yesterday i had my poll worker training for upcoming june election. 2008 is a busy year, with three different elections in california. february was a statewide disaster, and the alameda county registrar of voters really seemed to have noticed. i noticed that the rules had changed somewhat, thanks to the secretary of state, but the acrov really improved the instructions so that we’ll have a better idea of what the rules are.
the thing is, most poll workers are still annoying and slow. i recognized a large portion of my class from my previous trainings- lots of regular berkeley types. older hippies/left wing radicals that still cling on to certain ideals but can’t pay attention to lots of things that matter- like what constitutes a provisional voter. the really frustrating thing is that many of these people think they know everything, and would constantly interrupt the instructors (who would of course point out that the person wasn’t correct). being right or wrong on election day is nerve-wracking. any mistake from the poll workers could hinder demcoracy. the inspector and judge are supposed to be the most competent people are the polling precinct, which sadly often isn’t the case. this is why i decided to become a poll worker (that and i hate the bottle neck of slow people working the street-index or signature roster). i was definitely the youngest person in the room.
one thing i took away from this is that the registrars of voters are in a tough position throughout california (and probably the rest of the country)- they have to follow the policies of the secretary of state, which are vague and not always practical. it’s sad, but i understand why the acrov people kept telling us to take our issues with the rules to the secretary of state- because they can’t do anything about it. i wish the secretary of state did a better job with voter education, but alas they make it as vague and confusing as most library applications. somebody lamented yesterday that voters don’t read the literature sent to them, but i can’t blame people for not reading long, dense, confusing packets giving them each possible option for voting. of course, the secretary of state’s webpage is terrible. way to promote voter literacy!
the funniest thing about the training was when we had to split into pairs to set up and take down the touch-screen and the scanner. my partner was a precinct coordinator from oakland who said, “you’re not too dumb for being from berkeley.” how’d she know i was from berkeley! “educated guess.” she then started insulting berkeley pollworkers for being soft and clueless, loud enough so that other people heard her. this milquetoast woman who looked like a librarian took offense and tried to talk about berkeley’s diversity, my parter laughed and told her to look around the room- all of the other precinct workers from berkeley, save for one, were white. i tried not to chuckle. one of the acrov workers said we were the most efficient pair, and let us leave early. the whole class went long though, and i was happy to go home and write an essay.
i should be doing lots of different things right now- sleeping, working on software management homework, working on a digital collection project, or even playing smash brothers, but instead i’m looking for clips from later… with jools holland, featuring jools holland from squeeze as host and sometimes band leader. as far as music variety shows go, this is the best. not only does he have an interesting mix of artists on every week, he seems to have a really good attitude about it all. so… here are some of the video i’ve found:
kate nash – “foundations”.
she’s totally a guilty pleasure of mine, which a couple of my student workers have really taken to.
mika – “grace kelly”.
i first heard this song driving back from the manchester airport with neil and it was on radio 1 every other hour after that. another guilty favourite.
enough of the embeds, they take up space.
the view – “wasted little djs”. i first got hooked on this band during the same trip to the uk because “same jeans” seemed to be after “grace kelly” every hour. they’re really good, even if they’re from scotland.
of course, my obligatory plug for bands from sheffield:
yesterday was oakland’s domestic opening day. it was my first ever opening day for baseball after years of being passed over for giants tickets when i was a kid. it wasn’t super special, but i got there really early to make sure i could hang out in my preferred seat. the whole right field bleacher crew was there and they were happy to see me.
the game itself was ho-hum. neither team was amazing but it was nice to watch all the same. i forgot how much i hate red sox fans. the ones in the bay area tend to be wealthy, white, and totally clueless. every so often, one can take a joke, but for the most part they seem shocked that fans in oakland of all places would be loud and obnoxious. i guess i could see this if we were all sitting in nice, field level seat, but these were the bleachers! they’re cheap and known for being a little rowdy. it’s why i sit there. you’d think if they can afford to drive their bmw suv from santa clara or orinda, they can afford not ot sit by me. one asked us why we had to be like that, and i asked him and his lady friend if they’d ever been to a baseball game before. she hadn’t, he’d been to a few.
one of my friends said she won’t sit with me in the bleachers any more because she said the bleacher people were too distracting. she also said it’s nothing she’d bring her mom to. it’s funny because i wouldn’t want to sit in the bleachers with anybody else’s parents, but i wouldn’t mind being there with my own. yeah, i’d tone it down a little, but i’d still let the opposing right field know he sucks.
