The metal rumbling of a U-Haul pierced through the quiet morning air as workers with Concord’s General Services department slid the truck door open and extended the ramp.
Like a well-oiled machine, the three-member crew quickly stacked boxes and equipment onto rolling carts to transport them into the Barn at Bull Meadow where, less than 24 hours later, Concord voters would line up to cast their ballots in the Nov. 4 city election.
The barn, which serves as the polling location for Ward 2 near Penacook, was Jaime Bardwell’s third stop of the day.
The public properties supervisor said his crew, split into two teams, would spend roughly 11 hours on Monday getting polling places ready for Election Day. Their work involves following a litany of strict rules set by the state about everything from the number of booths per registered voter to the distance between those booths and the check-in tables.
“The amount of time that it takes us is less than 1% of what we do, but it’s the single most important thing that we do. We can’t mess it up. It has to be perfect every time,” Bardwell recalled his boss saying as he snapped the metal skeleton of a voting booth into place.
Polls are open in all of Concord’s 10 wards from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Tuesday. Voters typically make a quick stop at their ward’s polling location to cast their ballot, but Concord staff — from the city clerk’s office to volunteer poll workers to the General Services team — put hours upon hours of work into making Election Day go off without a hitch.
Election Day itself is quieter for the General Services crew, aside from their 5 a.m. call time to transport boxes of ballots from the city clerk’s office to the polls. As they work on winter preparations at the airport, Bardwell said his team members try to make themselves available throughout the day should any issues come up. General Services is responsible for maintaining all city-owned properties, like the Everett Arena, libraries, swimming pools and more.
The operation of polling places on Election Day falls to elected moderators, supervisors of the checklist and volunteer poll workers in each ward.
Wayne Dennerly, for example, planned to pack his sandwich for lunch and arrive at 6:30 a.m. on Tuesday morning at the Bektash Temple in Ward 8, where he’s lived in the same house since he was seven years old.
A while back, he decided to take after his wife and start volunteering as a ballot clerk. Now, eight years in, Dennerly greets familiar faces at each election as a ballot clerk — including some faces he only ever sees at the polling place but recognizes just the same.
Dennerly, 77, has cast his ballot in every local election since he was old enough to vote. Aside from being a poll worker, Dennerly and his wife also volunteer at their church and a local soup kitchen.
“You have to give back to the community,” Dennerly said. “We feel that it’s just right. There’s a lot of people that aren’t as lucky as we are, that aren’t as fortunate, and you should help out whenever you can.”
Serving as a poll worker isn’t hard, Dennerly said, but it can be tedious. It involves a specific process to verify that voters are who they say they are and that their votes are recorded.
As a ballot clerk, Dennerly asks the voter to announce their name and address, repeats it back to them, compares their photo ID to the entry on the voter checklist, then checks the box by their name and carefully crosses it off after handing the voter their ballot. He also make notes on the checklist for any changes or corrections that surface throughout the day.
In addition to the physical process of checking in voters, poll workers commit to remaining neutral when it comes to Election Day. At a recent training, Concord’s new election specialist, Megan Diaz, told volunteers to refrain from talking about politics, expressing their personal opinions or even making casual remarks that could be interpreted as political.
“We are the personification of neutrality at these elections,” Diaz said.
Elections often rely on longtime volunteers like Dennerly, but new people still sign up — nationally, 15.5% of poll workers in the 2024 general election were first-timers, according to a congressional report.
Among those newbies were Cheryl Simmers and Celeste McQuarrie.
Simmers got inspired by her husband, who’s also served as a poll worker, and thought, “I can do that, too.” She felt intimidated at first by all the meticulous tasks she’d need to complete but picked it up quickly.
She’d worried last year about safety at the polls. In such a charged political environment, her mind went to the worst places, but everything went smoothly in Ward 7, which serves voters in the South End.
“I’m a past school teacher, and so being on alert for people coming in and trying to harm us, you know, I was always worried about that in school,” Simmers said. “With the political atmosphere being what it is, I was concerned.”
Those thoughts crossed McQuarrie’s mind, too, but she said she wanted to help out last year upon moving to her new neighborhood in Ward 6, which encompasses much of the downtown area. She views it as an opportunity to foster civic engagement and help people exercise their right to vote and make their voice heard.
No presidential or statewide candidates are on the ballot this year, but local elections, McQuarrie said, can have a “ripple effect.”
“The small municipal elections lend themselves to the wider concerns,” she said. “If you’re actively involved in your right to vote and have a voice, I mean, for many people, that’s the only voice they have.”
After their respective polls close at 7 p.m., Dennerly, Simmers and McQuarrie will each count up the ballots they’ve handed out that day and cross-check them with their teams to make sure every ballot is tallied correctly.
Once ballots are counted and secured, the poll workers head home. The General Services crew will return early Wednesday morning to break down the Election Day setups across the city and pack everything away.
They’ll return to normal operations for another then months, until Concord calls on them for its next election: the state primary in September 2026.