More precinct shenanigans???

[kjackson227]

Had a co-worker tell me that her precinct didn't have anything (voter materials, and ballot box) ready this morning at 7:00 a.m. (I guess they wanted people to turn around and leave). The precinct officials told voters that they could fill out their ballots, and they (the officials), would run them thru the counter ballot box later. She said "thanks, but no thanks", and proceeded to wait until they got everything ready. She did say that she reported them.

[CoolOnion]

1. Minor problem at my precinct

I've already voted, but was at the polling place handing out lit for a judicial candidate. There were three people in line to vote when I got there at 7:00; the machine was rejecting ballots. The Election Judge (a good Democrat) called the Elections office and found out our precinct's machine was switched with another precinct! Until the correct machine gets there, the Election Judge has to collect ballots in the locked box; when the new machine gets there, she has to feed each ballot into the correct machine.

[kjackson227]

2. Personally, I don't want to trust my vote to anyone but...

me. I'd just have to wait so that I can insert my ballot myself.

[The Philosopher]

3. What do you mean?

Run it through the counter ballot box? When your co-worker arrived at the polling station, the poll workers didn't have the electronic ballot scanner up? Sometimes that happens. There's a box inside the tub that's for votes that can't be scanned, because the machines are down or the power is out, or you're a provisional ballot. If the machine wasn't working (unable to scan ballots), then she would have filled out her ballot, sealed it in a privacy envelope, then dropped it herself in that box through a slot in the side of the tub. The next time you vote, you can look for yourself. It's on the left hand side (if you find it, but feel a metal door--it's closed. Tell them that they're supposed to lower that metal door and have it open).

I'm the youngest at my polling station, so I work with the machines. I've gotten accustomed to it enough that I don't look at the booklet anymore to set them up. I've only had one problem before yesterday and it was with the ballot scanner (e-scan, I believe it's called--I never can get the names straight), and I needed someone from the county Voter's office to come exchange the SIM card, or whatever it's called. However, yesterday the "touch" screen (it's not a touch screen, but it's easier to call it that) gave us problems. After assigning it a booth number and opening the polls, the screen flashed "unavailable." I still don't know what the problem was. I basically turned everything off and rebooted and it came online properly.

Stuff like that happens and because we're volunteers, we need to rely on the county for help. And they're busy with every precinct. The best way to combat this is to volunteer to work the polls every election if you can, that way you can familiarize yourself with who is working, who handles the elections for the county, and the machinery itself.

Another problem we had yesterday is a lot of people coming in who weren't registered, but filed the paper work. Apparently the DMV isn't processing the paper work like it should. I don't know if it was a local DMV problem or state-wide. But it was upsetting to see people told they couldn't vote because someone didn't turn in their paperwork. I don't care if they were Republicans (which they were most likely) or Democrats.

Another potential problem voters might have seen yesterday is people getting into the tub and handling ballots. Normally we don't touch them once scanned, but because of the write-in candidates, we were asked to deliver the ballots instead of just the cards with the recorded votes. I've done that once before and I knew the state those ballots would be after a heavy day of voting. So all day I was waiting for a lull (which was impossible--we had a constant stream of voters! WHILE IT RAINED) to open the tub and tidy up. Eventually I said "fuck it" and did it while there voters coming in. I'm sure others would've done the same. So you might have walked in and seen a dude filing ballots. It wasn't improper or illegal, so don't worry about that.

[kjackson227]

4. okay.