My 100th Post : Ask me anything about Election Administration

It took me a while just to get to 100, after lurking for 2 years, and then anonymously posting 'cuz of my occupation...

But! I'm one of those "evil" election adminstrators, who just happens to loathe touchscreens, and can tell you (most) of what you want to know about how elections are really run...

So! Ask me anything about how elections are administered! (If I don't know the answer, I can point you to those who will know.)

:hi:

When counted, etc.

And where (approximately) are you from? Won't the rules & procedures and etc. be wildly different in each county?

I'm from the West Coast, to answer your other question. But I'm pretty familiar with regional differences in election administration.

In some states, you can only get a ballot if you are truly away or disabled or over 65. In other states, you can become a permanent absentee voter and vote in every election by mail. Oregon is entirely vote by mail, as are remote portions of Alaska, Hawai'i, Washington and California, due to the inaccessibility of polling places.

California, Oregon, and Washington have similar handling for vote by mail ballots (these include traditional absentee ballots for those away from home, local absentee ballots on demand, true vote by mail precincts, etc. Any Mail Ballot). Oregon is entirely vote by mail.

In every state that offers ballots by mail in any format, the voter receives a paper ballot or paper punchcard that may be intended for hand counting, punch reading, or optical scanning. Each voter also receives a secrecy envelope - a plain envelope that is the inner layer, and an outer envelope for mailing that contains the address of the election office, and on the back side has the voter oath, signature line, and witness line(s) if necessary. in large jurisdictions, the outer envelope may also have a barcode to speed up incoming processing.

In the three west coast states, every voter's signature is verified against the signature on file for the voter (this is speeded up with a digital database of the signatures) to prevent ballot fraud.

The west coast is unique in this, as a universal procedure. In many states, only a specific sample, ranging from 5% - 50% of the ballots are randomly sampled for voter signature verification.

After the signature is verified (or, depending upon the state, the batch is sampled and some signatures are verified), the outer envelopes are removed, leaving the ballots in just the plain secrecy envelopes (this is the reason for the layers of envelopes - to ensure that the ballot is secret).

With no voter identification with the ballots any longer, the secrecy envelopes are removed, and the ballots are inspected to ensure that they are readable by the card readers or optical scans. Unreadable ballots generally are forwarded to a canvassing board consisting of members of all major political parties, and under supervision of all parties are enhanced to ensure the voter's intent can be read by the machines.

The ballots are then secured in batches, and stored in a vault or locked cage until election day. On election day, the ballots are counted, and the results embargoed until the polls have closed in that jurisdiction.

Some states that have limited absentee ballot eligibility (you have to be out of the area or disabled to receive an absentee) only count absentee ballots if they are "outcome determinate". This means, only if a race would be decided by the results of the absentees, are the absentees actually opened, verified and counted.

Eg: Jane Doe has 10,000 votes, Jack Roe has 5,000 votes. There are 365 absentees issued in that jurisdiction - it doesn't matter what the absentee voters voted, even if all of the votes are for jack, he still loses. So the time to verify and count that ballots is not expended. The voters are simply credited with voting and the ballots remain in the unopened envelopes.

I'm sure there's more that people may be curious about - feel free to ask me about anything I have left out.

I have heard some people post before that their party affiliation is printed on the outside of their absentee ballot, and this is cause for concern for them. (i.e. they're going to see I'm of a certain party affiliation and toss my vote.) Do many states have ballot envelopes like this (we don't, we don't even have party affiliations here), and why do they do that? are these people right to be concerned.

...the party affiliation on the outer envelope. The ballots have to be batched by party to be read.

Some states just have it more visibly present on the envelope, and people notice it. But it's there with the other voter information on the outside of the envelope in every state that registers by party.


Are they right to be concerned? Generally not. The total number of ballots that came in is logged, and if a big hunk of Democratic ballots went missing after they were received (or Republican in a Democratic area), then an enormous stench would rise rather quickly.

Now, if there was collusion between someone at the post office and someone at an election office, there is a small possibility that ballots could be nicked, but there would have to be several dishonset people from a couple of agencies to make that happen.

