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This article contains sarcastic liberal commentary.

Carol Wolman, M.D., a California psychiatrist and peace activist, thinks BLM activists should sign up to be poll workers. Read her essay here. Fine by me.

After describing BLM as a “movement is waging spiritual warfare against forces of racism, police brutality and state oppression,” and suggesting BLM activists “help register voters and ensure they know how to vote,” she says they “could also volunteer to be poll workers, as this vital job is usually done by retired people, and the elderly are more vulnerable to COVID-19; many are choosing to stay home that day.” She’s onto something there, because many election officials are in fact worried about how they’re going to staff polling places (see story here).

She argues, “Safeguarding the integrity of the polls and the safety of voters is especially important this year, given the GOP’s recruitment of ‘an army of pollwatchers to prevent voter fraud'” (see story here, photo at left for what that might look like, and read article here) and continues, “The fear is that they will intimidate people of color who are attempting, legitimately, to vote.”

Hooboy. This will tie the Klan’s panties in a knot; I sure hope nobody ends up in an earth dam.

The good doctor seems to not know the difference between poll workers and poll watchers. They’re not the same.

Poll workers are volunteers or temporary election department employees who run polling places on election day. They sign in voters, check IDs, and collect and deliver ballots at the end of the day. It’s a boring job, often done by old people to earn a few extra bucks to supplement their Social Security, often the same ones election after election. Election officials love these old folks, because they’re reliable, docile, and very good at it.

Poll watchers, on the other hand, are merely observers. They sit and watch. Period. You’d usually sign up with a party or candidate to be a poll watcher, but anybody can do it. It’s unpaid volunteer work, and it’s b-o-r-i-n-g. You’re not supposed to talk with poll workers or voters, just sit and watch. And be a presence. Sometimes just having someone there is all it takes.

Democratic and Republican poll watchers are easy to recognize. Republicans don’t have beards, go around in birkenstocks, or wear peace symbol buttons. If a guy isn’t friendly, won’t talk to you, and won’t tell you which party he’s from, he’s a Republican. All the Republican poll watchers I’ve ever met were like that.

You don’t need to worry about them. They couldn’t be less interested in the Democratic poll watchers. They don’t look at you; they ignore you. They stare intently at the poll workers as if they believe something sinister is going on, which is exactly what they believe, because they can’t understand how their wildly popular party keeps losing elections. They’re right that this is happening at polling place; but the voters, not the poll workers, are doing it to them.

There’s plenty of evidence that most Republicans, from Trump on down to the gutter crawlers, don’t believe they can lose an honest election, so if they lose, someone is cheating. After all, they stand for standing up for the national anthem, and who’s against that except BLM and Antifa?

It’s possible the army of Republican poll watchers and their sympathizers (photo, right) descending on polls this November might get upset over BLM poll workers. This may make them even more paranoid than they already are.

But I don’t have a problem with it. There’s nothing philosophically wrong with BLM activists working at polling places.

Poll workers have opinions like everyone else. They’ll have to leave their “BLM” buttons at home, because partisan paraphernalia isn’t allowed in polling places, which are supposed to be neutral zones. And also to prevent fights from breaking out. Presumably this applies to guns, too, which lately have acquired a distinctive partisan flavor.

So, BLM activists, sign up to be poll workers and poll watchers. Republicans can, too, so there’s no reason why you can’t. We’re all Americans. and while we have our petty differences as all families do, we’re all in this together.

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