the nonduel
Yesterday I served as a Democratic Party designated challenger and witness in good ol' Cuyahoga County, Ohio. A friend who is active as a party volunteer asked me to do it, and when I heard what was expected to happen at the polls, I was glad to help. I'm not much of one for toeing any party's line -- and in fact had been registered as an independent until this spring's primaries and have been known to vote for Republicans when I believe they would do a better job -- but I do believe very strongly in fairness and that if you're entitled to vote, you should be able to do so without interference.

I'm not a confrontational person, so I considered myself fortunate to be assigned to two Cleveland precincts in which we had zero trouble. Republican Party challengers were expected to show up in every Cuyahoga County precinct, but I had none in my polling place. As I checked in throughout the day I heard brief tales of other polling places being a lot more . . . um . . . lively, but I haven't heard any detailed war stories yet.

For the record, we were instructed over and over again that we were NOT to challenge any voter for any reason. We were there to be sure that voters weren't challenged unnecessarily or intimidated in any way and that proper procedures were followed.

Provisional ballots are becoming the hanging chads of 2004. Let me share a few of my observations from my two precincts. The success of voter registration drives left many boards of elections woefully behind in entering registrants' information into the system. If the voter was in the correct precinct based on residence and believed he was registered but his name did not appear in the book, he was entitled to cast a provisional ballot. Between my two precincts, 52 provisional ballots were cast. Many of these were from first-time voters who had recently registered, but more than a handful were from people who have lived in the same place for many years, have been voting all along, and were in the correct precinct (and lots of times were even recognized and greeted by name by the pollworkers), but for some reason didn't show up in the poll book. The notion that provisional ballots constitute some kind of underhanded scheme -- a viewpoint I believe we'll be hearing over the next week or so -- is rot.

As for turnout, the poll judge at one of my precincts said their normal turnout for a presidental election is about 200; yesterday they had 648. When the pollworkers arrived at 6:00 a.m., there were already about 40 people standing in line outside the building in the rain. At the poll's opening at 6:30 a.m. and again around 6:00 p.m., the wait was about an hour, but there were a few times in the early afternoon when there were no lines at all. Usually it was about a 20-minute wait. Based on the busyness all day, I was expecting huge lines at 7:30 when the polls closed (here in Ohio if you are in line when the polls close, you are entitled to vote) and that we would be there until well into the night finishing up, but when we closed the doors at 7:30, one precinct had no line and no one still voting, and the other had one person waiting and just a couple of people voting. The counts were done and ballots were off to the collection center by 9:30.

I spent the day simply observing, helping voters fill out their provisional envelopes if they needed it, helping the inspector make sure people got into the right line, helping voters find the right precinct to be in if they were in the wrong one, answering general questions, ripping individual "I voted today" stickers off the rolls, foisting bananas and donuts on the pollworkers, and generally doing what I could to help make things go smoothly within the parameters of what I was allowed to do.

All in all, it was an interesting day. I have a new respect for the "little old ladies" who sit there all day long at the polls with only one break and have to deal with cranky people, rules that the courts have changed several times a day for the past week, and myriad "special" situations, all in exchange for a pittance. (For the record, I did not get paid by anyone for my day at the polling place.) I got to see the process up close and personal, and have lots of fodder for the long letter I'll be writing to the board of elections and secretary of state regarding things I see as confusing for voters and pollworkers and ways that things could be better.

Kris will be disappointed that I didn't get to throw down a glove and declare "I challenge thee!" Not even once. But that's a good thing.
- posted by Lori @ 10:56:00 AM | permanent link | |