There’s not a lot to report from my adventure in civic duty of being an election clerk. Some raw numbers:
– Roughly 600 eligible voters for my precinct
– Roughly 125 of those were sent an absentee ballot
– Roughly 260 voters showed up to vote in person
– Of that last group, only about 20 used a paper ballot; the rest used the electronic voting machines
No big disasters (that we could detect) with the electronic voting machines. No crashes, no billowing smoke, and the number of votes the machines reported jibed with the number of signatures from people walking through the door.
My precinct also seemed to avoid the horribly long lines of the precincts just blocks away from us. I could boast that my youthful vigor and painstaking organizational skills simply kept things moving that smoothly. But, the reality is probably related to simply having a smaller number of people in this precinct.
I have a greater respect for the people who do this year after year. The day started at 6:00 am, an hour before polls open so we had time to do some prep and setup. The polls closed at 8:00 pm and we spent another two hours doing cleanup and paperwork. So, a 16-hour day, minus one hour for lunch. I am beat and I have not even looked at the news to see any incoming results. Truth be told, I’m kind of nervous about doing so. Maybe I’ll save it for the morning; looking now certainly isn’t going to change anything.
The one last thing I will add. I am about as cynical as they come. But, watching elderly immigrants walk away from voting with a beaming smile and a complete look of joy touched me deeply and made me grateful to live where and when I do. Yes, there’s a lot that’s fucked up about the system, but it could be much worse.
Winston Churchill said “Democracy is the worst form of government except for all those others that have been tried.” Of course, he also said “The best argument against democracy is a five minute conversation with the average voter.”
Winston Churchill said “Democracy is the worst form of government except for all those others that have been tried.” Of course, he also said “The best argument against democracy is a five minute conversation with the average voter.”
Oh and yeah.
So, for those of us who decided we don’t trust machines with our votes, what exactly happened to those paper ballots? I felt pretty self-righteous with my paper trail right up to the point where i handed the paper ballot to the poll staffer who then looked at it and called out, “What do i do with this?” (I was the first paper ballot of the day.)
We tried to follow the rules very closely at my precinct, as I hope did other polling places in CA. For us, the drill was that the voter signed in (signed their name and wrote their address in the register) the same as any other voter, a “E / P” choice was circled “P” to indicate the voter wanted a paper ballot. The voter was given two longish ballots to fill out, of the “fill in the arrow” variety. When those were returned, stubs were removed from each page and handed to the voter. The ballot was then slid through a slot into a semi-rigid fabric “ballot box”, along with any provisional ballots submitted, and any absentee ballots people turned in at the polls.
At the end of the night, the ballot box/bag was opened, we tallied/double-checked the number of paper ballots, absentee ballots and provisional ballots, and sealed them in yet another bag, which was then dropped off (along with bunches of other stuff) at a collection point for voting materials from multiple precincts. What the county did with them from there, I cannot say. My absentee ballot went into that same bag, so I’m hoping they were treated honestly.
well said
Thank you for the perspective, and I have to say how much I respect your activism in volunteering for this work. I wish I could have – I will some day. It was great to see you yesterday!
psst – meriko here. Just so you know.