A message to procrastinators from a Florida poll worker

Early voting in Florida ends Sunday, with the final election day Tuesday, Nov. 5, from 7 a.m.-7 p.m.

As a pollworker, I offer this message to procrastinators, for I have been among your ranks. Ballots are long and vexing and this missive is meant to assist. This time, I voted by mail as a fourth-time pollworker from 5:30 a.m, to 8 p.m. election day, and was hence unable to wait till the last minute.

If you haven’t voted, check out vote.org, Ballotpedia.org or vote411, one of my favorites, headed by the League of Women Voters Education Fund. Be careful where to tread. The nonpartisan protectthevote.net is not to be confused with MAGA-oriented protectthevote.com. I favor any rigorous framework with photo IDs that makes voting by citizens easier rather than harder.

If you have voted, thanks! Now, if you can, volunteer as able this weekend. Pound pavements, Knock on doors. Phone bank in national house swing districts. Drive souls to polls. Stop doomscrolling and leave it on the field. Plenty is riding on this. The world is watching.

As a tenderfoot on my fourth go, I am impressed by the professionalism and dedication of the people and process. Fellow poll workers of all persuasions view the precinct with the same sanctity as jury service or even a confessional. We leave our opinions at the door.

To better understand the full picture from all sides, I also went through GOP/MAGA poll watcher training on Zoom. The lady conducting it was neutral and spot-on with the rules. The gentleman introducing it, however, a top official of Florida’s “Election Integrity” unit, started by saying such things as: “Democrats will cheat” and “Anybody who visits Georgia knows it’s not a blue state.” 

This phony soothsaying garbage helps nothing and is meant to sow distrust, dislike, even hate. It is in line with Trump’s dangerous heads-I-win, tails-it’s-rigged sing-song prattle, erodes our republic and democracy, and makes Trump’s and Elon Musk’s phone-buddy Putin salivate.

For the record, as of this year in Florida, you can wear your MAGA cap or Harris shirt or even Halloween regalia into your Florida voting place. You will need to take off your mask so the smiling poll worker can check your ID to make sure it’s you. Also, whether pollworking, watching, or voting, keep political talk out of the precinct. No campaigning or caterwauling within 150 feet.

Also for the record, in Florida, as of this year, it is a third-degree felony to intimidate or harass poll workers, poll watchers, or voters at an election site. Such are these times.

Whoever wins, we’re in for a rocky time. The clergy is working extra hours to shepherd folks through pre- and post-election nerves. We’ll need to stay steady, dig into our spiritual better selves, look out for the underdog, and take deep breaths.

Voting is a privilege and it’s great to be proud of our country. I can’t fault Lee Greenwood for his chestnut Trump fanfare song “I’m Proud to Be an American.” Even we Harris voters can sing it.

More important, we are lucky to be American. We do not choose where we are born, any more than whether we are right- or left-handed, gay or straight. America is still the envy of the world and the best place to write your own ticket at nearly any age or station. People die trying to get here.

We are in danger of squandering that luck with meanness, distrust, and placing too much stock and faith in the Donald Trumps, Elon Musks, and Peter Thiels of the world. “Trump will fix it,” the signs said at the ugly Madison Square Garden rally last Sunday. Fix what? And how?

No. We, alone and together, can fix it, whatever it is – with work. We are citizens first, consumers second. And we need to listen hard.