• Home
  • Opinion
  • Quizzes
  • Redistricting
  • Sections
  • About Us
  • Voting
  • Independent Voter News
  • Campaign Finance
  • Civic Ed
  • Directory
  • Election Dissection
  • Events
  • Fact Check
  • Glossary
  • News
  • Analysis
  • Subscriptions
  • Log in
Leveraging Our Differences
  • news & opinion
    • Big Picture
      • Civic Ed
      • Ethics
      • Leadership
      • Leveraging big ideas
      • Media
    • Business & Democracy
      • Corporate Responsibility
      • Impact Investment
      • Innovation & Incubation
      • Small Businesses
      • Stakeholder Capitalism
    • Elections
      • Campaign Finance
      • Independent Voter News
      • Redistricting
      • Voting
    • Government
      • Balance of Power
      • Budgeting
      • Congress
      • Judicial
      • Local
      • State
      • White House
    • Justice
      • Accountability
      • Anti-corruption
      • Budget equity
    • Columns
      • Beyond Right and Left
      • Civic Soul
      • Congress at a Crossroads
      • Cross-Partisan Visions
      • Democracy Pie
      • Our Freedom
  • Pop Culture
      • American Heroes
      • Ask Joe
      • Celebrity News
      • Comedy
      • Dance, Theatre & Film
      • Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging
      • Faithful & Mindful Living
      • Music, Poetry & Arts
      • Sports
      • Technology
      • Your Take
      • American Heroes
      • Ask Joe
      • Celebrity News
      • Comedy
      • Dance, Theatre & Film
      • Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging
      • Faithful & Mindful Living
      • Music, Poetry & Arts
      • Sports
      • Technology
      • Your Take
  • events
  • About
      • Mission
      • Advisory Board
      • Staff
      • Contact Us
Sign Up
  1. Home>
  2. poll workers>

Citizens can ensure a credible election, Part 2

Debilyn Molineaux
https://www.facebook.com/debilynm/
https://twitter.com/debilynm?lang=en
https://www.instagram.com/debilynmolineaux/
October 26, 2022
election workers

Poll workers are part of a sacred trust, writes Debilyn Molineaux.

Alex Wroblewski/Getty Images

Part 1 was published prior to the 2020 election.

Molineaux is co-publisher of The Fulcrum and president/CEO of the Bridge Alliance Education Fund.

Remember to thank your poll workers. If you are part of the vote-in-person community, the poll workers who assist you received training for handling a flow of voters. They also received education to call for help in the case of voter intimidation. I’m one of these poll workers.

Elections are part of our constitutional republic – citizens are responsibility for electing their representatives who govern the nation. Despite what the politics industry and pollsters would have us believe, elections do not feature rival teams where one is a winner and the other a loser. Elections as part of democracy provide a method for moving forward despite our disagreements in priorities, beliefs and level of influence.

More than anything else, our disagreements about the how and what of governance should be founded on an agreement of election integrity. What are our standards for deciding an election has integrity? Or not?


As I received training as a poll worker, I was struck by the apolitical nature of the process itself. Everyone is treated the same. People work in pairs or more, always a check for accountability and witness. The supervisors are available to answer questions. There is no discussion of the candidates, ballot measures or such allowed. Our elections are a sacred process for our democratic republic, if we protect them as such.

Sign up for The Fulcrum newsletter

Why would someone profane the sacred process of elections to plant seeds of doubt? I propose that conflict profiteers – those people who make a living on dividing us – have ulterior motives. The conflict profiteers primarily seek two things: money and power. They cloak themselves in “truthiness” to feed our love of conspiracy theories. And it’s worked.

Conflict profiteers have struck at the core of democracy itself: our elections.

Does voter fraud exist? In very small numbers, yes. The Heritage Foundation database on voter fraud documents 62 election irregularities in 2016. In 2020, there were 17 cases. In the 2020 cases, two were about ineligible voters. The remaining 15 convictions involved forged signatures for ballot measures and other crimes to influence local elections. No evidence of presidential vote interference. None. Zero. Zip. Trump lost the election. It’s time to look forward and give up the nonsense.

It’s up to us, the citizens, to accept our responsibility to restore faith in our elections. To be helpful, to be involved and to administer the election ourselves. Across the nation, election administrators from county offices, their staff and the thousands of volunteers are stepping up. In two weeks’ time, they will dedicate themselves to a free and fair election for the rest of us.

Let’s trust each other to have good intentions. Let us trust, but verify, each action we take as election workers. Our nation depends on us. We must depend on each other.

