The Poll Inspector

A long day as a poll inspector

I had the honor yesterday; my first time as a Poll Inspector.  Aside from being at the location at 5am and leaving at 930 at night, it was an honor.  My fellow inspectors had good humor and a nice spirit of dedication.  It was a win/win for me and I'd do it again, although probably not for a couple days while my body recovers.

I know our voting zone's demographics pretty well.  Our average age is about 39.  We don't have a high median income (actually a little less than average) and it looks like what you would think would be a summer vacation destination; i.e. the locals living hard up for 8 months of the year waiting for the city folk to return.

However, if you were from another planet and dropped in to watch the 40% turnout (for a local election - a pretty high %), you would have thought that the median age was 60+ and that folks with "walkers" out numbered people under 30 years of age about 2:1.

What really amazed me were the political party's poll watchers; those who come in take a look at the voting lists (it is legal) and count the number of "D", "R", "C", and "I".  Just count them right up. It is an amazingly "miss the forest for the trees" thing to do.

Based upon what I saw, and I've been in advertising and marketing forever, the only group you should appeal to would be 60+ year olds. Take every one of their issues only and you would win in a landslide. 

It is all about age, not affiliation. Just sit there for a day and you'd figure that out.