H oustonians who cast their ballots at the Galleria area La Quinta Inn in Tuesday's primary runoff election probably had no idea the woman running the place once brought Apollo 13 astronauts safely back to Earth.
As a pioneering woman engineer in NASA's Mission Control Center, Northcutt won a presidential medal of freedom for her role in saving Apollo 13. For the past 10 years, Poppy Northcutt has been a Harris County election judge, the person who presides over a polling location.
Northcutt was at the La Quinta Inn before dawn, working with her team to open the polling location by 7 am. When the polls close at 7 pm, her mission is far from over. There's a whole process to get ballots ready to deliver to the county's central counting station at NRG Arena.
At a time when voters are inundated with election legal challenges and partisan talking points, Northcutt - and thousands of election workers across the state - are getting the ballots counted. Here's a look at her day running a Houston polling site:
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Harris County election judge Poppy Northcutt prepares paperwork before the polls open at a voting site for the primary runoff election at La Quinta Inn near the Galleria in Houston on Tuesday, May 24, 2022.
Harris County election judge Poppy Northcutt prepares a voting site for the primary runoff election at La Quinta Inn near the Galleria in Houston on Tuesday, May 24, 2022.
Harris County election judge Poppy Northcutt, left, works with alternative judge Kimberley Baker before the polls open for the primary runoff election at La Quinta Inn near the Galleria in Houston on Tuesday, May 24, 2022.
A scanner for the ballot box is ready to open at a voting site for the primary runoff election at La Quinta Inn near the Galleria in Houston on Tuesday, May 24, 2022.
Harris County election judge Poppy Northcutt prepares a voting site for the primary runoff election at La Quinta Inn near the Galleria in Houston on Tuesday, May 24, 2022.
Harris County election judge Poppy Northcutt prepares a voting site for the primary runoff election at La Quinta Inn near the Galleria in Houston on Tuesday, May 24, 2022.
Sticker in place at a voting site for the primary runoff election at La Quinta Inn near the Galleria in Houston on Tuesday, May 24, 2022.
Harris County election judge Poppy Northcutt states the main goal for her team during the day’s primary election is “no spoiled ballots” at La Quinta Inn near the Galleria in Houston on Tuesday, May 24, 2022.
Instructions for a Harris County voting site for the primary runoff election at La Quinta Inn near the Galleria in Houston on Tuesday, May 24, 2022.
Harris County election judge Poppy Northcutt, right, prepares a voting site for the primary runoff election at La Quinta Inn near the Galleria in Houston on Tuesday, May 24, 2022.
An envelope with zip ties for the ballot box at a voting site for the primary runoff election at La Quinta Inn near the Galleria in Houston on Tuesday, May 24, 2022.
Harris County election judge Poppy Northcutt prepares paperwork before the polls open at a voting site for the primary runoff election at La Quinta Inn near the Galleria in Houston on Tuesday, May 24, 2022.
A supply box for a voting site for the primary runoff election at La Quinta Inn near the Galleria in Houston on Tuesday, May 24, 2022.
Voting booths are set up before the primary runoff election at La Quinta Inn near the Galleria in Houston on Tuesday, May 24, 2022.
Harris County election judge Poppy Northcutt smiles as volunteers and poll workers gather for a group photo before the poll for the primary runoff election at La Quinta Inn near the Galleria in Houston on Tuesday, May 24, 2022.
I woke up at 20 after 4 a.m. It's always very stressful. I was on the phone with Election Central trying to get some tech aid.
One of the problems that sort of drives me crazy. I mean, you know what my background is. I used to work in the space program. And so, checklists and having things work, zero defects, is really important.
The instructions that they give you to set up the polls, you have all these checklists. And they're never right. They're always telling you something that's either incomplete, or it's confusing or whatever, which sort of drives me crazy.
For example, we were trying to set up the booths. …You will never know that it's confirmed until after you do the open polls button. But they don't tell you that. So I call Election Central, because I'm saying I can't confirm on my controller. What's the problem? Where do I see this confirmation? So I get passed between three people. And finally I talked to somebody who says, "Well, you know, the polls have to be open."
I said, "This instruction never told me that. Your instructions are ---."
But that's nothing new. They have always been like that, where there's stuff that's left out or ambiguous, or something like that. You know, suddenly I see a new form, and I go, "Well, this is really interesting. What the hell do I do with it?"
I've been doing this 10, 12 years. Off and on. And it's really all the same. Part of the problem from our point of view, and I don't mean to be hypercritical, and of course I come from an environment where, who else has that kind of standard of absolutely zero defects? But sometimes I feel like they do beta testing on Election Day. I mean, you should be doing your beta testing before Election Day.
And of course, they're always changing. Their job is impossible too.
