I'm a Pennsylvania poll worker. I worked a 15-hour shift for $250, but it was worth it to help people vote — especially in a swing state.

• Aaron Stevens, 33, is a Philadelphia poll worker who worked the 2022 midterm elections in Pa.
• This was his fourth time as a poll worker because he loves to see his community participate.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Aaron Stevens, a 33-year-old poll worker in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, about his experience working the 2022 midterm elections. It has been edited for length and clarity.

This is my fourth time as a poll worker in Philadelphia. I enjoy taking a break from my regular job as a freelance audio-visual technician to work at the polls because I believe in the system. I believe someone has to make it work for the people. I've always been interested in politics, and this job seemed like a good first step to getting involved in it.

On the day of the midterm elections, I woke up at 5 a.m. to get to the location. I worked from 6:15 a.m. to about 9:15 p.m. I got paid $250 for the whole day. We were allowed to leave the building to take care of our animals or pick up children from school during the day, but were required to be at the polling station by 5 p.m., when most of the voters were expected to show up.

We prepared for election day by going through poll-worker training

Before election day, we went through a thorough training that included learning how to use the polling machines and getting briefed on handling provisional ballots. We were told what we can and cannot do. Some things were more obvious, like not sharing political views with voters and not asking them about their views. Some were more specific to Pennsylvania, such as not asking voters for identification.

The poll I worked at was pretty easy. I'm sure there are harder ones in Philadelphia that are located in more populated areas and have more traffic.

When someone walked in, I asked for their last name. We don't ask for identification in Pennsylvania, unless it's someone's first time voting in that district. If I didn't find their name in our book, I went to our electronic database to search for them by their address to figure out if they were in the correct location. If their information was correct, we guided them to the touch-screen voting machines and gave them extra help if needed. If they were in the wrong building, we helped them find the correct location, and if their information didn't match with our system, we gave them a paper ballot.

I only had to direct a few voters who came to the wrong location and my poll station handed out very few provisional ballots. This was a smooth process, so there wasn't any conflict. Once the person was done voting, we gave them a sticker and guided them out of the building. They usually left with a smile.

Sometimes you get people that just want to give you a hard time

In that case, you smile, nod, and help them do what you can. During the day, we had some challenges related to voters who changed their addresses or names. Occasionally, people got aggravated because they had to go back and forth between polling locations since the information in our records didn't match. These challenges came up throughout the day, but they were nothing out of the ordinary. In these cases, we gave the voter a paper ballot to fill out. We didn't let anyone leave without voting. We did our best to help everyone.

When I used to work as a poll worker in the past, people were worried about voting terminals getting hacked. I think the polling places upgrade their security measures every few years. The voting terminals aren't connected to the internet. They're just plugged into a wall outlet for power, so they're not hackable. They also have a backup battery in case of a power outage. I explain this to the voters who are worried about the machines getting hacked.

Since I live in a swing state, I really didn't know what to expect with election results

I was hoping for more people, with a dense population like Philadelphia's. We had about 100 people come in by the afternoon, but it wasn't too busy.

After 4:30 p.m. it picked up and a surge of voters came in. We expected the evening crowd, but were surprised by the number of voters who came in steadily throughout the day. It was mostly an older crowd, but there were a good number of young first-time voters as well.

I think State Rep. Joanna McClinton as the first African American Speaker of the state House would show Pennsylvania is still moving in a direction of inclusivity. This can only lead to more new ideas heading into Washington. In my opinion, Dr. Oz losing proves if you run a campaign in a state you don't live in, nor understand all that well, your success rates are mediocre at best.

As a poll worker, I feel like I'm helping to make sure the voting process works

The day can become long, when a sudden rush of people comes in at the same time and you're sitting down for two hours checking names, but it's fun working with other poll workers — you see a lot of familiar faces of return poll workers. Also, it's nice that our community is able to cast their ballot in a familiar place where they're comfortable and where people are helpful. I want people to feel confident while voting, even if our views may differ, which I'm not allowed to know because I can't ask voters that information.

At 8 p.m. the polls closed. We shutdown the machines and waited for a police officer to come and get the votes, while we finished any documentation that was required. Once the police officer took all the ballots, we were allowed to leave. I was back at my regular job at 8 a.m. the next morning setting up lights and speakers for parties and conferences, but I enjoyed making the voting process smoother for my community.