When I finally got home on November 5, 2024 around 9:30 p.m., Donald Trump was already ahead in the 2024 General Election, and my feet hurt. I had spent the last 15 hours as a Student Election Worker at the Fairfax Senior Citizens Center, passing out the famous “I Voted” stickers, and helping voters navigate the new voting devices.
It had been busy all day, since 7 a.m. which was when the polls opened. Our first voter of the day was a dad, accompanied by his three sons all sporting Kamala Harris t-shirts, which they had to change out of. No clothing with political messaging specifically endorsing any candidate for any contest was allowed. When the dad was done voting, I gave all four of them a sticker even though kids weren’t really supposed to get them.
It was tricky helping voters figure out the machines. For the presidential contest, the voter had to scroll down to select Donald Trump, and quite a few people asked me “Where’s Trump?” or simply said “I want Trump” and stared at me blankly at which point I would direct them towards the “more” button at the bottom of the screen.
Many voters tried to leave the building with their ballot in hand, not having cast it yet. It made sense that they would make this mistake. After making selections, the machine would shoot the ballot back out so the voter could double check everything. Many people thought that their vote was casted, and that their ballot was a receipt. It was not. I had to chase down a man who was walking out the door, and had to run around the building to find people with their ballots if I saw a machine waiting for that same ballot to be inserted. Sometimes another worker or I would have to press “I am ready to cast” if a voter had inserted their ballot and not officially cast it.
Another issue arose when voters didn’t know who they wanted to vote for. Most knew their choice for the presidential contest but didn’t care about the propositions, measures, and state official contests. One woman, wearing scrubs and evidently having to get back to work, asked me multiple times about the candidates for the senate. I told her each time that I couldn’t say anything, but that she could feel free to look them up. She felt that it was too much work to go on her phone and do a quick Google search, so she skipped those contests. As we were counting ballots at the end of the night, I saw one that had no selections in any contest at all. I’m not really sure why that person even came in to vote.
Some people very openly told me who they were voting for. One man felt he should let me know that he voted for Trump and “the baseball guy”, referring to Steve Harvey. I thanked him for voting and gave him his sticker. Another man whom I had already told I couldn’t say anything about any candidate disregarded my prior comment, whispering to me “Let’s hope she wins” as he walked away, his hands clasped, seemingly in prayer. This was my favorite part of working the polls. I got to see the excitement of a new voter, some even dancing as the machines cast their first ever ballots.
I also saw and heard attitudes that were not as hopeful or excited. I heard a man mutter to himself “Embarrassing,” as he scrolled past Harris and clicked on Trump. After he was done casting, he walked out and met his wife who had voted Democratic. Our very last voter of the day was a first-timer, and called her dad for help registering. She said very loudly that she didn’t think anyone was going to read her registration form, so she was only writing the first letter of everything. How that ended up taking her 45 minutes, I don’t know. Then, as she was voting, she asked two of the other workers if they knew “someone good” she could vote for.
It was surprising to me how many people voted for Trump at my location. My zip-code does generally vote red, as it did this year, but I was on Fairfax and Melrose of all places, and I expected it to be all blue. I was proven wrong. I did see someone vote for Robert F. Kennedy Jr., which was extremely odd since he suspended his campaign in August.
When I woke up on Wednesday, and found out that Trump won, I wasn’t too surprised. The amount of people in Los Angeles, a city in a consistently blue state, that I saw voting for him led me to believe that he would win by the margin that he did. Next election, where I will be able to vote, I’ll be more educated about the voting and counting process, and will be confident that my vote is being counted. I’ll be ready to make my decision about the future of the United States.
