I'm an election judge, and you can be too

Some volunteer, some are paid. All who show up are there to make the day* possible.

At least as it pertains to the State of Minnesota, election judges are "temporary, paid employees of local election officials trained to handle all aspects of voting at the polling place". 

Regular ol' government elections are happening all the time, whether they're local to your school district or city, a county-wide election, or a state or federal election, there are names on ballots and people who want to vote. And sometimes "election day" looks different depending on where you are at!

Take for example, the City of St. Louis Park. In 2024, there will be 3 regular elections (a presidential nomination primary, a state primary, and a state general election). Most folks will remember seeing a handful of people wandering around a polling location with name badges on who help them get a ballot, check in, and answer any questions they have about how the voting process works.

But in the days (46 more specifically, if you're in Minnesota) leading up to that election day* in reference, there have been all sorts of exciting ways for people to vote in that election without needing to appear in-person at a polling location on election day*.

Sometimes it's referred to as "early voting" or "mail-in voting" or just "absentee voting" — there are a few variations here and there, but no matter the situation, there are specific people present and working at each of those opportunities—election judges. Just as they're ever-present on the last day of voting at the polls, you may see election judges assisting voters at your local city hall's "early voting stations" if they have such a thing. Or, as I've jumped into more recently, you may see election judges at Health Care Facilities, or HCF, voting opportunities. 

HCF voting allows individuals who currently reside in any of several specific types of health care facilities to vote by means of "early voting" or absentee ballot in order to allow them to vote when they otherwise would be physically unable to make it to the polls on election day and don't have someone who can assist them in navigating the absentee ballot process on their own.

From assisted living homes, to nursing homes or specialized care facilities, all ages of folks may find themselves living (either temporarily or otherwise) in a place that they didn't expect to call home. 

While not something specifically available everywhere, St. Louis Park works with a handful of HCFs to schedule a multi-hour time block that residents can plan to visit so that they can vote early with some optional assistance with paperwork if needed.

The mission from an election judges standpoint is constant from start to end: allow the voter to act with their own comfort level of independence, autonomy, and agency as they'd like during the absentee voting process; and likewise, assist only as much as the voter requests to respect their agency and independence however they wish. 

With multiple election judges present with each voter for additional accountability, the voter can maintain secrecy of their ballot (to the extent that they wish) and the election judges can witness the voter sign their paperwork for registering to vote beforehand (if needed), applying for the absentee ballot, and submitting their sealed ballot envelope into a handy-dandy portable ballot box that gets couriered back to city election offices by the city's election staff. 

Voting shouldn't have to be complicated. For most, it's pretty straightforward: wake up, do your normal thing during the day, and at some point, go to a particular place and mark your ballot and head home. But for some, it's that middle part where you need to "just go to the polls" that can be difficult, even with all the planning in the world, it just may not be physically realistic. It's great to be part of a system where options exist not only to help out on the last day of voting, but on all the days leading up to that final ballot-casting day. 

I may have glazed over some bits here or there (if you can believe that), so please do check your local government resources for what applies to you, whether it be a state law or county law, or anything adjacent or above or below, this is but a personal rambling of one small municipality in one particular state within one country. 

Join the fun and learn more about being an election judge in the State of Minnesota over at the Secretary of State's website: https://www.sos.state.mn.us/elections-voting/get-involved/become-an-election-judge

* You might notice this recurring footnote by now — it's not just one day, and it really never has been. I'd rather just consider election day as the "last day to vote" for that election. For those who love a good U.S. Postal Service cross-over story, you should dig into some strategic internet super-sleuthing about early-voting for members of the U.S. military who are stationed abroad. It takes a while to collect ballots from every person in the country. And it turns out we've really only gotten faster at collecting all the votes as time goes on. Don't let anyone fool you into thinking that early-voting is a blasphemous new thing!