* *** 2014_PRIMARY_MANUAL_2014-03-28_COMMENTS TXT - 28 Mar 2014 03:06:38 - JKNAUTH I definitely like the slimmed down manual, not repeating so much detail that is now handled in the the Quick Guides. That will make it much easier to keep things consistent. Page 7: Third paragraph under "What is a Primary?": Curbside is also affected by the need for a UNA voter to specify ballot choice. Page 7: Third bullet under "Things that have changed": Curbside is also affected by the ID law. Page 9: First bullet under "Monday Set-up Meeting and Election Day": Why must we wait until the polls have closed to sign the pay sheet? Near the end of the day seems good enough, at the CJ's discretion. Saying we must wait until the polls have closed to ensure no Precinct Official has left would not cover, for example, the case of a Precinct Official bailing out AFTER the polls have closed, but before the CJ's car is packed. That AWOL PO should not be paid. The CJ can record a later absence no matter when the pay sheet was signed and effectively unsign it for that AWOL PO. A LOT of things are going on after poll closure has started; collecting all the paysheet signatures when things are less hectic seems like a better way to go and is the way we have done it for years. Page 10: Bullet 8: CJ also picks up the absentee list. Page 18: Item 3: "everyone works" -> "everyone works on" Page 18: Item 5: Why must this be designated the "final step", or even listed at all? The Help Table people test the phone earlier as part of their table set-up. This is already included in the Help Table QG and thus is covered by Item 3. However that QG should be updated to mention that the coordinator is the one called in the test. Page 23: Sixth major bullet: "posted on Monday" -> "posted on the website on Monday" Page 31: Is a company's employee photo ID badge a valid HAVA ID? It is not explicitly listed here (vs. student IDs). However I recall hearing in classes in past years that such an ID was good. Page 32: A question that I am sure will be asked by some voters is: "What is the BOE going to do with that Photo ID Acknowledgement form data you are asking me to supply?" The manual says nothing definite about this. Will the BOE later contact the voter somehow to see if the voter is getting a valid ID or to tell them how to do so (hinted at by the form's Email Address * note)? Is this just for statistics? Or is something else going on? In any event, I'm sure it can be seen as intimidating by some people, so there should be a good, clear explanation why the data is being collected instead of just giving an information sheet to the voter and collecting no data. We need to have a response for this question. Page 33: At the Help Table, which precinct number should be put in the Voter's Precinct field of the Photo ID Ack form? There are several possibilities, considering moves and 30-day questions. This is really a Help Table manual question. At the Registration Table, I assume it can be only the number on the ATV, i.e., this precinct. Page 33: A question not important until 2016: How will POs know that a voter is not required to have a photo ID, e.g., for religious reasons? Possibly a new flag, NPID, (a la today's ID and V) on the ATV. Page 37: Make "Common Absentee Questions" a numbered heading so it shows up in the Table of Contents. Trying to find this absentee information is hard since it is hidden in the "4.8 Correcting a Mistake on an ATV" section. (Who would have thought it was there? I later found it only via a C-F find in Adobe Reader.) Page 37: A comment I have made in previous years about question 1: "What should you do if a voter tries to give you a relative’s Absentee by Mail ballot?" replace this with "What should you do if a voter tries to give you someone else's Absentee by Mail ballot?" The current words handle only relatives. What about others, e.g., a next-door neighbor, a best friend, a blood brother, someone met in the parking lot, etc.? Using my suggested wording covers it all: no absentee ballot for someone else (question 1) and no absentee ballot for the voter himself (question 2) -- i.e., no absentee ballot period. Page 39: Answer 7c: But if the voter had a name/address form of ID, e.g., a utility bill, a photo ID would NOT be required. The 7c current wording seems to REQUIRE a photo ID for HAVA, which is not so. So really none of the answers is correct. Page 46: An X should also be put over the barcode ballot style. The image shows this, but the text does not. Page 51, 62, and Glossary: The exact same set of words should be used for all the "near relatives" definitions. * Glossary and Page 51: Good (also consistent with the VA QG) * Page 62: Uses different order and words than the others, although the meaning is the same. Page 54: I wish this Affidavit had an explicit place for a UNA voter to specify their ballot choice. I realize the curbside procedure (Step 4) does say the the Curbside Official must ask the UNA voter, but it would be neater if there were a specific place to record this on the form (and also remind the Official to ask for the choice in the first place, so they don't have to make an extra trip back to the curb). Page 55: Step 13: The Judge or Chief Judge must take the responsibility of ensuring the ATV is completely filled in if the ballot is going to be inserted in the M100 before the ATV is given to the Ballot Table Official, who normally has this checking responsibility. If the Ballot Table Official sees a problem after the ballot is put into the M100, that's too late. Old comment. Page 59: Ensuring wireless capability is disabled is non-trivial. It's not just seeing that no dongles are plugged into a laptop, tablet, etc. Wireless (e.g., WiMAX, 3G, LTE, 4G, whatever) might be built into the motherboard, or at least into a piece of hardware that is not easily detectable from the outside and not easily removable. Is the CJ supposed to trust that the observer has everything disabled because the observer promises that is so?. Ditto that pictures are not being taken? Today's hardware really makes the Page 59 rules impossible to enforce, so don't assume that the CJ can enforce them. Old comment. Page 67: Here write-in ballot processing is described (I think correctly, if there were write-in ballots). However this processing is not in the current CJ QG. I was told it was not in the QG because there would be no write-ins for this election. The mismatch between the manual and the QG can be confusing. Will there be a Write-Ins bag (empty) and a label on it that can only say "0"? Will the bag be on the Blue Bag checklist? Misc: As noted in my comments on the other documentation, the init-capping of Pollbooks, Help Table, etc., is not always done. Some lower-casing also occurs in this manual. Jeff Knauth