HELENA — There’s a lot more that goes into elections than meets the eye. Election volunteers are an asset to ensuring a smooth election process.
“There's so much to it,” said Election Judge Nancy Perry. “It's really a very complicated process, and it's just exciting to be a part of it.”
When Nancy Perry moved back home to Helena after retiring, she knew she wanted to get involved.
(Meet the election volunteers who help make elections happen)
“Oh gosh, I've wanted to be able to do this for so long,” Perry said. “Every time I went to vote, I thought, ‘Who are those people doing this? This looks like such interesting work, so I kind of thought, ‘wouldn't it be fun to actually finally now do this?”
There are four main roles that volunteers can serve in. The first step in the process is scanning in the ballots and verifying the signature. The second step is revision to verify that the first step was completed properly. The third takes the ballots downstairs for election judges to remove the ballots from their envelopes, where they are then organized to be put into the ballot machine to be counted.
Volunteers reach out to the election office because of their passion for the election system, having a fair and secure election, and supporting local politics.
“It's just making sure that our elections are safe and every ballot counts,” said election worker Ann Buss. “And I really like the fact that I can volunteer to give back to my community.”
While the volunteers do receive compensation, $11 an hour, most go into the process not expecting anything but knowing they're helping their community.
“Seeing the variety of people that are interested in hopping into this wild thing we call democracy to throw their hands to it and go ‘yes, I want to help, please show me what I need to do’ and just going for it, that's probably my favorite part about the people,” said Elections Division Supervisor Connor Fitzpatrick.
The city is always looking for those interested in volunteering their time on election day. More information about how to become a volunteer can be found here.
