Note: Some of the following quotations have been edited for grammar and clarity. 

Voting is at the very core of our country. It allows citizens to participate in the federal government and influence the course of governmental actions. Without the system of voting, the United States would never be the democracy it is today. 

In Natick, voting is made easy and accessible, with several locations all over town and a twelve-hour time frame to accommodate a busy schedule. It is also flexible; mail-in ballots and early voting are popular options. 

To find out more, I interviewed Nate Lord, an outstanding senior student who is heavily involved in politics in both the school and the town. We sat down in the library to talk about this topic: What is voting like in Natick? What rules and regulations are there? Is there a recurring pattern in voters? We also discussed Nate’s experience with Election Day, and what it was like to work behind the scenes. 

Natick is divided into ten precincts; each precinct is about 2,600 citizens. Think of it like drawing a grid on a map of the town, and giving one voting location to each square that’s drawn. People vote at the precinct in their neighborhood. This allows for voter accessibility and splits the population easily. Some voting locations host more than one precinct, due to Natick being a rather small but overpopulated town. 

Nate has worked polls three times, twice for 2020—early votes and Election Day—and once this year. He worked organizing the mail-in votes. 

“I would be in the back corner with a letter opener, and a giant box, and a list next to the voting machine. I'd mark the ballot and make sure they are registered. Then the ballot goes into the box. I did this for six or seven hundred votes. This year [2022], I was more at the forefront. But we had so many mail-ins, I just started helping with them and did that for this year.” 

I commented that the monotonous process sounded meditative. Nate agreed, but said that “there are a lot of things that disturb what makes it [meditative].” 

“Of course,” Nate clarified, “the average [voter] is pretty nice. Most of them just want their stickers! But there are people that are pretty disrespectful.” 

I asked him to explain. “People will yell at us about the voting machines. There are usually three or four people that say, ‘I don't trust these voting machines. I heard on Fox News that they can be hacked. How do I know they’re not being hacked?’ Or the occasional ‘How do I know that my vote isn't being changed from Republican to Democrat? How do I trust you? I don't know how this works.’ Stuff like that.” 

Nate described one event in particular that happened this past Election Day: “Someone from the state Republican party came in, registered himself as an election observer, and harassed us from 6:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m.…He yelled over our shoulders, making sure we were following the procedure exactly. If he saw something wasn't procedure, he would yell at us.”

“He was there to intimidate us and intimidate voters,” Nate said. 

This was the first time he had seen someone “who was here specifically to harass the voters.” 

How to fix such a problem? “Just reassure them.” Nate said. “Say things like…‘this machine is in working order.’ You can't really reassure someone who comes in not wanting to be reassured. They are already convinced that what they’re saying is true. They come in, and they don't want to be convinced that the machine does work.” 

To Nate, it’s unfortunate that people take that position without even attempting to listen. Because in reality, there is a lot to the process of voting. 

“There's a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes!” Nate said. “Massachusetts is one of the states where you are not allowed to open any mail-ins or any early votes until Election Day. Every vote has to be checked in and counted at the same time.” 

This shocked me; I had thought it would make sense to count the mail-ins as they come and then keep track of the numbers, instead of leaving it all for one day. Nate agreed. He described counting as “a long and tedious process that takes the whole day.” 

Though I have never worked a poll, I can imagine. 

The precautions don’t end there, Nate said. “There are only three registered machines that Massachusetts towns can use. None of them have external connections; they are all just on-sight manual counts…When we open the machine or mail-in box, there is a police officer on scene, to make sure we don’t tamper with the votes.” 

I never thought that voting was such a regimented process. I told this to Nate. 

He isn’t surprised. “It is just a lot of work behind the scenes. There's a lot that goes into our elections, and I think people don't understand that it's not easy. If the numbers don’t add up…well, there is a lot of work.”

Nate prides himself on being active in Natick. Assisting in elections is only a fraction of what he has done. He has been the president of the Natick High School Politics club for over two years. He is the youngest member of the Town Committee. He is also a member of the Natick Trails and Forest Stewardship Committee where he works to save the parts of Natick he loves.

“Getting involved is easy,” Nate said. “I searched places, and found things all around town. I felt that I had the knowledge and the motivation to make an impact. And the town wants you there…because there aren't enough young people that are involved.” 

Nate ends the interview with a final message to the students of Natick High: there is always a place for you. Your interests will be valuable anywhere. And just by being a teenager, you get a head start that no one else has. Embrace the opportunity to make an impact on your community. After all, you’re already wanted. Go for it, and see the change that you create.