At 5:30 this morning, Jethro Smith arrived at the Reeves Center, ready to work. Smith, a Board of Elections and Ethics technical clerk, was fully prepared to meet the crowds ready to vote in this year’s general election at Precinct 141, which is tucked away inside ground floor of the Center. Smith had put in a six-hour shift at the precinct yesterday, preparing equipment and setting up for registration, and he was ready to put in at least fifteen hours of today. Such long hours are necessary — the Board has repeatedly promised that the general election would be a better voting experience for citizens than September’s Democratic primary, and such promises take a lot of elbow grease to fulfill.

But when he arrived at the precinct, Smith was surprised to find only one other person ready to work. It quickly dawned on him and, subsequently, the Board: Precinct 141, a polling place along one of the District’s busiest corridors, was severely understaffed.

BOEE had a couple of phone calls to make if they were going to be able to keep things moving. Adrienne Wojciechowski, who was on the other end of one of those phone calls, dragged herself out of bed.

“I was awoken,” Wojciechowski said as she described the call she got from BOEE, asking her if she would be willing to fill in at the Reeves Center. “I breathed a deep sigh, thought about it for a second. And here I came.”

“They realized they needed help and it was all hands on deck,” said Wojciechowski, who is now the precinct’s acting assistant captain.