Iowa polling places running smoothly on Election Day

Contrary to the repeated allegations of Republican candidate Donald Trump, the 2016 presidential election was not rigged, Eastern Iowa poll workers say.

'Not here in Benton County anyway, and I don't think in Iowa,” said Diane Herman, precinct chairwoman for Fremont Township, which includes the Atkins, where voters cast ballots at the City Hall/Library.

'Everything we do is on the internet and backed up by a paper trail,” said Herman, whose precinct had recorded 400 votes before noon Tuesday.

Renae Forsyth-Christy, precinct chairwoman for the 14th precinct at Faith Lutheran Church in Marion, said her seven crew members thoroughly understand their jobs and responsibilities.

'We have a well-oiled process, and citizens can feel good about that, We don't take elections lightly,” Forsyth-Christy said.

Ann Tow, in her 39th year as a poll worker, said she and the eight other members of her crew at Johnson STEAM Academy on Cedar Rapids' southeast side, do their utmost to be fair, equitable and helpful.

'We want to make sure it's a nice, clean, accurate election. We're not Chicago,” said Tow, chairwoman of the 23rd precinct.

Tow said a high percentage of people moving in and out of the precinct keeps two of her workers busy reconciling addresses.

'Sometimes the lines at the ‘solutions table' are longer than the lines at the check-in table,” she said.

Precinct chairwoman Barb Westercamp, who leads the seven-member crew at the African American Museum of Iowa, said she takes her responsibilities so seriously that she set three alarms Tuesday morning to ensure she was at the 35th precinct polls by 6 a.m., an hour before they opened for voting.

'It's the retired school teacher in me. I like to be organized,” she said.

John Haible, precinct chairman for Otter Creek Township, whose residents vote at the Alburnett United Methodist Church, said his passion to help citizens vote inspired him to become a poll worker.

'So many people in the world don't have the right to vote, and too many of us in America take our right for granted. It's what makes us a great nation,” he said.

Haible said a high percentage of Otter Creek Township residents like to vote in person on Election Day.

'They like to put it directly into the ballot box,” he said.

Similar to other poll workers, 5th precinct chairwoman Becky Braun, in charge of voting at Mount Zion Missionary Baptist Church on Cedar Rapids' northeast side, said she sees her job as 'a good way to serve and give back to the community.”

'I don't see it as a job,” said Ninth Precinct Chairman Matt Smith, in charge of voting at Marion's Ascension Church. 'Someone has to do it. We are the people.”

Though poll watchers, who try to maximize turnout for their respective parties, were rare at local precincts on Tuesday morning, precinct chairs said they expected to see more of them in the afternoon and evening.

'They are there to observe and report, and we try to work with them,” Linn County Auditor Joel Miller said.

Poll watchers, he said, are required to show credentials issued by the local party.

They get copies of lists of people who have voted, which they can check against lists of their party's registered voters.