As some of you might know, I volunteered to act as a Poll Election Worker (PEW - I know, the acronym is funny, isn’t it?).
Most of the voters were Chill - relaxed, in a mellow mood, clearly enjoying what was a gloriously beautiful day for November. What we in Ohio call “shorts weather”.
That Chill was likely helped by the speed of processing through the voting process. I and my fellow workers have to take a certain amount of credit for that. The operation was organized efficiently - there were precise steps for setup and breakdown of the equipment, we’d been trained to handle the basic process of verifying IDs and handing out ballots, and those with problems/issues were immediately and pleasantly directed to a location in the voting location where they could have their situation addressed at length. All that contributed to only a few times in the day when we had lines at all.
We cannot take all the credit - the poll manager and her immediate helpers were experienced in these operations, and directed and herded us PEWs for maximum effectiveness.
But the best part of the day was the equipment and programming. Here were the steps:
As soon as voters entered the room, they were handed an “I Voted” sticker and a stylus. They were then directed to 3 tables of workers who could verify their ID and hand them the ballot.
Once they handed over their ID (generally drivers or state license, but also passport or military IDs were acceptable), we scanned the back side and their information popped up. Then it was just a matter of verifying their name and address - generally a quick process - and printing out a ballot. That ballot was blank, other than a few lines at the top identifying them as an eligible voter. They then took that ballot to the machines, put it into the slot, and made their choices.
When they were finished, they hit Submit, and the machine printed out their choices on that ballot. They were able to check to see if their choices matched, and they took the ballot to the scanner. At the point of scanning, the vote was actually cast.
I go into some detail, as it’s clear that this approach has all the features you would want from a voting process:
IDs - verifiable IDs, checked in real time.
Printed ballots. As everyone knows, it’s MUCH harder to screw with votes if there is an audit trail.
Everything about the individual voting sites happens in PUBLIC VIEW (other than the breakdown of the station, which STILL happens in a mandated one Republican for every Democrat working, in front of everyone.
Now, ONE thing I think could be better - and it’s not the voting process.
There were more than a few people - mostly younger - who had to vote through provisional ballots, because their address match could not be verified. Mostly, that was because, like many younger citizens, they moved more than older people. Several of them had changed their address at the post office, and thought that the change would follow through with voters registration.
Logical, because the post office is perceived to be a government office.
Similarly, when people changed their drivers license, they thought the Board of Elections would be aware. Not a dumb idea, because many of them had previously registered at the DMV.
I’m going to be following up with state legislators. I think several changes need to be made:
Address changes should have a box that asks: do you want your voter registration to also change?
When the DMV re-issues a license with an address change, they should be authorized to send notice of that change to the Board of Elections. The BOE could follow up with a notice that their voters registration had changed, and providing a number to call if they didn’t want that change.
The other thing that came up was the delay between getting a new license and updating it with the new address. Many delay as they don’t want a trip to the DMV.
Ohio DMV has online changes of address. This needs to be publicized, as they can use the paperwork of the change to mitigate problems with their voter registration. Again, the DMV could also update their voters registration at the same time.
Where possible, we need to keep ahead of the changes in how business is conducted. Consolidating similar government activities makes a lot of sense, when they involve something as common as a change of address.
Thank you for all your hard work.
Have a fabulous day and rest of the week. ♥