The unsung heroes of each election are the election workers. The election workers include election judges, alternate election judges, clerks, Early Ballot Board workers, and Central Count Station members.

Central Count Station members work behind the scenes counting votes and examine ballots to determine the intent of the voter when a ballot is rejected by the counting machine. If that can be determined the vote is counted. If it cannot be determined the vote will not count. For example, if a voter circles a candidate’s name, rather than bubbling in the circle, the ballot board will probably determine that the voter intended to vote for the person whose name was circled. The ballot will be corrected and returned to the counting machine. The Early Ballot Board workers count the early votes cast during vote by mail and early voting in person. Those votes are counted on Election Day but not reported until the polls close.

Each polling location has an election judge, an alternate election judge, and a clerk. Every effort is made to find at least one bilingual worker for each polling location. The election judges for the general election are recommended to the county by the County Chairmen. Based on who won the election for Governor of Texas in the previous election it is determined who will be the Election Judge and who will be the Alternate Judge. Because Governor Perry is a Republican and won the previous gubernatorial election, all of the election judges in the upcoming November General Election are Republican. The alternate election judges are Democrats. Both the election judge and the alternate election judge must live in the precinct. The third member of the team, a clerk ,and must live in Blanco County. The names of the election judges, alternate judges and ballot board members are submitted by each party to the County Clerk in August. The County Commissioners’ Court approves the names. In the last General Election, election workers were paid $8.00 an hour.

Thank these workers on Election Day. They don’t make much money!