Today is Tuesday, November 3rd, and it is Election Day in St. Petersburg.  Voters will be choosing a new Mayor for the city, along with five City Council members. They’ll also decide on two City Charter Amendments.

So, if you’re a good citizen and if you haven’t already voted via a mail-in ballot, you’ll be heading to your polling place sometime between 7AM and 7PM today to cast your ballot.  You’ll find a place to park and you’ll walk towards the door.  As you do, will you wonder whether there will be ballots inside, and whether there will be privacy booths there for you to cast your ballot?  Will you find a scanner to scan your ballot and count your vote?  What about people?  Will there be someone to open the door for you, to direct you to the Inspector station, to ensure that the polls open and close on time?  Will there be someone to help you if you forget your identification, or if you just moved into a new neighborhood and are not sure where to vote?

Chances are that you don’t think much about these things.  You go, you vote.  There are always people there to assist you.  But where do they come from?  And how are they trained?

Think about it.  Elections are not an everyday occurrence.  We had a primary election on September 1st, and we have today’s municipal election.  Next year, there will be a countywide election.  Maybe some municipalities will have elections in the Spring.  But the point is, it’s not like a store or a business where employees are on payroll and come in to work every day. 

The office of the Supervisor of Elections for Pinellas County has a staff, and that staff does operate full time.  And I can tell you, from personal knowledge of some of those good people, that they work very, very hard for their money.  But what they do is to create and maintain the infrastructure that allows voting to take place and results to be tallied.  They aren’t the ones who you’ll see in your polling place today.  Not that they wouldn’t try to take care of you if they could.  But there just aren’t enough of them!  Every single polling place requires Deputies, Inspectors, Ballot Distribution Managers, Machine Managers, Assistant Clerks, and Clerks.  Thousands — yes — thousands of poll workers are required to make our elections happen in Pinellas County.  And every one of those thousands of poll workers is required, by state law, to receive training before each and every election. 

So, today, in honor of Election Day, I salute those thousands of poll workers who believe that, if they possibly can, they should answer the call of Civic Duty and sign on to become a poll worker.  I think of it as a quasi-volunteer position.  Poll workers do, indeed, get paid for their time.  But most don’t do it for the money.  Most do it because they feel like they should.  I know many poll workers who have full time jobs and who take vacation days from their regular job so that they can work as a poll worker on Election Day.  Others are folks who might be working part time, or people who have retired and want to do something for their community.  If you feel as though you might be interested in becoming a poll worker, I can tell you, again, from personal experience, that it makes you feel good to do it.  It’s a long day and you’ll be tired by the time you go home, but you’ll feel good about yourself.  If  you’re interested and you’d like more information, check out the Pinellas Supervisor of Elections web site.   

Before I quit for today, I want to recognize one other group.  A couple of paragraphs back, I mentioned that every poll worker is required by state law to receive training before each election.  Who does that training?  Again, these trainers are not full time employees of the Supervisor of Elections Office.  They are regular people, unsung heroes who are also answering their civic call of duty.  Retired professionals, most of them.  Others who work part time and somehow manage to squeeze this training duty into their schedule because they feel like they should.  And, while the typical poll worker works for one day per Election, the typical poll worker trainer works for several weeks before each election!   And so, today’s blog photo was not taken by me, as is usually the case, but by Dennis Hughes, one of those retired professionals who has been training poll workers for years and who also happens to love photography!  Hats off to our St. Petersburg poll worker trainers…

St. Petersburg Poll Worker Trainers, from left: Jerry Provost, Beth Frierson, Paula Engel, Lois Crittendon, Charlotte Hughes, Lora Woodall, Dennis Hughes (click on photo for larger image)