By: Christian Ifill
Group Members: Kevin Barrett, Luke Gardner, Jeremy Welch, Alex Garcia and Christian Ifill
“The thing that was so taxing about the first two days up there was that they didn’t want us to sit down the whole time,” said Stan Frost, a first-time poll worker for the 2020 presidential election. “A whole 12-hour shift.”
Stan Frost, 76, knew that being a first-time poll worker would be an interesting experience. The 2020 presidential election was a whirlwind of controversy and emotions for election workers and voters. Stan had an idea of what to expect during his time as a poll worker, but he jokingly discussed how standing for so long took a toll on him.
“I’ll tell you what, my body after working the polls was ready to quit, go home and go to the beach someplace,” said Stan.
He and his wife, Carolyn Frost, have lived in Kennesaw, Ga for over 50 years, back when voting was as simple as checking a box on a piece of paper. But they both recognized the importance of this year’s presidential election and they were more than willing to share their experiences but more importantly dispel any rumors.
Duties and Responsibilities
Hiring poll workers for the 2020 election was more difficult than previous elections for a few reasons. For one, the new $104 million voting system proved to be too difficult for some poll workers who did not have a lot of time to train.
“You have to go through a 3-hour training session,” said Stan. “They teach you the whole voting process and you get to experience what you do when you check people in on the computer. A lot of tedious stuff but we didn’t find the process too difficult.”
According to the AJC, the average age of poll workers in Georgia is over 65 and many of them backed out because of the virus. But Stan Frost expressed that the venues that held the voting did a good job enforcing Covid-19 protocols.
“The machines were spread out, they had plenty of distancing,” said Stan. “Some tables started to get some crowds, but the General Manager at the Acworth senior center spread the voters apart as best as he could.”
Stan and Carolyn Frost participated as poll workers during early voting and on election day Nov. 3. They worked at three different venues: The Acworth Senior Center, the Ben Robertson Center and the Acworth Community Center.
“Every station you had a poll worker observing the voters,” said Stan. “All we did really was make sure each person did everything correctly at a specific station and then we directed them to the next station. They tried to rotate us (poll workers) to different stations so we wouldn’t be so bored, but it was still a lot of standing up most of the day.”
Cobb poll workers were not the only ones who felt the fatigue during election time. Deidre Holden, Paulding County Election Supervisor, discussed how the election and the post-election impacted the county and the staff.
“It has taken quite a bit of our budget to pay for the audit,” said Holden. “The poll workers and staff are exhausted, but still willing to get the job done.”
Voter Moral
Voter suppression and long waits can make election workers vulnerable to aggressive behavior from voters. But according to Stan and Carolyn Frost they had a completely different experience than what the news portrayed.
“Overall, I thought the voters that came in were pretty respectful of the situation,” said Carolyn. “They were all very pleasant towards us.”
They described how at certain venues they were understaffed by two or three poll workers. Stan Frost had some concerns initially because he did not know how voters would react to the lack of workers but once the elections were over, he praised the attitudes of the voters.
“A lot of people voting were thanking us for what we were doing, which made your day,” said Stan
Voter suppression has been a hot topic in the state of Georgia and across the country. There have been several cases of voters having their ballots denied and then being turned away at the door. Carolyn Frost claims there was no such activity during their time as poll workers.
“Nobody was denied at any of the centers we worked out,” said Carolyn. “You may have someone trying to vote in Cobb when they live in another county. But if they weren’t registered to vote in cobb, we would politely tell them they would have to vote in the county where they registered to vote.”
Stan and Carolyn Frost both claimed they only had to turn away one voter, but the voter already knew he may have some issues because he was from out of state. Stan expressed that the turned away voter handled the situation extremely well.
“Some people would have just sat there and got really aggravated about it,” said Stan. “But when they told him he couldn’t vote here the man understood and went on his way.”
Fraud Rumors
A handful of Georgia counties came under scrutiny because of ballots going unaccounted for, but director of election operations for the Georgia Secretary of State’s Office, Gabriel Sterling, claims it is more human error than fraud.
“In finding these four counties that had these issues, none of that is great as far as election administration goes,” said Sterling. “But these are people under high stress times and the audit found the issue and corrected the issue.”
Cobb County election officials found about 400 ballots that were not included in Nov. 3 election results. Stan Frost expressed that only one ballot went unaccounted for during his time working the polls.
“We had poll workers standing by every machine to make sure every ballot got scanned,” said Stan. “We assumed somebody thought their vote got counted and walked out with their ballot without it being scanned through the machine.”
But Stan Frost was not surprised that some counties had some missing ballots. He believes that the voting process is secure but it still has some flaws.
“It’s got some soft spots in the system, as far as the electronic portion,” said Stan. “We even had a couple of instances with the balloting machine not taking cards, so we shut the machines down and didn’t use it for the rest of the day.”
Would you do it again?
Stan and Carolyn Frost enjoyed their overall experience as first-time poll workers. One of the main takeaways they had from the experience was that more younger people should volunteer as poll workers.
“They were really trying to get more younger people in there.” said Stan. “It helps to spread the word of what the election process is all about if more younger people participated. I think they would feel like they are an integral part in the success or failure of an election.”
Stan Frost may be reluctant to participate as a poll worker in the next presidential election, but he has a newfound respect for the job.
“If I were 10 years younger I would do it again,” said Stan. “You have a new appreciation of the process that they’re going through and the amount of effort that was made to lessen the opportunity for voter fraud.”
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