. you should too.
here’s the number for the office of elections: 453-8683
![[PDA - Heathcare NOT Warfare - Sign the Petition.]](http://pdamerica.org/images/ads/HealthNotWar_final.jpg)
i share your feelings on this topic. last election cycle, i worked as a precinct chair for the first time. i was very surprised when they asked me to be chair since i had never done it before… but they are that short of people that if they see any level of competence in the people that come for training they immediately try to move them up!
i won’t be able to work the precints on Sept 23rd since i will be on Molokai getting ready to paddle the 42 miles back to Waikiki… but i do plan on signing up to work the general election in Nov.
Comment by rachel — September 13, 2006 @ 11:40 am