How would one tell if Something Is Rotten At The Elections Office?

My county usually gives me warm fuzzies. They post freakin' everything on the internet. (Transparancy makes me happy.) They answer all my dumb questions and don't give me any garbage like, "who are you to ask that?" The head dude has repeatedly met with community people I know and chatted with them about BBV and other issues. We even had a little misunderstanding about when voter registrations were due, which was promptly and rapidly resolved. All to their credit.

So... if these are the POSITIVE indicators, at least to my not-so-knowing mind, what would negative indicators be about the office?

Other than, oh, having Katherine Harris or Mr. Blackwell run it. :D

(edited for clarity)

I agree, the key is transparency.

If your election office welcomes questions, visitors, and scrutiny, then they are probably doing a decent honest job.

If they are regularly posting information (on the internet is not always viable for every jurisdiction, as many offices are grossly underfunded) by whatever means is available to them, if they are happy to make you copies of any report you want, and they are happy to discuss those reports, then you probably have one of the good ones.

If you can inspect and observe any process, meeting, or system that you want, pre-arranged or not, then you probably have a good election office.

If their stories hang together, if they are honest when there are problems, as well as when there are triumphs, then you probably have a good election office.

You sound like you are in a jurisdiction with good folks at the election office. Competent election officials don't mind questions - they welcome them as an opportunity to serve the community.

The program decides the outcome.

Who supplies the programs?

...and video poker.

One of the major dissimilarities is that the Nevada Gaming Commission (among others, but Nevada is the gold standard) has extraordinarily tight controls and certification processes for video poker machines, and there is very little independent testing of electronic voting software and hardware.

The programs for the electronic voting devices are proprietary programs belonging to Diebold, ES&S, Hart Intercivic, Sequoia, and a handful of smaller players.

The "who" of the programming is a closely guarded proprietary secret, as is the functionality of most of the programs (the DCMA in this case is not the voter's friend).

However, we know that in at least the case of Diebold, one of the key election equipment programmers was a man who had done over five years in prison for 23 counts of highly sophisticated computer embezzlement from a prominent law firm.

voting machines! Brilliant! :D

So, do you think open-source voting software a la http://open-vote.org/ would be a good remedy?

...solution that is being explored by some of us that are really involved in election reform. We think that's a good idea, too. There's no industry that endures more attempted software attacks than the gaming industry.

Yes, I do think a publicly owned, scalable, open source election system is a grand idea. As long as there is a voter verified paper ballot involved and available for recounts in tight races.

The key is that the people programming the software need to be answerable to the people, not to the stockholders of a privately owned corporation with "trade secrets".

I personally like optical scan ballots with robust auditing and mandatory hand recounts in close races. That's the best marriage of using technology to increase efficiency, while maintaining controls and auditing for accuracy.

Who in the office does ballot design? I am very interested in the usability of ballots and voting machines since I'm a usability professional. Does your office in particular ever do any usability testing on ballot design?

(hmmmmm.... I think I just got a great idea for a post-election project. maybe a website on ballot design. probably already exists... )

...the staff of the election office, to a certain extent.

However, they are limited by the parameters of whatever voting system they have. For example, if they have optical scan ballots, they can control font size and type, placement of issues juxtaposed with other contests, the amount of white space, etc., but they are limited to specific page sizes, and placement of the voting marks to coincide with the timing marks on the side of the ballot.

The actual people doing the work in small and medium size counties are often the county clerk or auditor or the election manager. In large jurisdictions, it is more likely to be middle management level folks whose sole job is ballot design, production, and delivery.

Most large jurisdictions that have large confusing ballots also have a review bard made up of folks from all the different parties and the League of Women Voters, and any other non-partisan good government groups in their area to give the ballot layout a once-over to assure readability.

Note to self: join local LWV, flaunt usability credentials all over the place, be a pain in the tuckus at ballot design time. :evilgrin:

Actually we just use bubble-in-the-oval on election day. You can't go too far wrong with that.

