Election Day duties - Poll Clerk or Presiding Officer

Has anyone ever done this?

I used to regularly be a PO when part of my library was used as a polling station. It was a long day but quite interesting and well paid on top of my LA salary.

The poll began at 7 am you we had to be there by 6am to set up the polling station. Usually the polling booths were erected for us but there was a lot of preparation to do as well. As a non driver I always hoped that my poll clerk would have a car to get us to the counting center - usually a local school. If so I gave him/her the voucher. Otherwise we booked a taxi.

It was a long day and the PO is not allowed to leave the station (except for a comfort break). However as it was my library there was a staff room with cooking facilities and decent toilet and washroom. There was a Chinese nearby so I used to send one of my junior staff to get a take out meal at lunch time and to the local chippy later on. The library was open until 9 pm and the poll did not close until (as I recall) 10 pm. Then you had to complete all your paper work and get the big heavy metal ballot box to the counting venue.

Of course in those days we did not have to ask for ID. I would not like to do that job now as there are bound to be arguments and aggressive people. There was usually a police officer who called in every hour of so and on call in case of trouble.

Interesting times.