please state your name

So as you might have guessed from yesterday's post, I was one of the people taking names and handing out ATV (Authorization to Vote) forms yesterday. We have books with the names of all registered voters in the precinct, and each name has a sticker next to it. We would verify the person's identity by asking them to state their name and street address, then put their sticker on an ATV, have them sign the form and direct them to the ballot table. Where they would turn in the ATV and be given a blank ballot.

In rare circumstances we would have to check ID, if the voter was marked "Inactive -- Verify Voter Information" in the book. Though a surprising number of people thought everyone had to show ID. Whenever they did I wouldn't look at it and would just say "I don't need to see that if you can state your name." Because first of all, I wanted to make it clear that ID wasn't necessary. And secondly, they're required by law to say their name and address out loud, and it seemed stupid for me to read their information off their ID and then ask them to say it anyway. I think the requirement to say names and addresses out loud is a fraud protection from the days when precincts were smaller and voters were likely to be known by either a poll worker or another voter who happened to be there. So if someone falsely gave John Smith's name and address, one of John's neighbors might hear it and realize that wasn't really him.

A few people expressed their opinion that we ought to check everyone's ID. One person even told me "that's horrible" that we don't. Personally I think this system is pretty good. As long as the BOE stays on top of removing people who die or move away, and marking people they can't verify "inactive" so their ID is checked, then there's no reason to hassle everyone with showing ID.

If people were unaffiliated then the process got more complicated. We had to tell them that they had a choice of ballot, and ask them to circle the name of the ballot they wanted on the ATV, and then initial in that box, in addition to signing the form like everyone. After about an hour the chief judge told us to start making people circle the ballot style in red. But, they still had to sign in black. Which made the process much more cumbersome and complicated: "Circle here in red, now initial here ... now if you can change pens and sign your name here in black." Asking unaffiliated voters to make three marks with two pens was kind of ridiculous, and I think I apologized to every single unaffiliated I dealt with.

If they didn't know which ballot they wanted, then they could go look at sample ballots posted on the wall. This also created a lot of confusion. It seemed pretty clear to me when I voted last week, but a lot of people didn't really know what the whole thing about choosing a ballot meant, and we spent a lot of time explaining it. A lot of people thought that because they were unaffiliated, they should circle "non-partisan" and then they'd get to vote in all the races. When actually the non-partisan ballot only had the non-partisan races like school board. We had been instructed not to steer people towards or away from any ballot style, but whenever we saw someone fixing to circle "non-partisan" we would urge them to go look at the sample ballots first. Other than that I was very careful not to say anything about the ballot styles. For instance when I told them they could choose their ballot style, if they said "I want the democratic ballot" I wouldn't say "well then circle DEM on the list" or even point to it. I would just say "if you know the one you want, circle it on this list." Maybe I was overly fastidious but I felt like it was better to err on the side of caution, than to inadvertently say something that sounded like I was advocating one party over another.

A couple of times people spouted off with political statements which we were all careful not to respond to. For instance one person asked me, "Are lots of Democrats voting?" I replied "Lots of everyone are voting!" One guy really pushed the woman next to me, asking her who she voted for in the presidential primary, lots of questions that are rude in any circumstance but incredibly inappropriate in that one. She put him off by saying she didn't like any candidate. I'm sure people don't realize they're putting a poll worker in a bad position by trying to engage in a political conversation.

One thing I will definitely remember next time is to take lozenges. I should have expected how hard it would be on the throat to have the same conversation over and over for thirteen hours. I did have the sense to bring lots of liquids -- a big sport cup of iced tea in the morning, a big bottle of water for when that ran out, and then around 5 Georg brought me a biggie sized iced tea from Wendy's. (Who by the way, make the most reliably good unsweet iced tea anywhere. I've been to expensive restaurants which charge more for a tiny glass of foul, undrinkable tea, than Wendy's biggie sized tea which is always at least decent, and usually quite good. But that's neither here nor there.) So anyway I had plenty to drink and that did help.

Closing down after the polls closed took less time than expected because there wasn't a line at the end. Just a couple of guys who made it in just before we locked the doors. Then the assistants (that included me) folded up the voting stations, cleaned the kitchen and put the tables and chairs away, while the judges counted the ballots and sent in the vote totals. The blank ballots had to be counted and compared to the number of votes cast, to make sure the numbers matched the number of ballots we had before the polls opened.

All the judges and assistants were great. All really hardworking and knowledgeable and professional, and all willing to help a newbie like me. Our chief judge was especially impressive. She ran the exceptions table (the help desk) and it seemed like no matter what happened, she knew what to do. It would have run a lesser person ragged but she never seemed tired or short-tempered. At one point I needed to ask her what to do with a spoiled ATV and I decided I'd wait until she wasn't busy at the exceptions table -- it took an hour and a half before there was a free moment when I could ask her! She had been busy dealing with voter problems non stop all that time. And it was like that most of the day.