Ohio - election day in the boiler room
I spent from 5:45 AM to 8:30 PM election day with 6-7 other Democratic attorneys fielding calls from Democratic polling place observers in my region (roughly 1/6 of the state of Ohio).
I was the trouble-shooter for 11 observers in a single county. 3 dropped out, so I was really only problem solving for 8. And really only 7, since one of those was our liaison at the board of elections. There were 53 polling locations in the county. So we only had eyes on 1/8 of "my" county. And we had no observers at all in more than half of the counties in our region.
As usual, most of the problems our observers encountered were the result of hiring "seasonal" workers for election day - not malice. (There was one notable exception - a polling location in which it has been clear for years that our presence is barely tolerated - even so problems were largely related not to voting problems, but to being allowed to do our jobs). But - when you work the polls once or twice a year, you don't learn or retain the rules - so a fair number of mistakes get made. Our job is to catch and fix them.
Truth be told, the same thing applies to observers. Once I've learned the rules (back in 2012), they come back very quickly - especially since I read the 4 relevant manuals during early voting, and work shifts as an observer during early voting to get that muscle memory back.
Not everyone does that, and not everyone comes back year after year. As a result I was not only supporting the observers in my county, but I was also the quickest in our boiler room to find documentation so others in my role could point to page and line in the formal documentation from the (R) secretary of state as authority for what it observers needed to solve problems that arise largely from the ignorance of the (seasonal) poll workers. (Much more authoritative than our own training manuals.)
Everything ran smoothly. Lines remained short. Problems identified were quickly resolved, usually just by the observer bringing it to the attention of the voting location manager. We "won" all of the systemic issues which were elevated to the boiler room in my region (things like rejecting acceptable ID, improperly refusing to issue provisional ballots, requiring secondary ID for certain sub-populations).
But if you look at the numbers above, the was a whole lot of "my" county uncovered - and the same was true of the rest of the state. By this time in 2024, we need a whole lot more folks like me in the polling locations. We can't solve problems like voters being turned away, or being improperly given provisional ballot if no one sees it happen - and observers are the eyes and ears of the Democratic party in the polls who see it happen and can fix it directly or elevate it to someone else who can.
You don't have to be an attorney to be a party observer - you just need to be able to learn a set of rules, be observant, and communicate well. We also need people committed to learning the rules to work for county board of election on election day, out in the polling places. We will never have enough observers to cover every precinct. When we can't put a second set of eyes and ears in a precinct to catch problems, a well-trained poll worker can prevent problems by knowing the rules. I have had also had poll workers who know what I do surreptitiously call me when they think something isn't being handled correctly, and there isn't an observer in their location. I can tell them page and line in the state manual to help them raise the issue to their voting location manager.
Watch for opportunities to get involved in voter protection - once we GOTV (go all of you who do that!!!) We also need to make sure we don't lose those votes at the ballot box in election day. (And, as a bonus, knowledge of what actually goes on in the polling place behind the scenes will make you far less sceptical of the process.)
Our wrap up conversation, after the polls closed yesterday, was that we needed to start building a unified state pool of people, starting in early 2023, so we have relationships to call on and can fill all of the roles we need to for 2024.
Ohioans - be on the lookout for an invitation from me to hook you up to an Ohio team early next year (especially, but not only, if you are an attorney).
Oh, and go Emelia Sykes, Marcy Kaptur, and Greg Landsman - each of whom helped fend off the red wave. (Most of) the rest of Ohio - you suck.