Δαφνη Ευτυχια Αρθουρος

What if you were scheduled to be out of the state but the trip was cancelled after you sent in the ballot? I suppose that they check your absentee ballot to see if you voted in person. but if you don't?

I am an Election Board Judge (aka a poll worker) for the County of San Mateo, State of California. Having this position for the past six months has taught me a lot about the voting process, at least in my county and state. Here's some of what I learned:

1. The only part of the election process that is "secret" is the casting of ballots by the voters themselves. That is, no one is entitled to look at a voter's ballot to see what they voted/are voting. As poll workers, we're not even allowed to *touch* a voter's ballot, unless they specifically ask for assistance in completing it -- and then we have to log the event in our Roll Book.

2. Every *other* part of the election process is open to inspection by anyone, especially voters. Voters are entitled to watch us set up in the morning, watch how the votes go into the machines, watch how we remove the ballots in the evening, and watch how they are computed at "Voter Central". This is a federal right. If voters have problems with the voting system, they need to *go* and *stand* and *be* there, not just complain. One can learn a lot that way, I promise.

3. The problem with electronic voting machines like the Diebold ones is not about the *voter* getting a piece of paper; it's about a paper trail being established for the voting board. All electronic machines can (and most do) provide a "paper record" for the voter -- a receipt for the vote. However, many electronic systems do not create a paper record of the votes cast; their record is entirely electronic. It is THAT that creates the problem, not the voter getting a receipt.

4. The statement that absentee ballots are not counted is untrue, almost always. What *is* true is initial results often do not include absentee ballots, unless the race is close. The results you hear on the news on election night are initial results -- they aren't certified until oh, 20-30 days later. By the time that election results are certified, every valid vote has been counted, and every valid vote has been included in the totals. If people don't like that, the solution is to not have media announce totals until all votes are counted and certified. I don't know anyone who wants to wait two weeks to hear who won an election.

We always have people who come in and say that to us on election day, who say, "I got an absentee ballot, but I heard it won't get counted, so I want to vote in person." What's amusing to *us* about this is that when the voter does that, they have to vote provisionally, so the vote doesn't get counted with the main voter totals, anyway. A person who says this is basically saying, "When I go home, I want to look on the news and see that the votes are X and Y, and know with warm certitude that my vote is either one of X, or one of Y. I want to know my vote is on TV." A vote is a vote is a vote. I swear to it -- literally, as part of the poll worker swearing in for each election.)

5. Absentee ballots are often counted by the same kinds of equipment that counted votes-in-person -- but you can usually tell this by the appearance of the absentee ballot itself. So, for instance, here in my county, the absentee ballot sent out is exactly like the live ballot. When the absentees come in, they are held for election day, checked, and then a person feeds them into one of our voting machines, exactly like the ones the voters are using. They are tallied in the same way, using the same system.

I would strongly suggest that people who worry about the voting process become poll workers. Get your hands in the soup! Then you can not only learn about it yourself, but you can also educate those around you.