Omni magazine, politics

[rivkat]

Relevant to your interests? The complete run of Omni magazine, free.

Now, election-related:

I need to do this next time: want shorter lines to vote? Volunteer as a pollworker.  This year, I voted absentee-in-person because I’m not at home, but with luck next time I will be able to help out.

Interesting to finally see white people’s race-based voting treated as something that needs explaining in reasonably mainstream media.  “Obama's support was so broad that if white people had simply split 50-50, rather than favoring their ethnic candidate, the president would have won 58 percent of the popular vote.”

I try not to do this too much, but: sweet, sweet schadenfreude.

Comments

[brownbetty]

...pollworkers are volunteers in America?

[rivkat]

I think usually they get paid $100 or something like that? But yes, the basic "check off people's names as they vote" is not part of an official's job.

[brownbetty]

I mean, maybe it's because we've got a bureaucracy in place to run elections (Elections Canada) but everyone who shows up to work on Election Day is getting about 1.2-1.5 x minimum wage. They're temporary labour, and mostly retirees, but they're definitely not *volunteers*.

(I just found a doc with wages. The lowest paid person there is getting $9.90/h)

[rivkat]

Temporary labor/retirees about covers it here, too. Who else can take a day off from their regular jobs? Well, hopefully, me, but there's an inherent constraint on who can do it.