By Charlotte Jackson
Earlier this week, I served as the Presiding Judge at one of the Precincts located in Senate District 6. There were only 33 eligible voters who cast their ballot at our location, as well as three who needed to visit another location. In addition, we had eight local residents who took time out of their busy day to stop in to vote. Unfortunately, they reside in Senate District 15 and were not eligible to vote in this Special Election.
Several of those who voted asked how were the Election Workers chosen. Some of them did not realize the workers were paid. Some were under the misconception that you had to be retired to work. As we explained to them, I realized that perhaps there were others with these same questions.
If you are a Registered Voter, you can contact the Harris County Clerk’s Office and ask to be added to the list of those who are interested in working future elections. Typically, if your voting precinct has an elected Precinct Chair, they are contacted to serve as the Presiding Judge for the upcoming election. They are then responsible for recruiting workers.
People ask why would someone spend 12 – 14 hours on Election Day working for $10 an hour. To me, it is something that I learned early in life. When I was a Senior at North Shore Senior High, my Government Teacher, Ms Mary Lou Dillard, handed each student an application to become a registered voter. She did this the first week of our Senior year. She then returned it to us 30 days before our 18th birthday so we could verify that the information was still correct. Then she mailed it to the County Clerk’s Office. She taught us throughout that year that if you did not take the time to vote, you would not have the right to complain is the elected leaders did not work for you.
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