I was fired for voting - LONG POST INSIDE

[navane]

Hello GCers!


I have a ridiculous story to tell everyone about something that happened to me yesterday.



I was fired from my job.



For voting.



I was an Election Official.



Yes, you read that correctly. My employment with the County of San Diego - Registrar of Voters was terminated because I took a lunch break so I that could fill in my absentee ballot. It's a LONG story, but here's what happened:


I was hired to work as an Assistant Trainer on a team which trained pollworkers in the weeks leading up to Election Day. Because there is no need to conduct training on Election Day, my employment was scheduled to end on November 1st. That is, I was not expected to work Election Day when I was hired. Of course, since I wasn't working on Tuesday, I didn't request an absentee ballot - I was going to go to my elementary school to vote like normal.


Now, last Thursday, one of my supervisors asked me if I would be willing to come in on Election Day and work on the Hotline (which pollworkers call when they need help). I told her I did not feel confident that I was knowledgeable enough to answer their calls. I offered to help out elsewhere in the warehouse, parking control, etc. However, Sunday afternoon I got a message from the ROV letting me know that I'm scheduled to be working on the Hotline/Dispatch from 5:15am to 9:30pm and that I need to go to a training class for that at 6pm on Monday.


I called back thinking it was a mistake. Nope. It turns out that I was recommended for Dispatch which is different from Hotline. The Hotline folks take the calls and try to solve problems. If a Troubleshooter is needed, they fill out a Dispatch ticket, it gets sent over to the correct Dispatch Zone and a Dispatcher radios the Troubleshooter to send them to a precinct to assist, replenish supplies, whatever. Ok, I figured I could handle reading off of a list and radioing people, so I agreed to work on Election Day. AT THAT TIME, I asked the coordinator if I would have the opportunity to vote on Election Day as I did not request an absentee ballot (again, because I didn't know I'd be working). She hemmed and hawed a bit not sure about that. She said they might be able to find me a Provisional ballot. I said I did NOT want to vote provisional when I could just drive down the street to my own polling place and have a sure vote. I asked if they could get me a ballot from my precinct (each precint has different candidates and issues). She wasn't sure. I said that if they can't find one, then they HAVE to let me drive to my polling place as that's the law - an employer must let me have time off to vote. She said she would ask, and, if nothing else, I could drive down the street on my lunch break and hurry back.


The next morning, I arrived for my final day of conducting classes. Another supervisor stopped me to tell me that they figured out my voting problem. She gave me a form to fill out so that I could receive an emergency absentee ballot. I was told to take it to the counter to get a ballot. Since our training team had to leave, I put the form in my bag.


Ten hours later, we returned to the ROV. At about 4:30pm, my boss, Lana, walked up and asked if I had been given the blue form. I responded in the affirmative. She then instructed me to go to the front counter and get my ballot and vote. I said something like "Vote? You mean now?" and she said yes. I explained to her that I couldn't possibly vote at that exact minute because I didn't have any of my materials with me such as my sample ballot, my notes, etc. After all, if I had known I was going to be asked to voet on Monday, I might have brought my materials to work with me. I then asked if she knew if the ballot they were going to give me was one from my precinct. She didn't know. She wasn't even sure they had one. I started to get "upset" about it, again insisting that I wanted a ballot from my precinct and adding that, after 10 long hours of work that day, I was totally unprepared to vote. Another lady walked up and tried to reassure me saying that I could take it home with me and bring it back in the morning. Lana disagreed and wanted to me to go to the counter to vote. She said that I better hurry because the counter closes at 5pm. It was 4:45. The other lady tried again to tell me I could fill it out at home, put it in the envelope and drop it in the drop-off box on Tuesday. So, in the end, I went to the front, received my ballot and proceeded to my Dispatch training class.


Since I had to attend a surprise training class after a long day's work, I was too tired that evening to fill my ballot in. After all, I was meant to return to the ROV to be at my station ready to dispatch at 5:15am! I figured I'd surely have a moment to fill it in sometime during my 16-hour shift on Election Day.


