Why I Spent 15 Hours Helping Pro-Trump Voters On Election Day
Like many New Yorkers, I spent Election Day at the polls…only this time, I was behind the registration table. Knowing that many retired Brooklynites would not want to risk their health working this year, my husband and I, both dedicated lefties, opted to sign up to help as poll workers. My husband was assigned to our own local polling place, here on the Prospect/Crown Heights border. I was assigned to south Borough Park, five miles and a world away, the heart of mask-denying, pro-Trump, Orthodox Brooklyn.
I’m Jewish…but I’m Reform Jewish. I belong to a left-wing temple that participates in very pro-democracy civil liberties and social justice work. We engage with the outside world for tikkun olam, healing the world, and our political beliefs and priorities are shared with many of our neighbors across the cultural mosaic of Brooklyn. This is a vivid contrast to the Jewish communities in New York who have resisted assimilation, and who prioritize policy related to Israel. I understand intellectually that this is a very deep contrast between me, a liberal Reform Jew, and Conservative or Orthodox Jews, but emotionally, I was still very anxious to be going into a neighborhood where there was a high likelihood that I would have to enforce masks, prevent electioneering, and be extra compassionate.
Once I arrived at the Mapleton Library though, I was assigned, not to the line manager position I expected, but to table manager. I would not be responsible for enforcing NYC law for voters coming into the polling place, but rather, would be responsible for looking up individuals in the NYC voter rolls, and handing out ballots. This is an appropriate job for me: I learn new systems fast, and was able to quickly figure out how to use the NYC voter roll iPad software to look up the individuals who did not have their voter registration card. My station checked in 280 voters total yesterday, and especially in the evening, we had to move through them as quickly as possible.
As I moved voters through, as I helped person after person, I also discovered how important it was to me that everyone got to vote. I knew this going in, as I am a strong believer in civil liberties, and it is against my ideals to see Republican controlled states constantly disenfranchising voters. Since the dismantling of the Voting Rights Act in 2013, we’ve seen attacks at the state level through voting laws, many of which seek to exclude non-white voters from the electorate, most notably in the case of the laws struck down in 2017 in North Carolina.
The test for me was whether I really believed in empowering everyone with their right to vote, including Republican voters, as well as the BIPOC groups who have been deliberately excluded from the electorate for centuries. And to be honest, if I’d been in the same situation in a swing state, I do not know if my beliefs in free and fair elections would have carried into the situation. Still, yesterday, checking in voter after voter, helping people understand the ballots, and trying my best to smile despite the N95 mask on my face, I found an immense gratification and a sense of pride that I was upholding people’s right to vote. And I was still excited to hear people say they were first time voters, even though I knew a lot of them were voting for Trump because they announced as much upon arriving
In my role yesterday, I also had to handle if/then situations around voter registrations. The NYC poll worker manual is very clear, and can be summarized in an “IFFT” type statement to cover the most common scenarios I ran across yesterday: IF the voter does not have their card AND shows as “Inactive” OR does not appear in the voter rolls in the system, THEN issue an affidavit ballot. This played out ten times during the day, as individuals came in, gave their name, and did not show as correctly registered:
VOTER: I voted right here last time! Why am I not in the system!
ME: When was it you last voted?
VOTER: I can’t remember. The election before last?
ME: NYC did purge the voter rolls a few years ago and remove a lot of inactive voters. I can give you an affidavit ballot that will still allow you to submit your vote but if you’re not registered it will not count.
So here’s what angers me this morning: I spent fifteen hours yesterday helping people. I showed them how to fill out ballots without spoiling them by voting for Trump twice (under “Conservative” and “Republican” party lines). I offered affidavit ballots just in case that vote would count. And this morning the President cannot even do as much. Trump is asking that we, as a nation, stop vote counting, and that we effectively disenfranchise hundreds of thousands of voters.
To have a President question the legitimacy of the votes of the American people is not normal and represents a serious attack on a free and fair election.
To have a president constantly claim that mail in ballots are fraudulent and should not be counted is an attack on those voters’ rights.
To have a president stack the Supreme Court, in blatant hypocrisy, to ensure that history repeats from 2000, is not in line with the ethics of American democracy.
To have a president push to cut off vote counting so he may declare victory is what dictators do.
I spent seventeen hours yesterday serving my city, my borough, and my fellow voters… and our president cannot even wait as long after the polls close to declare victory. This should be the moment where we all question the nation we live in, and what we want it to look like, because this looks more like an oligarchy than it does a democracy today.