Thanks for all the work you put into reporting your experience as a poll worker. My grandfather proudly did that for decades in Missouri. He took it very seriously. I much prefer our system here in Oregon, though. We get a ballot in the mail and a voter's pamplhet, which is really a small book made of the same paper as a newspaper, but in magazine form. The pamphlet has all the candidates' statements, the text of all ballot initiatives. We fill out the ballot at our leisure. And then drop it in the mailbox or in special pickup boxes all over town. It's so civilized. We can check online that our ballot has gotten in - and then all the political phone calls stop, lol.

Oregon also just started automatic voter registration with any transaction at a Department of Motor Vehicles. We had 250,000 new voters from that this year. Anyway, we have over 80% participation in 2012 and 79% in 2016. The automatically registered people didn't vote at a high rate, about 43%. But that means people who actively register to vote participate at really high rates.

I hope that your part of the country can get automatic voter registration and vote by mail. Both really do increase participation -- and without all the rigamarole that you've described in your series. Thanks, though, for your service as a poll worker. Where there is in-person voting, your work is an important part of democracy!