The next day, I was there on-time and ready to go. There were 8 dispatchers, 4 in each "zone". In my zone, there was me, Patty, Eden and Patsy. Unfortunately, Patty and Eden weren't dispatching as they were working on other projects. In the most crucial early hours when the polls opened, my co-worker Patsy and I were alone doing twice the amount work than if all 4 dispatchers had been at their stations. The dispatch tickets were coming in by the hundreds. Finally, sometime around noon, the other two sat down to work on dispatching "full-time".


I remember Patty mentioning that it would be a zoo up until about 10am when it gets quieter, then we could take breaks. In case you were wondering, there was no set policy regarding taking lunch breaks. At 3pm, some TEN hours after I started working, I finally "hit a brick wall". I was tired and needed a break. All of my troubleshooters apparently had gone on their lunches because no one was responding to my dispatch calls. So, I figured that was as good a time as any to go on break. Patty and Eden were on calls, so I turned to Patsy and told her that I was going to take my break to eat and fill in my ballot. She offered to look after my phone in case any of the troubleshooters called in. I went about 30 feet down the hall to the lunch room and nibble on some food while filling in my ballot. Other workers from the warehouse joked with me about electioneering while I filled my ballot.....so I KNOW I have witnesses who saw me casting my vote.


I emerged an hour later and returned to my station. As I waited for Patty to get out of my seat, a bystander (who is a "friend") whispered to me that, while I was gone, "they" had been talking about me saying that I "walked off the job". Sure enough, a few minutes later, Lana asked to speak with me. She led me into the outside hallway, turned around and fired me. She simply said something to the effect of, "I don't think you're suited for working Dispatch. I think it's best for you to go home." She didn't even ask me, "Hey, we noticed you missing there for a while, what happened? Is everything ok?" I mean, what if I had been taken ill? What if I had a family emergency on the phone? Of course, she apparently didn't think to ask *everyone* if they knew where I went. I explained that I had *not* "walked off the job"....I had merely gone to the lunch room to vote. She gave me an angry, exasperated look and retorted, "I thought I told you to do that last night!!!" My repsonse was to remind her that I had told her directly last night that I could NOT vote because I did not have any materials with me. She just looked at me angry.


I looked her in the eye and told her, "I'd rather be fired than give up my right to vote."


With that, we went back inside so I could hand over my phone and update my replacement (who they had found while I was on my break!!). I apologized to Patty for any difficulty I may have caused to the "team". Since she's the one who apparently "got me in trouble", I informed her, for the record, that I did not walk off the job. I explained to her that I went to lunch to cast my vote. Her response was, "Oh, well, Patsy only told us that just now." Right.....like no one thought to ask Patsy where I was seeing that she was sitting right next to me for ten hours and my stuff was still on my chair. Anyway, I made sure to say goodbye to all of my "friends" and tell them that I got fired.


On my way out, I was trying to figure out what to do. So, I walked up to some important people and asked to speak with Sally and/or Tim - the Registrar of Voters and the Asst. Registrar (the Big Cheeses). I was asked if I have an appointment, etc. So I said, "No, but I've just been fired because I took a break to vote. Either I can speak to Sally or Tim, or I can walk right out the front door and start talking to the media." I was told they "weren't available" - right, I had seen Tim walking around earlier. On my word, I immediately turned, marched straight out the door and walked up to the first reporter I saw. I walked around to the various media vans looking for anyone who would listen. In general, they thought my story was incredible, but it didn't fit in with what they were trying to cover. None of the radio stations really cared either, but the San Diego Union-Tribune Newspaper reporter thought that my getting fired was one of the most ridiculous and insane things he had ever heard of and was going to see if he could get a response from the ROV about that.


So, let me break it down for you. I was a sworn Election Official working at the Registrar of Voters. My boss asked me to work Election Day at the last minute and thus caused me a situation where I might not be able to vote. My boss then attempted to coerce me into voting at a day and time of her choosing...and picked a moment when I was grossly unprepared to make an informed vote. When I chose to use my personal break time to vote the following day, I was fired for "walking off the job". The law makes it mandatory that an employer give paid time off to an employee for the purposes of voting. Instead of that, I got fired.......by the very employer you would think would know better.


Am I missing something here?


.....Kelly