Election officials are sweating, some don't welcome citizen observers

[BevHarris]

I just interviewed with a Florida newspaper about the stress election officials are reporting. He mentioned Michael Moore's upcoming Florida election visit, terrorism threats, and citizen "infiltrators."

Well, Michael Moore can't visit everywhere at once, so I don't see the problem. He can't come into the polling place anyway. But maybe they're worried about being caught in the act of covering up problems, as happened recently by some other filmmakers I know.

And terrorism? Apparently they had a little seminar with the police department. But does anyone realistically think that a polling place would be a sensible terrorism target? I mean, let's do the math: In my county there are 1,000 polling places. There are 3,066 counties. Okay, some have only 100 polling places or so, but we are talking what -- a million polling places nationwide? Seems too dispersed for any kind of terrorism strategy.

Now about the "citizen infiltrators." Yes, and I've also heard this referred to as a "Jihad" (really!) and as a "holy war." Okay, those over the top remarks were by San Bernardino County (CA) Registrar Scott Konopasek. But this term "infiltrator" really galls me.

I asked what in the world they mean by "infiltrator" and what they are really scared of is poll workers and election judges who do the terrible dastardly thing of reporting to others about their experiences after the polls close. They also seem to feel it adds "stress" and "demotivates voters" if we have citizens observing. Now, forgive me if I'm wrong, but isn't this exactly why we have ordinary citizens in these roles in the first place?

The reporter said the election officials are concerned about all the extra forms they have to fill out with poll workers. I asked what those forms are. Get this:

1) A sign off that they actually received their training
and
2) A loyalty statement that they will not engage in partisan skullduggery on the job.

Again, forgive me if I'm missing something here, but isn't this something they should already have been doing? Sounds reasonable to me, especially after traveling the country and seeing how slipshod some places are (like San Diego, which didn't even check poll workers ID and then sent them home with voting machines).

He asked me for my comment about the stress the election officials must endure due to all the increased citizen monitoring. My comment?

"Tough." I think after we've all had these goofy voting system shoved down our throats, we deserve to exert a little muscle.

And by the way, some election officials complain that they can't get enough volunteers -- but now that we have, among the 10 or so groups doing monitoring, something like 100,000 people wanting to be involved in monitoring elections, I guess they don't really want people involved after all, do they?

This is a healthy thing. It is always uncomfortable for people who are not accustomed to being scrutinized and being held accountable to get more attention. But the good ones -- like one of my sources, a former elections supervisor who baked cookies for people to try to get them to attend the Logic & Accuracy tests -- don't really mind.

I say, "bring it on."

To volunteer for the fall election watch crew at Black Box Voting, email me at [e-mail].

We have a coordinating meeting this weekend, will hook up with other groups, will begin putting you all in action shortly.

Bev Harris

[NMDemDist2]

1. in AZ both local parties have observers at polls

isn't it the same in Florida?

[BevHarris]

2. What they don't like is regular citizens showing up to be involved

More people volunteering for poll worker duty (yegads!)

Citizen observers showing up to watch the central count.

"stressful" things like that.

Bev

[Warren DeMontague]

3. Terrorists threatening the polls!

many disguised as minorities, folks driving beat up or older model cars, some with long hair (on men) or unshaven, oftentimes wearing clothing other than a 3 piece suit. By all means, the polls must be protected from these potential terrorists!

[BevHarris]

5. Terrorists: "many disguised as minorities..." LOL

Thanks for that one. Yup. If enough black folks actually get to vote, that might terrorize certain people.

[Virginian]

8. Think about it.

If the administration can suppress the vote with the threat of terrorism at the polls, they might have a chance.

[cthrumatrix]

13. they should have film rolling 7x24 at all these places...this is too big

[bobbieinok]

4. in the 70s and 80s in IA the Rs and the Ds each had a pollwatcher

at each precinct the entire election day (volunteers usually worked 2-3 hours). We were there to mark off the people in our party who had voted; when we left we took our lists to the precinct captain who had callers call the ones who had not yet voted.....or people walked the precinct knocking on doors of people in the party who had not yet voted.


The only weird thing that happened to me was in 72 or 74 when the R watcher and the election officials pointed at a hippie type at the back of the line and said 'He's yours.'

[BevHarris]

6. I don't think they mind the R watcher and the D watcher

it's those plain ol' citizens that seem to be the source of this newfound stress.

[Virginian]

7. Why be a poll watcher when you can be a poll worker?

We NEED people to sign up, get training and work election day.

The first time I worked the polls was for the 2000 Presidential election. I think there were only four of us who were not retired. At the last minute, the county had gone to a retirement home to recruit workers. Most of us had never worked the polls before. There was a lot of confusion.
For my second election, I was made Assistant Chief and for my third, I was the Chief. The Chief is usually of the same party as the Governor. This past February Primary was the first time I had poll workers who actually vote in this precinct -- two. Previously, the county had to assign me workers who were all from other precincts.
Doesn't this tell you that we need people to work the polls? Don't you think you can do a better job than that Ditto head next door?

The only down side of this is that you do not know what is going on in the rest of the world because you can't have TV, Radio or Internet.

As long as you are a registered voter, you can sign-up as late as October, go to one evening class where you will learn what is expected of you and how to operate the machines. Then you show up to your assigned precinct at 5 AM on election day. I always had to take a vacation day. Even my non-profit employer didn't think it warranted a free "civic duty" day off like jury duty.

You can work the polls and watch the polls at the same time. That way you will know the process and you won't be in the way.

on edit: correccted spelling.

[scarletlib]

10. That's what I did.

I am now a clerk in a Palm Beach County Precinct. While I can' do anything about what is going on in the interior of the electronic voting machines, I can make sure all who are eligible to vote get to do so. There will be no shenanigans in my precinct. I can assure you of that.

[Pepperbelly]

12. Nothing makes sphincters tighten as surely as the words ...

"Hey! Wait just a fucking minute now," to a gop operative up to no good.

[DeepModem Mom]

9. kick

[Hekate]

11. Kick & Thanks Bev and all poll-workers and watchers!

:kick:

Hekate