For more than 30 years, Nina Haley has watched thousands of eager voters cast their ballots on Election Day. She’s especially energized by one group of voters.
“It actually excites me the most to see a young voter come in,” Haley said. When she sees a young person enter the polling site, she starts cheering: “Oh my gosh. I’m glad you’re here and I hope you continue coming back.”
Haley is among the 1,900 Central New Yorkers who serve each Election Day as election inspectors. The election inspectors watch over the polls. They also make sure that voters are not electioneering or wearing political garb within 100 feet from the site. The pay is $150.
Lucy Cruz-Peters, an Onondaga County election inspector coordinator, said people volunteer to be election inspectors and can apply at any time by contacting the elections board.
To be an inspector, Cruz-Peters said, a person must:
- Read and write English
- Be at least 18-years of age
- Live in the county for which they are applying as an election inspector
- Be a U.S. citizen
To become inspectors, candidates must complete a two-step training process, according to the Web site for the Onondaga County Board of Elections.
In the first step, candidates learn the procedures and processes of being an inspector. Then they complete a written test about the policies that an inspector must abide by. For example, election inspectors aren’t allowed to disclose whom they vote for. If candidates pass the test, they get an additional $25 when they first work at a poll site.
In the second step, candidates learn how to use the voting machines.
On Election Day, inspectors are required to work the entire shift, from open to close. “It’s a long day,” Carol Christopher, an Onondaga County election inspector coordinator, said. “It’s a 15-hour day. You really have to enjoy what you’re doing to sit there that long.”
Election inspectors arrive at their voting site at 5:30 a.m. They make sure all the voting machines work. They put out ballots. They hang up an American flag.
When the polls close at 9 p.m., election inspectors collect all the ballots. The chairperson for that site is responsible for dropping off the material at the John H. Mulroy Civic Center.
Before the polls can be opened at a site, Christopher said, two inspectors from the Democratic Party and two from the Republican Party must be present.
If a polling site does not have enough Democratic or Republican inspectors, the jobs are filled by inspectors who are not affiliated with either of the major political parties. The basic requirement: nonpartisanship.
“We’re not supposed to campaign or steer somebody to vote a certain way,” said Haley, the 30-year veteran inspector, said.
For her part, Haley, a DeWitt resident, left her job at a television station behind three years ago to become a part-time election inspector trainer. For Haley, serving as an inspector means more than just making $150 on Election Day: It’s her civic duty.
“I can’t picture ever giving my job up at this point,” Haley said.
(Michelle San Miguel is a senior with double majors in broadcast journalism and international relations.)
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