Voter Verifed Paper Ballot married with technology for fast initial counting. It's a good thing.

In our precincts the optical scanners are right there at the polling place, and it produces a printout for the precinct. What counts that? What happens after that? Is there any central reporting mechanism for votes?

Although I did vote in Bexar when I went to school there many years ago.... :)

so I'm familiar with their systems.

(San Antonio and New Braunfels)

going to school there rocked.

I believe I voted in my first-ever presidential election there. I remember the Democratic primaries very clearly; I voted for Jesse Jackson. :evilgrin:

(Once a political junkie, always a political junkie.)

and all the wil flowers...yes the Hill Country ROCKS!

but take actifed so you can breath.

...if you color in the bubbles.

At the polling place, your ballot is scanned, and the vote tabulations stored on a memory card for that polling place.

At the end of the day, a printout is created (in Texas, not every state does this, unfortunately) and posted at the polling place.

The actual ballots are sealed in a transport box and taken, along with the memory card, to the election office. The memory cards are uploaded to the central tabulator, which keeps track of the votes from all of the different precincts and polling places, and merges all of the data together into the full canvass of votes for your county.

It's the central computer at the election office that produces the reports of the final vote counts including all of the polling places and the absentee ballots.

are ES&S .... they are related to Diebold somehow right? Do they use a Diebold central tabulating system?

...although, until just a couple of months ago, two brothers ran them: Bob Urosevich ran Diebold, and Todd Urosevich runs ES&S.

But if your paper ballots for absentees are ovals (like an SAT test), instead of connect-the-arrows, then you must have Diebold optical scan ballots, ES&S touchscreens at the polls and early voting stations, and one or the other for a central tabulator software program.

to ultra right wing conservative groups (CNP and others) and the Bushes?

southwest of Austin, between Travis and Comal Counties. We used the same punch-card system we've always used but I'm not too concerned -- one punch, straight ticket Democrat and I made sure it went through! :)

I was campaigning for my state representative from 10 till about 12:45. The wait was up to 1-1/2 hours! By the time I voted, though, the line was shorter and it only took me 45 minutes. They've NEVER had a turnout like that before!

This year, instead of someone looking me up in a big book, they had a gal with a laptop verifying addresses. I don't know if she had the entire county database loaded onto the laptop or had wireless access but it went very smoothly.

of taking a camcorder into the voting booth to record electronic votes and/or errors?

No recording devices in polling place.

..as long as you are only recording with the voter's consent. You have to be mindful of the voter's right to a secret ballot. But if you are recording your own experience or that of voters who have given you permission, you should be able to record.

You may run into some resistance in some jurisdictions, as cell phones and photographic devices of any kind are not allowed in the polling place in some areas. This is to protect the privacy of voters and to defend the secret ballot.

However, if you tell your local election official that you want to record your own voting experience and that of voters who also desire it, you should be able to get permission to do so.

If they don't want to give you permission, they are hiding something, unless it is forbidden by state law.

(but in that case, check to see if they allow the local news to shoot B-roll in pollsites -- if they do, there's room to argue that recording your own experience is equivalent.)

n/t

....because of the old claim that you would use the video to "sell" your vote- prove who you voted for.

I can see and would want video surveilance of all vote counting procedures, including the tabulators. I think there should be several cameras recording what's going on. For cryin' out loud, they do it in banks all the time, our vote is at least as important as our money.

But I can see a valid reason for people not being allowed to record their votes.

A thought.

nt

:)

or perhaps I should clarify - who do you think will be president next year?

...and that truly seems to be shaping up to be Kerry. The American Trial Lawyers Association (of which I'm also a member) has a massive program put together to have qualified attorneys trained by election law experts on the ground in every state, with especially strong presence in swing states. (I know, because I'm one of the trainers.)

The race is boiling down to a strong echo of 2000: the race will come down to a few swing states with tight races.

