Poll worker workshop

By Karl G. Kachergis
Posted Tuesday, January 15, 2008

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Pittsboro, NC - Thanks, Gene, for seconding my prior post calling for poll workers.

You wrote:

This last part is really, really corny. However, at the end of each election day, while we're sitting there putting together the final tallies, I think of the fact that there are millions of poll workers sitting in thousands of polling places tabulating the final totals to record and report the transitions in governments. And all these transitions are done primarily by peaceful means.

I don't think this part of your post is corny or else I am just as corny myself. I do think of every election day as a day when there is a sort of magic all across the country. We all (or many of us) step out of our routines to go to a place and mark a ballot and that is how we choose our leaders and how we all actively participate in history.

"And all these transitions are done primarily by peaceful means." I have spent long hours in the blazing sun or the cold rain (why do we always seem to have extreme weather on this "magical" day?) on behalf of various candidates and causes. Often representatives of the opposition have been right there alongside me. Sometimes we have slack periods when there are no voters to (respectfully) approach. So the opposition and I have chatted with each other. We have usually been smart enough to realize that we won't change each other's views. But we have always agreed that this business of Democracy and how it is practiced here in the U.S. and in Chatham County is precious. We have remarked on how lucky we are because it is so peaceful here and that generally people treat each other with respect, however much they disagree. If a candidate shows up at the polls, I have always seen the people working outside the polls treat him or her with the utmost respect.

I was saddened to learn that a former party chair followed, harassed, and continuously interrupted a Pittsboro Town Council candidate as they both worked outside the Pittsboro polls on election day. Perhaps the people working outside the polls need to agree on a code of conduct. Maybe it should be simply treating others as they themselves would want to be treated. I think that is the essence of civility.

Again, Gene and I are urging anyone who has ever had a notion to work INSIDE the polling places to come to the pollworker recruitment and training workshop at 7 p.m. on January 15 in the auditorium of the Ag. building in Pittsboro.

Karl Kachergis is chairman of the Chatham County Democratic Party