So as you have probably guessed like many others I have caught the election bug. It is hard not to. It is everywhere. Let me explain. Earlier last year I wanted to do something to give back to my community. I began volunteering for different organizations. I thought this would give me some good experiences with different agencies before I started my Masters. During the House and Senate election I received information to volunteer for the presidential primaries and the general election. So I went to the website, did my research and I signed up to be an Election Day judge/volunteer. The process was somewhat long but finally I was selected to be a Voting Operations Judge. To my understanding it was a somewhat simple job, which took some time commitment and training (3 hours), but which they needed a lot of volunteers for. As a Voting operations judge (fancy title – nothing really to it) I would do all of the following:

o Attend the team meeting on Monday evening before election
o Arrive at the polling place at 6:00 am on Election Day
o Assist with overall operations of the polling place as directed by the Chief Judge
o Assist with the opening and closing of the polling place as needed
o Serve voters casting a Provisional Ballot by:
 Controlling Provisional Ballots and related materials
 Assisting all provisional voters
 Preparing all Provisional Voting documentation
o Check in voters by:
 Set up the Electronic Poll Books
 Greeting Voters
 Use the Electronic Poll Books to qualify voters to use the electronic voting units, printing Voter Authority Cards and encoding the Voter Access Cards
 Ensure that each voter signs the required documentation
o Assist voters in the voting process by:
 Managing voters in line
 Assisting voters with special needs
 Escorting voters to the voting unit for security reasons

This seems easy enough and would really be helpful for a MACO (Management and Community Organization Concentration) student. Okay now flash forward – Second semester Spring 2008. I am somewhat stressed. I have a lot of reading to do, field two days a week and I am still working a part-time job. How am I supposed to find time to do all of this? Well, I did a little shuffling of my schedule and made things work. I attended the mandatory training session and completed all the additional required paper work. I even signed up some additional volunteers. I really wish I could have used this experience for my mandatory MACO process recording. Oh well – goes to show you an MSW comes in handy for a lot of things.

So this Tuesday, February 12 for us Marylanders, (Also known as SUPER TUESDAY) from 6:00 am – 8:00 pm I will be in my voting district precinct serving as a Voting Operations Judge. Can I just tell you I am really excited to see democracy up close and personal – yeah I know that sounds corny, but it is true. Okay, my friends I would love to get some feedback. Please send any question or comments. Take care until next time.

- Stella

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