![https://www.flickr.com/photos/southbeachcars/8150539704/in/photolist-6Axky5-dofEB1-6EfcB6-78hQiT-dofEQm-dofF1u-dofwZc-dofwLF-dofEMs-dofExm-5C3ZJM-5C3ZEx-5C3ZPT-9RWY5h-dqeDuC-5yhFRR-8Yi5u9-6oqStP-5wjkXt-2fqC2-5xGJQV-ac55u-5zisnU-5z4oqB-7YH176-7YLgj7-5zeazF-7ZkWpL-7ZhHsT-7YHViU-7YGZAn-7Zgydh-dqm4xE-dqm6hq-5z4ouX-drrkpU-7Zgxzb-9chSab-7Zmb25-dqm6RN-dqm1BP-4SgQQR-4Sm7i5-5wjhst-5wGZco-5wCDzR-5sZUor-4WPrVx-5JoVxt-5zhH6p](https://cele.sog.unc.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/cele-voting-picture-2-1024x320.jpg)
I am a long time consistent voter – one of the ones that even shows up for primaries in off year local elections! Perhaps that is not surprising since I am a political science professor. But what might surprise you is that I had never volunteered for any “on the ground” election activities like poll greeting, poll watching, or poll assistance. This year I decided to do that, in part because I was expecting my students to engage in some kind of political activity for class and I thought I ought to do what I was expecting them to do, and in part because I was concerned about claims that the election system was” rigged” in some way (I heard this claim from both sides of the aisle). This blog post is a reflection on what I learned and experienced when I left the “ivory tower” and volunteered as a poll observer on election day.
![cele-voting-picture-1](https://cele.sog.unc.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/cele-voting-picture-1-300x149.png)