Janet Willwerth is an election supervisor. She says the job is very enjoyable.
"This job is very fun," she says. "You're required to be non-partisan,
and in fact can be removed from office if it is suspected that you're
giving favoritism to one party over another. But I like being involved without
being on one side or the other.
"A nice part of the job is meeting a variety of people, too," she says.
Willwerth gets to meet people through voter registrations and educational
programs. However, she says that at times, it can be a lot of work.
"The work is always steady and very intense from time to time. When there
is an election, there are periods of about six weeks when it is intense. Then
after the elections, we review public funding for candidates and look at policy
changes."
Occasionally, there are some tough decisions to make. "Sometimes circumstances
make the job tough. During the heat of an election, partisan people get excited.
Usually, there is disagreement over the interpretation of a law and you have
to find the right balance. And sometimes when you're trying something
new, you have to try going on a leap of faith."
It doesn't take a leap of faith for Willwerth to believe in what she
does, however. "For those of us who do this, there is nothing like it. There
aren't a lot of positions like this one out there." For that reason,
she says, she'll stay where she is as long as she can.
Brook Thompson is the state coordinator of elections in Tennessee. He says
the 2000 presidential election, which ended in a battle over whether Al Gore
or George W. Bush would gain the crucial electoral votes from Florida, was
the strangest one he ever saw.
The only other incident that Thompson can compare it to is an election
that took place in 1996.
"John J. Hooker was elected as a Supreme Court judge, and that election
prompted a challenge to the way Supreme Court judges are elected in Tennessee.
That's probably the weirdest thing that's happened next to this
election."
Despite the weirdness that occasionally surfaces, Thompson says he enjoys
his job.
"I like being a part of the political process, but I don't want to
take sides. This is a way for me to be involved without having to choose between
one party or the other," says Thompson. He was a political science major who
later went on to get a degree in law.
"I spend a good part of every year with the legislature explaining bills.
I also oversee training for elections periods and spend a lot of time working
to maintain uniformity across the state during elections. And I give advice
to legislators about the laws surrounding election policy," he says.
Combined with other duties that he has, Thompson says he stays pretty busy.
"I supervise elections, which means that I authoritatively oversee the laws
and supervise the people in charge of elections, like county election officials.
But I also spend a lot of time making sure that adequate training is in place
for poll workers, and a good part of the year is spent dealing with the state
legislature.
"I love what I do. I don't like telling people they can't vote,
and I don't like all of the angry people that I sometimes have to deal
with. But I do love the job and in the end, I think it's worth it."