I have known Jan Grimes for literal decades. I met her through her husband, Maurice, who was my boss when I was a student worker in the Art Department at Cardinal Stritch University. In the years we’ve been acquainted, she has always had a whip-quick wit, took no guff from anyone, and has traveled through a few different jobs. This year, though, she has taken on a new role unlike any of her past jobs: election worker.
While she has long had an interest in politics and in social justice, it wasn’t until the 2020 presidential election that was she felt the need to get involved in a more substantial way. As she told me, “the past ten years have been all-consuming, for everybody, and that probably has a lot to do with it. It all just seems so dire…it’s scary to me that this guy could come into office…with threats to immigrants, deportations, family separations…I feel very scared, but not so much for me.”
What she said reminded me of a lil meme I’m fond of that says, “The first step in making society better is caring about things that don’t affect you directly.” Jan also said, “I’m not gonna need an abortion, we’re pretty financially secure…I CAN stand up. I’ve always been a kind of ‘right-fighter.’ I don’t like to see things that are so blatantly unfair, immoral … it just gets my blood boiling and when I see that, it makes me want to do something.” And that something turned out to be replying to an email Jan received, about the need for poll workers. Now, after a good bunch of training, she has worked two elections, and is very ready for this next presidential election, especially after attending a recent large training session held at the Fiserv Forum.
The training session had folks from the election commission, the police, and others, making sure that all the poll workers knew how to handle any changes in the election system since the last time we voted. They also received lots of safety procedure training, and more instruction on how to deal with anyone who might come in questioning the validity or security of the election process.
Besides training, Jan also saw it as a bit of a pep rally to get all the workers ready and excited for the big day. “I think Nov 5th is gonna be busy, busy, busy” Jan said. She remembers how big the turnout was for Obama’s first election, and anticipates this one being similar. “I think the big bump in turnout is going to be because of Roe v Wade,” she said.
Working the polls has changed how she thinks about elections, too. She commented, “I have found it very interesting (working the polls). The people I work with are VERY dedicated, very diverse. It’s not just ‘grandmas,’ but a lot of kinds of people, and lots of very smart people.” Considering how much some people have been trying to suggest that our elections are rife with fraud and cheating, being a poll worker now, Jan has zero patience for those kind of conspiracies. “It is secure, it IS secure,” she emphasized, “I don’t know how it could be considered insecure, considering all the steps you have to go through to vote, and how everything throughout the day is reconciled over and over – the books get checked multiple times a day!”
And while she does entirely believe in the truth and security of our elections, being a poll worker has caused her to find a few criticisms of the system, particularly in the amount of documentation needed to register and how that may be different from what you actually need come election day. Still, while she knows there’s room for improvement, she is ready for her role on Election Day and will go the distance for it, similarly to when she was an instructor at MATC. “When I was teaching at MATC, maybe 80% of my students were minorities, and they had a lot of challenges – some had kids, some were single moms – and I felt I had to go the extra mile for them.” Things weren’t equal, and Jan, with an upbringing that included a dad who was a lawyer, and a lot of Catholic grade school nuns, was there, ready to be a ‘right-fighter’ for them, just like she now is for our elections.
