I Am An Election Poll Volunteer

Every election for the last five years I have served as a ballot processor at our county election board. In the state of Oregon all voting is done by mail or drop off site, so each ballot received has to go through several steps before reaching the vote counting machines.
First every registered voter is mailed a voters pamphlet to their address on record. This pamphlet contains all the information about each candidate running for office and each measure up for a vote. Each voter is expected to read through the pamphlet in order to make an informed decision.

Next the ballots are mailed out. Each comes with a large bar-coded envelope that is printed with the voter's name, address and precinct number. There is a signature line on the envelope which must be signed. If it is not signed, the ballot can not be processed and counted. This is clearly stated on the envelope. Also enclosed is a printed overview of all the candidates and measures that will be found on the ballot.
The ballot for each precinct is printed with the names all the candidates running for national, state, county and local seats and also any local measures that are up for a yes or no vote. The ballots are two-sided and each candidate or measure has a blank oval printed alongside. Each oval that the voter has filled in on the ballot is a vote.
Included with the ballot is an inner secrecy envelope. After the person has voted the ballot will be sealed in this envelope which is labeled with the word SECRECY and has no personal identifying information, then placed into the signature envelope for mailing. It is mailed to the election board office of the county clerk.

                 

After the ballots have arrived at the election board the envelopes go through a forensic signature verification process. If the ballot is not signed or the signature does not match the voter's signature on their voter registration card they are contacted and asked to come down to the election board and verify their signature, otherwise the ballot will not be accepted.
Once signatures are verified the envelopes are slit open by machine and sorted into bins labeled by precinct.
Each precinct bin is then distributed by one of the supervisors to a processing team table where the ballot inspections begin.

Every election as the processing teams work on ballot inspections, we are observed. We work at tables in front of a wall of glass. Only workers and supervisors with micro-chipped badges have access to the room. The political observers have a designated gallery behind the glass. The general public can come there and watch the processors at work as well. The political observers represent various parties, candidates, elected officials, and sometimes ballot measures. They are not allowed cell phones, cameras or laptops. They are not allowed to speak to us as we leave and enter the processing room and we are not allowed to speak to them. This is all in an effort to ensure the security and integrity of the election process.
As they watch the teams they are making certain that each table is comprised of more than one political party. We wear our badges on colored lanyards that indicate party affiliation. Democrat- Green, Republican- Yellow, Independent- Blue. We have a mix at each table to ensure that any inspection decisions are unbiased.
The observers watch to make sure that if one person has to leave the table for any reason all work stops until that person returns and the party balance is restored.
They closely watch the ballot inspection to make certain that there is no tampering with the votes. They are provided with a sample ballot, a set of the tools that we use and an explanation of what we do and why.

The inspection teams prepare the ballot to be run through the counting machines. We work on one precinct at a time. When the bin is delivered to our table we remove the stacks of machine opened envelopes. The envelopes are each checked to make sure they are all from the same precinct. They are stacked, signature side down for privacy, then divided equally among the team members. We remove the secrecy envelopes from each signature envelope. The signature envelopes are rubber banded and placed back in the bin. We then open the secrecy envelopes and remove the ballots. The secrecy envelopes are stamped with the precinct number/ date stamp and placed in the bin. We then carefully inspect each ballot for things that might cause the counting machine to stop or to improperly read the vote.

Here are a few examples:
Ballots that are badly creased, bent, torn or have sticky stains can't go through the machines and have to go through a careful duplicating process. Many people seem to vote while they are eating and we get ballots with food stuck on them and coffee stains that cover the ovals and the machine will read the stains as votes if they are not opaqued over by us. The photo above is an example of stains seeping into an oval.

Ballots where the voter has have filled in an oval and then crossed it out and filled in a different oval often accompanied by little notes saying "this one" have to have the incorrect oval opaqued out otherwise the machine will read it as an overvote and the vote will not count.

Write-in candidates where the name is written but the voter neglected to mark the oval and none of the printed candidates were voted, we have to mark the oval for them with an enhancing tool. This is a daisy shaped black ink stamp that is used for this purpose. Sometimes the voter will circle the a candidate's name or the word yes or no on a measure instead of filling in the oval. The enhancing tool is used for that as well or the machine will not recognize their vote.

Any ballot that we have had to make machine ready is marked with a red E at the top. The stacks of inspected ballots are laid flat, stamped with the precinct stamp, rubber-banded and placed back in the bin with all the inspection paperwork signed by two team members. The bin is taken away to the counting room and the process continues with a new precinct.
This November election was huge. Here are the numbers from our county.

        
 We processed over 158,000 ballots one by one. On election night we  literally work all night long. I went home at 5:30 AM.

                       


Now that you realize the labor intensive process we go through to make certain that every serious voter gets his or her vote properly counted, maybe you can understand my frustration with the other voters. The ones who make a mockery out of the whole thing. The ones
who ought to be ashamed of wasting an opportunity that others in this world have suffered greatly to have.

Every election people use their ballot for stupid write-ins- Sponge Bob, Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, a yellow dog, Stewie, Godzilla and so on.The ballot in the photo is from a Minnesota ballot so it apparently happens nationwide. These are annoying enough but then we get the write-in votes that really get me steamed- Hitler, Satan, Zombie Jesus, Osama Bin Laden, Saddam Hussein. Who thinks like that?

I'm also completed disgusted by the ones that put little comments on the write-in line and then mark the oval so they are voting for- "none of them, nobody, they all suck, anyone else, me, my mom, Hell no, no good", and it goes on and on. Often they X out all the candidates and then write "no-one". And since they've dragged their pen through all the ovals to do this, we have to take the time to opaque them out. I've opened ballots stuck together with gum with these types of votes on them. I've had ballots with holes stabbed all over them. Ballots with blood on them. Ballots that have nasty comments written all over them. I find all of these things disrespectful, tasteless, pointless and infuriating.

Why do these people even bother to vote at all? Quite honestly, these people don't know how lucky they are that their votes cannot be traced back to them! We live in a country where we are freely allowed to cast votes. We have no business wasting them.

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