From Your Site Articles
  • Vet the Vote seeks election workers in military community - The ... ›
  • Hundreds of key counties need more poll workers - The Fulcrum ›
  • States ask teens to staff polling places on Election Day - The Fulcrum ›
  • Bipartisan group asks DOJ to protect election workers - The Fulcrum ›
  • Civic groups unite in call for more election workers - The Fulcrum ›
  • Poll workers tell their stories from Election Day - The Fulcrum ›
Related Articles Around the Web
  • Democracy MVP ›
  • Become a Pollworker | New York State Board of Elections - NYC ›
  • Poll Workers - Ohio Secretary of State ›
  • Poll Worker Information :: California Secretary of State ›
  • Become a Poll Worker | U.S. Election Assistance Commission ›
poll workers

Join an Upcoming Event

STAR Voting California Monthly Meeting

Equal Vote
Oct 02, 2023 at 6:00 pm PDT
Read More

Democracy Happy Hour

Fix Democracy First
Oct 04, 2023 at 5:00 pm PDT
Read More

Democracy Happy Hour

Fix Democracy First
Oct 11, 2023 at 5:00 pm PDT
Read More

Oregon STAR Voting Monthly Meeting

Equal Vote
Oct 11, 2023 at 6:00 pm PDT
Read More

STAR Voting Oregon Chapter Meeting

Equal Vote
Oct 11, 2023 at 6:00 pm CDT
Read More

American Promise National Volunteer Call

American Promise
Oct 11, 2023 at 8:00 pm CDT
Read More
View All Events

Want to write
for The Fulcrum?

If you have something to say about ways to protect or repair our American democracy, we want to hear from you.

Submit
Get some Leverage Sign up for The Fulcrum Newsletter
Confirm that you are not a bot.
×
Follow

Support Democracy Journalism; Join The Fulcrum

The Fulcrum daily platform is where insiders and outsiders to politics are informed, meet, talk, and act to repair our democracy and make it live and work in our everyday lives. Now more than ever our democracy needs a trustworthy outlet

Contribute
Contributors

Grand Canyon gap in America today

Dave Anderson

Chief Justice John Roberts and Chief Justice Roger Taney are Twins– separated by only 165 years

Stephen E. Herbits

Conservatives attacking Americans’ First Amendment rights

Steve Corbin

To advance racial equity, policy makers must move away from the "Black and Brown" discourse

Julio A. Alicea

Policymakers must address worsening civil unrest post Roe

Sarah K. Burke

Video: How to salvage U.S. democracy from the "tyranny of the minority"

Our Staff
latest News

What really are “special interests” in Washington - and how they influence Congress

Bradford Fitch
9h

The kids are alright: The younger generation’s inspiring legal fight against climate change

David J. Toscano
9h

Living wisely: Addressing economic faults for a sustainable future

Leland R. Beaumont
9h

The American school meal debate: It all comes down to food as market goods or public goods

C.Anne Long
02 October

It’s time to retire Calvinism

Debilyn Molineaux
02 October

Podcast: On democracy and its current torments

Our Staff
02 October
Videos
Video: Expert baffled by Trump contradicting legal team

Video: Expert baffled by Trump contradicting legal team

Our Staff
Video: Do white leaders hinder black aspirations?

Video: Do white leaders hinder black aspirations?

Our Staff
Video: How to prepare for student loan repayments returning

Video: How to prepare for student loan repayments returning

Our Staff
Video: The history of Labor Day

Video: The history of Labor Day

Our Staff
Video: Trump allies begin to flip as prosecutions move forward

Video: Trump allies begin to flip as prosecutions move forward

Our Staff
Video Rewind: Trans-partisan practices and the "superpower of respect"

Video Rewind: Trans-partisan practices and the "superpower of respect"

Our Staff
Podcasts

Podcast: On democracy and its current torments

Our Staff
02 October

Podcast: Is reunification still possible?

Our Staff
27 September

Podcast: All politics is local

Our Staff
22 September

Podcast: How states hold fair elections

Our Staff
14 September
Recommended
What really are “special interests” in Washington - and how they influence Congress

What really are “special interests” in Washington - and how they influence Congress

Contributors
The kids are alright: The younger generation’s inspiring legal fight against climate change

The kids are alright: The younger generation’s inspiring legal fight against climate change

Big Picture
Living wisely: Addressing economic faults for a sustainable future

Living wisely: Addressing economic faults for a sustainable future

Corporate Responsibility
The American school meal debate: It all comes down to food as market goods or public goods

The American school meal debate: It all comes down to food as market goods or public goods

State
It’s time to retire Calvinism

It’s time to retire Calvinism

Contributors
Podcast: On democracy and its current torments

Podcast: On democracy and its current torments

Podcasts