We're in the lap of luxury here [at the La Quinta]. Compared to some of the places I've worked. Because they said we can help ourselves to breakfast. Ordinarily, I would bring some croissants or bagels and some juice just to have for people. And then in terms of lunch, John, are you treating us to lunch? Your mama said that you might be treating us to lunch. Usually we don't get dinner until we get home. You always have to have some emergency rations. The clerks and all, they'll be gone by 8 o'clock probably. Hopefully it won't be as terrible as it was the last election where I got stuck and had to wait for 11 o'clock. But you know, sometimes you can be over at Reliant waiting till 11 o'clock in your car burning gas, so at least it didn't cost me.
We're right next door to the Republicans. We cooperate. Confidence in your electoral process is absolutely essential, because otherwise people will not bother to vote. I am concerned that we've seen that Putin has been involved in trying to influence our elections and disinformation. Campaigns are basically his stock-in-trade. And I think a lot of that is rooted in his activity. It's like he's gone out and planted the seeds.
One time I had five cars lined up for curbside voting. A long ballot like that? 30 minutes per car. And one of those cars had three voters in it. And that's why I have a lot of comments to make about trying to do something to improve curbside voting, because that was just crazy. It was freezing cold and damp. They need to come up with some better mechanisms for that, not for the voters, but also for your personnel. Because what I was thinking was, if it's 90 degrees in Houston with the sun, and you don't have any cover, you're going to kill your election workers, right? They're going to have heatstroke.
I'm very worried about the [November] general election in particular. Poll watchers are going to be a problem, and that's just going to be a total unknown. You've just got a line of people. And then you've also got all these poll watchers that you're supposed to be monitoring? Well, you've only got one set of eyes. And if they do something awful, the way that legislation is written, the election judge has to have personally seen it. Well, how am I supposed to personally see this if I'm trying to cancel this mail ballot for this person? I can't be watching everything, everywhere. If legislators had actually ever worked these polls, they would know that. And if they're not going to know it personally, then they should be paying attention to the people who do. Asking "how is this actually going to work? Is this going to be manageable or not?" We've always had a poll watcher or two, but that was a nothing kind of event. But they're calling for hordes of poll watchers. They're probably not going to be at my polling place. They may be in minority polling places and that's going to be a problem. If you have a bunch of racial tension going on, as well, just will exacerbate it tremendously. And Harris County is going to be the focal point, because Harris County can turn this whole state.
It's sort of maddening. You're so tired already because you've worked such a long day, and then you have all of these ducks you have to get in a row. You're trying to get out of there, and you're trying to get your people out of there because the county's not going to pay them for more than 14 hours. It's all of those things coming together at one time. ...There's always this vagueness in the instructions that you come into contact with. And you call Election Central and they say, "Oh, that's a good question." "Well, thank you very much. I'm really good at asking good questions, but I would like to get better answers." But they're working very hard, too. I don't envy them their job. ... When you're working on space stuff you've got a mindset that you've just got to follow procedure and you've got to make sure you do it right, because too much is on the line. And our democracy is on the line. That's a very big deal. But it's not just me. I think almost all of the judges take it really seriously.
I'm tired, I'm hungry. I'm dehydrated. My go-to comfort food is breakfast, whatever time of day it is. When I'm too tired to think or cook or whatever, I eat breakfast. So the first thing I did was make bacon and eggs. Because I can literally do that in my sleep. The main thing is, I looked at Twitter and the thing in Uvalde is even worse than I imagined. Because we're in a bubble when we're down there [at the polling location], we really don't see anything. ...So, it's hard for me to think too much about the election. I'm looking at that tragedy that's going on there. Seeing the typical response of thoughts and prayers. It's just not enough. Not again. Wasn't it bad enough to have Parkland? Now we have these little kids being murdered. It's just terrible.
It’s an act of faith in the sense that you've got to believe that elections matter. And you've got to believe that the right to vote is really important. Every time I work in an election or even go to a polling place, I think about the women that were jailed and force fed and beaten in order for women to have the right to vote. And then I think about all the other civil rights leaders that have gone through so much to have the right to vote. It's a privilege to be able to work in an election. I'll do the big sleep [tonight]. I may actually wake up at some inappropriate hour.... It'll be two or three days probably before I have recovered back to normal from that. But I'm ready to do it again.
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Jen Rice is a reporter for the Houston Chronicle covering Harris County government.
A native Houstonian, Jen graduated from Barnard College at Columbia University and earned a master's degree from University of Texas at Austin's LBJ School of Public Affairs.
Before coming to the Chronicle, Jen spent three years covering City Hall for Houston's NPR station. Her reporting has aired nationally on NPR's Morning Edition, All Things Considered and Here & Now.