Equal Opportunity, Personal Information, And The Travis County Elections

I voted Monday, October 20, the first day of early voting. The line moved quickly, and I was pleased to see many gray -haired heads working at the polls. It’s a myth that older people can not learn new ways of doing things or are fearful of new technologies.These elders were verifying and processing information on laptop computers as we in line handed them our voter registration cards.

Many of the people working at my polling place, were white women over 70 years old. This is not unusual. When I’ve voted in the post, most of those working the polls also have been much older people. At the University of Texas campus, there were a number of older black women working the polls, when I used to vote there. It is inspiring to see so many older women active in the community and in politics.

These are exciting times in politics. I worked the polls a long time ago when early voting began. I decided that I wanted to work at the polls again. I saw a Craig’s list ad for poll workers wanted, so I applied. I completed the application that the ad linked to and brought my application to the Travis County office on Airport Blvd in Austin.

Two young white women in their twenties, sitting down while wearing very short dresses told me that my application was incomplete. They attached some other pages to my application and told me that I needed to supply a driver’s license and my social security card before my application could be processed. “That’s the way we roll,” one of the young women told me.

I thought that asking for such personal information on an employment application before receiving a job offer was a violation of the Equal Employment Opportunity Act. Yet, here was a government office, a county office, asking for this information up front in the application process.

I was alarmed by this request, but I went home and completed the additional pages and returned it the following week with my social security card.

An older woman took my application and told me there were still a few positions available. However, I never heard back from the Travis county elections office.

A week later, I saw a newspaper article saying that Travis County needed workers to work on election day. I called the number in the article, and told the woman who answered that I had applied for a job to work the election, but had heard nothing back. She searched her database and could find no record of my application.

She then asked what precinct I was in, and she gave me the number of a judge in the precinct to call about working the poll on election day. I left a message at the number, but my phone call was not returned.

Still, I wonder what had happened to my application with all my personal information. Did the human resources department throw it away? Was I in danger of having my identity stolen? Why ask for personal identifying information such as one’s social security card or driver’s license before even interviewing a person?

When I worked the election many years ago, I don’t remember supplying this information in the initial stages. I also remember that when I served at that time, Travis County had poll positions available only in the southern part of the city. I was told that they had enough workers in the other areas.

I worked in South Austin for a woman in her 80s or 90s at an early voting location. She had worked the polls at many elections. The election judge was a guy in his 30s or 40s who was active in the Democratic Party. After early voting was done, the election judge asked me and another worker to assist him on election day at a regular polling place.

I foresee a day in the future, where people will either mail in their votes or electronically vote from home or a public location such as a library or post office. Working at or going to vote at a poll will become a nostalgic memory. Still the problems of accountability and questions about how personal information is used or verified will probably remain.