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On September 1st, last Tuesday, I had the honor and pleasure of working as a Check-Out Officer and Teller for the Massachusetts Primary Election. Three thousand nine hundred four (3,904) Sudbury residents voted, representing 26.8% of Sudbury’s registered voters. That turnout lands within the range of 18.7% to 44.9% for state primaries since September 2020.
I so enjoyed watching voters insert their ballots into the counting machine and stay to watch the display screen assure them with the words “Ballot Successfully Cast.” This is the quintessential moment of our living democracy. No wonder most people took an “I VOTED” sticker and many took “Future Voter” stickers for their children and grandchildren.
Hooray for voting.
Also, BRAVO to the election worker team. Aside from staff – Emily Glass, Assistant Town Clerk; Joanne Peterson, Voter Registration/Census Administrator; Dorothy Oldroyd, Department Assistant, and Riley Sullivan, Records Management Administrator – who are ably led by recently promoted Town Clerk, Lisa Davis – there are dozens of election workers who have been trained and are coordinated to conduct our free and fair elections.
This group of our neighbors creates a wonderful spirit of camaraderie for the work we do supporting voters in every way we can to make it clear and easy for them to exercise their franchise. Some election workers have been doing this for decades. Others, like me, are fairly new – just a couple of years. This is something anyone can learn to do because we each take on manageable, clear tasks and we have the support of trained, experienced Election Wardens and Election Clerks and a capable staff team.
You may also notice that the Sudbury Police Department maintains everyone’s safety the whole time, with multiple officers stationed at the polling place. What you may not know is that they stay with the election team all the way through securing the ballots and the records and transporting them back to secure storage at Town Hall.
I love that on election day I can join with so many community members, leave our opinions behind, and be completely united in assuring that every voter has an equal opportunity to have their say in a safe and secure election. I am enormously grateful to the Town Clerk’s staff, the Sudbury Police Department, and the whole election worker team for the opportunity to work together for this basic democratic right for everyone.
Maybe you, dear reader, would like to look into joining the election worker team. Hope so.