Paul Bass Photo
Linda Greenhouse, center, waiting hours in line in 2016 to vote.
Linda Greenhouse read the latest article about New Haven’s broken elections, about the difficulty in finding capable poll workers, and came up with an idea.
“If 14-hour days are too long, why not two 7‑hour shifts?” she wrote in an email.
“And if it’s too hard to recruit low-wage (and barely motivated) individuals —instead of treating it as a minimum-wage work day, make it fun. Make it an inspiring exercise in democracy. Make it a party. Recruit on the campuses, of which New Haven has so many.
“This could be turned around in no time with a little imagination. I would even sign up myself.”
Feel free to weigh in in the comments sections below.
Greenhouse, the retired longtime New York Times U.S. Supreme Court reporter, has been watching the election fiasco since moving to New Haven in 2010. She previously wrote this article about her observations.
When I was running for office and helping to recruit poll workers we split the day for the party checkers. We were able to do that because the Democratic party paid. Most of the poll workers were elderly and 14 hours is exhausting. It worked well.
While I admire Ms. Greenhouse and hate to be a naysayer, I think it is unlikely that the day could be made into enough fun to offset the low pay and long hours. Furthermore I'm not certain we should attempt to do that. I will take a moment here to sound like a corny old patriot. Voting and feeling that I make a difference with my vote is really valuable to me. Why shouldn't the people who facilitate that gem be paid a good healthy wage so that its a sought after job by highly qualified people?