For the over 67.5 million people who voted for Kamala Harris — and the many others who supported her but didn’t or weren’t able to vote — Election Day probably felt like a disaster. As a young queer woman, I couldn’t be more terrified about what a Trump victory means for my future. As an election worker, however, I witnessed many small victories in spite of some losses, this Election Day.

Nov. 5 marked the fifth election I have worked as an election clerk in Tarrant County. In that capacity, I help set up and run a voting location, check-in voters, assist them with the machines, process their ballots and essentially perform any task necessary to help voters vote. Additionally, every location requires at least one Spanish-English bilingual clerk to assist Spanish-speaking voters, a role that I serve at my location.

There are many reasons why I continue to make the 276-mile drive to work a 15-hour day as an election clerk. I am the only bilingual clerk at my location, and I want to keep voting accessible for Spanish-speaking voters. I love the team I work with. I believe fiercely in our democracy and want to help any eligible voter cast their vote. Essentially, everything boils down to this: the voters.

Working at a voting location, you encounter people you would not otherwise, and you are there with them for an important moment in their lives. Some simply vote and leave, some stay and chat, but regardless there is a community formed around voting at the polling place.

There are voters I will never forget. I was working a primary runoff election when the Uvalde school shooting happened. We can’t have our phones in the polling station, so I had no idea what had happened until a voter dashed in crying and told me. He was from Uvalde and had family there, and everyone in the room took several minutes of silence to process what had happened and grieve together.

There have been happier moments too. We have “Future Voter” stickers for kids who come with their parent(s) to the election, and it is everyone’s favorite job to offer them a sticker, chat with them and ask about their stuffed animals. There are also those voters who bring snacks with them and others who run their own mini comedy routines from the line.

My favorite tradition as an election clerk is celebrating first-time voters. Any time we suspect someone is voting for the first time (if they have a vertical driver’s license or look especially confused), we’ll ask if it is their first time voting. If the answer is “Yes,” we shout “FIRST TIME VOTER!” and all of the election workers stop what they are doing and burst into applause. Other voters join in as well, and everyone takes a moment to thank that first-time voter for coming out and voting. This election, we had first-time voters who had just turned 18, some who were in their 20s and even one who was in his 60s. I am excited for each of them and hope to see them return for future elections.

There was also ingenuity this Election Day. We helped an older woman vote from inside her car when she wasn’t able to walk. The new curbside voting machine we had didn’t quite reach far enough for her to be able to touch the screen and make her selections, so we taped a stylus to the end of a stick to help her reach and be able to make the selections herself. We were with her for over half an hour of trial and error, but I think we were willing to stay there all night for her to cast her vote. Her joy at being able to vote meant everything.

These experiences and many more have led me to believe that if I help just one voter cast their ballot, then my four- to five-hour drive each way was justified.

I often get asked if it is “worth it” to help someone cast a ballot for a candidate or proposition I don’t like. As election workers, we advocate fiercely for every vote, regardless of whether it is for the candidates we support.

Bipartisanship is built into working the polls. In Tarrant County, voting locations often intentionally have both a Republican and a Democratic election judge who work together during the election. Seeing the judges overcome their political differences enough to work together (and they do) empowers us as election clerks to set aside our own political stances, just for the day, to put the voters first.

I know that I have helped hundreds of people cast their votes for candidates I do not support. Some voters told me who they were voting for, others I witnessed voting for those candidates while I helped translate for them and still others I could only guess about. Somewhere inside of me, yes, I am the tiniest bit sad about that. Despite that, I can genuinely say that I am incredibly glad that each and every one of them showed up and voted, and I am honored and grateful that I was able to help them cast their ballot.

Going into Election Day, I was scared. Throughout the elections I have worked, I have seen a rising tide of hatred and distrust of election workers. We’ve had voters question our actions and accuse us of fraud over standard practices. Just days before heading into this election, I found out about the election worker in Bexar County who was attacked after asking a voter to remove his Make America Great Again hat. When I then had to ask someone in my location to remove her MAGA hat, I was worried the same thing might happen to me.

It didn’t. She immediately removed her cap, and everything continued peacefully. In fact, the whole day went by without any truly notable disruptions. This fact, the moments I mentioned and more are what I mean when I reference the victories of this Election Day.

There were also some losses this Election Day. We had many voters come in who weren’t able to cast a ballot. Some had no idea that you needed to register to be able to vote. Some did but didn’t register in time — one in particular had waited until his 18th birthday, just days after the registration deadline, to register without knowing that he could have done so earlier. We even had some people come in who had thought they had registered by the deadline, only to find out that they weren’t registered for a variety of reasons, including one woman who had filled out the form online but didn’t realize that she needed to mail it in.

It is the worst feeling to have to turn someone away, and it continues to bother me that there are eligible voters who can’t cast their ballots. There are other barriers too, including ID requirements, line lengths and mail-in ballot complications. I mourn the voters lost to these additional barriers even as I celebrate the ones who were able to vote.

I worked at just one location. There are hundreds of thousands more polling places across the country, each with their own victories to celebrate. Election Day demonstrated that our democratic system is still functional, and that is something to celebrate, even if the result is disheartening and even if there were some failures.

I implore each of you to never give up on voting. Your vote will always mean something, and it is always worthwhile to cast it.

Finally, if you voted in this election, thank you for voting – and congratulations for exercising that right and privilege. If you did not, I hope to see you at the next one.