We'll see a repeat of what happened in Florida (I mean the litigation, not necessarily the outcome), but on a much more sophisticated level. Voter intent ballots will be challenged, voter supression campaigns will be challenged, every possible kind of election malfeasance and misfeasance will be scrutinized. It will all come down to which side can keep the most of their side's questionable ballots in the count.

And I think that will be the Democrats, with the aid of the trial lawyers.

(edited for spelling. must. sleep. now.)

Kerry is well aware of what these bastards will do to steal the election and he will NOT roll over. Still, I see a rough ride.

We are doing 20,000 votes a day now... I am using the website to download early voter lists EVERY day and check on the voters in my precinct. (I'm a horrible internet snoop. And precinct chair.) We have already passed our 2000 turnout in my precinct by 50 votes... in the first four days of EV. :D I'm predicting a 65% voter turnout if this keeps up (up from 49% in 2000).

Do you have EV in CA?

I think that EV is a fabulous option now that society has become so time crunched with both parents working often, kids' activities, bad traffic, and just general hustle bustle which can make it hard to vote on a specific day.

California has both early voting and absentee ballots on demand, Oregon is all absentee ballot (which essentially becomes early voting by mail), and Washington has the option of voting permanently by absentee ballot, which also becomes early voting by mail.

I (heart) EV!

...the morning.

G'night Crispini, RandyPiper, Carla in CA, and Skittles....

Thanks for a very nice 100th Post thread!

Problems happen with e-voting machines all the time. Let me give you a scenario that really happened. In Miami-Dade a "bug" was discovered in the ES&S software on their touch-screen machines. It turns out that ES&S knew about the problem a year prior to the announcement, by the county, that there was a "bug". I gave everyone a bit over a week and then I called some counties, like Bexar, who I knew used the same equipment. None of them had heard from ES&S. On further discussion, I learned that none of them really expected ES&S to notify them that they had software that had a "bug". It's normal business from what they say.

So, my thought was that there needs to be a means for elections officials across the country to share problems. It has to be away from the vendors so the ElectionCenter and NASED cannot be involved. It can be via a members-only blog or email mailing list or a central place sending out warnings. It can only help the elections directors to do their job better.

Above and beyond everything that is going on; I have a lot of respect for those Registrars, Auditors, and Clerks who handle elections. Some made mistakes and bought an unproven system and now they have to defend their purchases. Others, like mine, are naive and have no clue about technical things but they only believe what others in their group tell them. I think her god is R. Doug Lewis. Anyway, we see a need to help these people to do their jobs. What say you?

hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

Is he related to that James R. Bath feller or somethin'???? Where are those two anyhoo??? :shrug:

...Of course not.

He has his special interests to keep happy, just as many executive directors of "non-profits" do.

The Election Center is funded just as much by contributions from vendors as from dues paid by members...

So, who-all do you think that R. Doug Lewis strives to keep happy?

I think this is my 100th post too. I mostly just lurk. I was hpiong my 100th post would be something profound, but instead I'll just thank you for answering all these questions. Your information has been great.

I've got a question too. I'll be glued to my TV set on Election Night, just like I was 4 years ago. I don't think the media is allowed to use exit polling data to call a state anymore. Do you know if any of the state websites will be streaming the vote counts live? I'd rather be able to watch the numbers come in myself, than listen to someone else interpret them for me.

Thanks again for all your great information.

but our county posts results on the web.

www.dalcoelections.org.

I emailed a suggestion to Bev Harris of blackboxvoting.org a ways back: do you think it would be at all possible to have a second computer system record every bit of information that is transferred back and forth over the modem lines to the tabulation computers? Provided it could be guaranteed that these secondary systems are only recording the data and not altering it. This data could then be later analyzed to determine if anyone is trying to hack into the system, or if something funny is being transmitted from one of the polling sites. I understand that with the Diebold tabulation systems a simple Visual Basic script can be executed remotely to alter the results.

If you can hack one system you can hack both.

Keep in mind that there are multiple points at which an "intrusion" can occur.

Kicking this back up so people know we have someone who can answer these questions!

Kick!

Thanks again to everyone who participated in my 100th post thread!

:grin:

Kicking!!


:kick: