I am a Douglas County poll worker. Being a poll worker is an important job, and we’re the front line facing the public in the 25 precincts serving the county. Now as my colleagues and I are getting ready for the general election, I clearly see the excitement for this election, maybe the most important election ever.
Early in-person voting is held at six precincts in my county. On Election Day, all 25 precincts will be open for business. The work isn’t glamorous, but it is necessary.
Credit: Handout
Credit: Handout
The right to vote in this country has been a struggle and some continue to struggle. The State Election Board has been trying to make things difficult for county election directors by changing the rules that add to the already massive workload of conducting an election. (Though a judge recently invalidated those machinations.) Georgia has 159 county Boards of Election, and they prepare constantly for the next upcoming election — and there’s always a next election. Having fair elections is a massive undertaking, requiring many workers in various roles, working in unison to create the desired result. The goal is a fair election, with all ballots counted and all eligible voters having access to the ballot and be allowed to vote.
But voting hasn’t always been easy. The history of elections in the United States is filled with instances of death and bloodshed where men and women fought for and even died over the right to vote.
Voter suppression has been and is a fact of life in our country. Voter suppression is an effective method to limit who votes in an election. It’s usually targeted at racial or ethnic groups, political parties or religious communities. Sometimes, that suppression happens at the polling place. In recent elections, people have shown up at polling places with weapons on their hips to “monitor” the election. If you think you have been a target of an intimidation tactic at your polling place, let a poll worker know. We are there to ensure you have the opportunity to vote and to do it safely.
Another form of intimidation is a long line. Inadequate voting equipment in some precincts creates long waits, which deter people, especially infrequent voters, from voting. Early in-person voting is one way to combat the long lines. In Georgia this year, more than 300,000 people cast ballots on the first day of early voting.
Black Americans have continually been the target of voter suppression, from Reconstruction to today. The 14th and 15th Amendments, along with a series of laws passed by Congress, guarantee U.S. citizenship and equal civil and legal rights to Black Americans, and that includes the right to vote.
In 1877, under President Rutherford B. Hayes, all federal troops in the South were removed, effectively ending Reconstruction. When the federal troops were removed from the South, many of the protections that formerly enslaved Americans counted on disappeared.
Jim Crow Laws enforced segregation, increased voter suppression and introduced many types of voter restrictions used against Black Americans. One method of keeping the Black people from voting during the Jim Crow era was the jelly bean jar. People of color were asked, by the registrars, to guess the number of jelly beans in the jar. They always seemed to guess wrong. Another method was a poll test used to assess a person’s ability to read and write. The clerk administering the test could pass or fail a person at his discretion. Another tool was the poll tax. This was a fixed fee to vote.
Another form of voter suppression is gerrymandering, partisan or racial redistricting that dilutes the voting power of a specific group.
Two recent Supreme Court decisions severely weakened voting rights that had been protected under the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Republican-led states soon implemented voter suppression methods that had been blocked, including strict voter identification laws, the relocation or closure of precincts in Black communities, reductions in early-voting periods, bans on voter registration drives, the elimination of same-day registration and purges of voter rolls.
These tactics make voter registration an important part of democracy, too. So I don’t just work in the polling place. Much of my time outside of the polling place is spent at events, encouraging Douglas County citizens to vote. I check people’s voting status, provide voter registration applications (many people fill out the applications on the spot) and provide district maps, absentee ballot applications and election calendars.
I do this because in the United States, the right to vote is fundamental to who we are as a nation. This is my civic duty.
Dave Fedack is a poll worker in Douglas County, Georgia.
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