Week 30 - "serving as an election judge"

This is the book judges have to know.

     Well, we are going off the prescribed deck of cards "path" once again. I served as an election judge in the recent primary election here in Coles County. I signed up earlier this year, went to a training session and was accepted. There are 44 precincts in Coles County and they need at least four people at each precinct. Since just about everyone under the age of 62 is working, most election judges are retirees.
     I could have been assigned to any precinct in the county where they needed help but was assigned to the precinct where Cheryl and I vote. That was nice because I saw a lot of people we know, and got to visit with them.
     The Illinois primary was March 20. The polls are open from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. Election judges have to be there at 5 a.m. We have to test the voting machines. We have two types -- a scanning machine in which people darken circles next to a candidate's name on the ballot and insert their ballot into the machine, and a touch-screen system where people touch the name of the candidates they vote for. Very few people use the touch screen but by law we have to have it available. Because in the primary, voters must select either a Democrat or Republicn ballot, the judges have several duties. One judge checks to be sure the person is on the voter list for that precinct and hasn't voted early or absentee. The next person gets the voter's application sheet out of a stack of papers, has the voter sign and asks if he or she wants a Democrat or Republican ballot. Then that judge or another (depending on how many people are in line), marks which ballot the person chose and what number of Democratic or Republican voter this is (first, 17th, 28th, etc., etc.). Another judge gives the voter the actual Democrat or Republican paper ballot to be completed and that judge puts his or her initials on the ballot. The other judge stays near the voting machine to assist voters, if needed, in putting their ballot in the scanner and to be sure the ballot has been initialed by a judge (so no one can submit a phony ballot, I guess). Every hour, the judges rotate so we all learn each part of the process and to break up the 13-hour monotony. Judges are not allowed to leave the polling place so we have to bring a lunch or have something delivered.
     Also, each hour, we check the numbers we mark on the ballot with how may ballots the machine says it has counted to be sure we match. Twice, we were off. In early afternoon, one judge repeated the same number twice. That was easy to find and correct. But the second one was a problem.
     At 6 p.m., the numbers matched. But when the polls closed at 7 p.m., we were off one. Our polling place actually served two precincts. There were two sets of judges but only one voting machine. Our precinct numbers said 224 people had voted. The other precinct's numbers showed 209 people voted, totaling 433 voters in the two precincts. But the voting machine said 432 ballots were counted. We checked and doublechecked all the paper sheets in both precincts but couldn't find any mistakes. We finally called the county clerk's office to tell them the problem. They told us to print all the results from the machine, turn in all our materials and write a note on top of the bundle that we were off by one vote.
     When we printed the results the machine said there were 224 votes counted in our precinct and 208 countd in the other district for a 432 total. That means our precinct numbers (Whew!!) were correct and the other precint was off by one.
     We had to call the clerk's office two other times. Two people came in to vote but our list said they had voted absentee already. They said they had been in Arizona and requested absentee ballots but never did vote. The clerk's office said they could not vote unless they brought in the unused absentee ballots. They went home, got them and brought them back so we let them vote. Another guy had moved from our precinct to another in Charleston but didn't change his registration. He could only vote for president, not for any other office. We had ballots just for that.
     We finished a little after 8 p.m. so I had spent 15 hours there, and got paid $120.for a cool $8 an hour. But it was fun, interesting and a chance to visit with a lot of people. Our two precincts' voter turnout  was only about 30 percent. I plan to do this again in November and the turnout should be much higher.
    After 30-plus years of reporting on elections for the newspaper, it as great to be on this side of the process. It's another benefit of being retired!