KINGSVILLE – For Jesse Maddux, Tuesday, Aug. 4 was just like any other election day.
The poll judge supervisor woke before dawn and headed to the Elm Spring Baptist Church where he and the rest of the poll workers gathered at 4:30 a.m. to start their nearly 18-hour day helping citizens cast their ballots for the primary election.
As someone who has worked for local polling locations for over two decades, 36-year-old Maddux said it’s one of his favorite ways to be involved in his community.
“It’s a very important part of the Democratic process. I love being here, helping people vote and letting them have their voices heard,” Maddux said. “It doesn’t matter which party affiliation they have. Everybody has a right to have their voice heard.”
From 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday, voters across Johnson County were given that opportunity. Though the morning started slowly at the Kingsville baptist church, poll judge Kelly Davenport said the polls started picking up around lunch time.
“It has been steady ever since, just nonstop,” Davenport said. “We’re excited to see all the people … it’s a little more than we expected.”
As voters gathered in the small building adjacent to the church to cast their votes, the energy in the room was palpable. Neighbors greeted each other as they walked in and poll workers chatted cheerfully with folks they’d met working past elections.
In the four years since Davenport began working the polls, she said being able to connect with others and create a welcoming environment for anyone who steps inside has been one of the most rewarding aspects of her position. Since many of the poll workers work the same site during each election, Davenport said it gives the staff even more time to build rapport with each other and community members.
“We have a good camaraderie,” Davenport said. “When people come in, it’s not like, ‘Name, serial number,’ (we) talk to them and make them feel like it’s worth their time to come in, so, it’s a light spirit here.”
For first-time poll judge Malea Brewington, that sense of community was especially felt. As an incoming college freshman who hopes to study political science at a school in Massachusetts, she said volunteering at the polls felt like a perfect opportunity to get some experience before starting university in the fall.
“I’ve been wanting to get more involved in my community, so I was like, ‘Well, if I want to get hands-on with politics and understand the process, being here is probably the best way to do that,’” Brewington said. “Getting to see people I know come through and how everything works, it’s really cool.”
Though 18-year-old Brewington said she hadn’t realized she was the youngest poll-worker on staff during Tuesday’s election, she said she hopes to see more folks from younger generations participating in this form of civic engagement moving forward.
“The differences in perspectives and understanding of the world and the way it changes and evolves and taking that understanding to a place like the polls where you’re partaking in that political action (is important),” Brewington said. “Voting or working the polls isn’t the only thing you should be doing, but it’s definitely one of the things that can make a difference.”
Maddux echoed that call for young people to get involved in the voting process in whatever capacity they could, especially in a world where it’s easy to fall into an echo chamber of your own beliefs.
“If (we) can get more young people involved and volunteering and helping out at the polls, I think that would open their minds to a lot more possibilities and concepts," Maddux said. “A lot of people get stuck in this bubble where they surround themselves with like-minded people– there’s nothing wrong with that– but it’s nice to be able to get different perspectives.”
In a time where bringing up politics often means drawing a line in the sand between folks in the room, Tuesday’s election brought people with many different political affiliations together. Per polling-booth standards, both democratic and republican staff members were present at the election site. Community members with various points of view chatted with each other while waiting in line for their ballot. Folks young and old gathered in the baptist church’s reception hall to cast their votes.
“It’s what makes the wheels of democracy roll, the citizens that get together– republican, democrat, independent, libertarian, you name it– everybody from different parties coming together (with) the same goal in mind– fair, equal elections,” Maddux said. “You have a cross-section of the American people right here, working together.”
For Maddux and the rest of his team working at Elm Spring Baptist Church, that’s the most important part of their job each election day. Not sharing their own thoughts, not furthering their own agendas, but protecting the rights of each individual who walks up and requests a ballot.
“We all want to make this country the best we can make it,” Maddux said. “That’s really the big, huge, importance of working elections and getting to know everybody, because we all can find something that we can agree upon. It helps to take the mainstream out of it and bring it back to main street.”
Hasina Shah can be reached at 660-747-8123.
