Ordinary citizen Hank Rael Jr. walks into the Denver Elections HQ at noon on a Friday, late-September. He’s brought his elderly dad, both there to sign-up for a mail-ballot and to make certain that their voter registration is up and running.
They take a number and have a seat on one of the chairs that array, theater style, facing the seven work stations at the voter registration counter.
Waiting their turn to fill out the paper work with an elections worker, Hank sees that behind the counter the “poor gals are swamped” with people who are registering to vote, confirming their registration, applying for mail-ballots. “I hand in the paper work up at the front,” and then he says, “I just had this urge for civic duty.”
Hank’s thinking he could put his financial services business on-hold for a couple hours each week, so he says to the woman processing his paper work, “do you guys need help?”
Faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, hiring at Denver Elections, engages. “By five o’clock that afternoon I had a phone call from the Elections office asking me to come in the next morning.”
“This Election is really important,” so a month of volunteer work at Elections just underscores Hank’s philosophy: “Affiliation ” he says, “I don’t care, I want everyone to have a fair chance to vote, I want everyone voting.”
Waiting for his interview, the Saturday morning following his civic epiphany, Hanks says, I hear that they pay, and I say “hmmmm, if they pay, great, if not I’m still gonna volunteer a couple hours a week.” Turns out they’re paying and Hanks says, “OK, that’s fine.”
Attuned to efficiency – “W-2’s, I-9’s – the paper chase of employ at Elections is calibrated so that Denver residents like Hank can zip through the process, and come out the other end of screening and background checks and land squarely and rapidly at a data-entry desk, where hour upon hour – voter data is processed.
His first week, with the on-rush of Denver residents clamoring for voter registration, with mail ballot request deadlines looming, with early voting just on the horizon, Hank, with over-time, logs in 82 hours of data entry.
Week two eases – down to 60+ hours. Now, conscious of overtime’s wear and tear on mind/body, “I’m bell to bell, 8-5,” says Hank, M-F, no weekends.
Mail-in Ballots arriving at peoples homes; early vote centers across the City opening doors and access to traditional paper ballots.
Polling places – 185 of them — are preparing for Tuesday, November 4th 2008 along with Hank, whose “Voter Reg” data entry job is wrapping up; he’s confident, he says, in several areas – one, that he’s ready for duty in Logistics, or Operations, wherever he’s needed, and two, that “the Big Push is coming in the next couple weeks” and three: “Election Day will be thrilling,”
Linda King (lindaking33@comcast.net) lives in Denver.
EDITOR’S NOTE: This is an online-only column and has not been edited.
