* *** 2016_COMMENTS_ON_STATION_GUIDE TXT - 1 Feb 2016 23:22:15 - JKNAUTH ======================================================================== 1/25/16 update ------- ------ After my initial posting of these comments, I found and corrected a few typos, which are listed at the end of this file. 2/1/16 update ------ ------ My 1/25/16 comments were on the Station Guide file that had been posted on the BOE PO website at that time. That Station Guide file included "2015 Final" in the fileid and "Revised 2015" on the title page as its only hint of a revision date. Subsequently a slightly(?) updated Station Guide hardcopy was sent to the CJs and then a new PDF for it was put on the BOE website. However the title page still said only "Revised 2015". Clearly the document is still being updated. As a result I have removed "2015 Final" from the fileid of my comments file. (I also noted that the BOE no longer includes that phrase in the fileid of their new file.) Below in [[[...]]] I have noted the updates to my comments resulting from the 2/1/16 SBOE updates to the "Station Guide", at least those I have detected. See the first Page 4. Also, for Page 18, I added some thoughts on driver license expiration date checking. ======================================================================== A big concern I have is that the "NC Voting Site Station Guide" will be confusing to many Wake County precinct officials since much of what it describes applies only to one-stop sites and to NC sites that do not use hardcopy pollbooks. Wake County uses pollbooks and many people who will look at the Station Guide are officials who work only on election day, not at one-stop sites. Supposedly at least four copies of the Station Guide are to be made available in each polling place and the document has also been placed on the Wake County Precinct Officials website. That will lead to a lot of confused officials (assuming they actually look at the document). The Wake County classes for the March election will need to spend a good deal of time telling the students to ignore much of what is in the Station Guide since so much applies to one-stop and to sites that use electronic check-in. The photo ID section material is probably what Wake County can best use. For everything else, the Wake County "2016 Primary Manual" (the Precinct Official manual) and the new Quick Guides should be what the election day precinct officals use. The Wake County BOE needs to put its resources into getting those correct ASAP (with errata material distributed for cases in which the documents have already been printed). I did not closely review any sections of the Station Guide that were explicitly devoted to "One Stop" or "Electronic" since I am unfamiliar with the details of those environments. Acceptable ID ---------- -- General: Similar information is repeated over and over, but maybe not identically. It would be better to say it once and get it right in that one place. Also in the examples, the red box saying "Expiration Date Not Required" is not used in all places where it could be. In fact, having such a box on every example saying "required" or "not required" would be helpful if it could be done. Page 4: The DMV Non-Operator State Identification Card shown looks like a standard driver license, not a non-operator ID card. I think the card should have a printed "IDENTIFICATION CARD" where it has "DRIVER LICENSE". Right? I like the large, clear examples of the various IDs in this document with the pointers to the areas of interest. However the examples better be the correct or it will cause a lot of confusion and distrust. [[[ 2/1/16 update: The hardcopy mailed to the CJs and the PDF now on the BOE PO website (as of 2/1/16 21:00) shows this has been corrected to now show IDENTIFICATION CARD instead of DRIVER LICENSE. ]]] Page 5: Same comment as on page 4. Page 18, Day and month of birth are not shown in this algorithm, but Page 19: don't they have to be used, as page 19 shows? An easier way to do this is to add 70 to the voter's birthday to get the date at which the voter turned 70. If the result is on or before the expiration date, the ID is valid. If the result is after the expiration date, the ID is invalid. Generally it is easier for people to do addition than subtraction. [[[ 2/1/16 update: Below is my take on how a driver license expiration check should be done for the 3/15/16 election. ]]] License unexpired ------------------------> OK License expired on or after 3/15/12 ------> OK (4-year chk) License expired before 3/15/12, then Add 70 to the voter's birthdate Result on or before expiration date --> OK (70-year chk) Otherwise ----------------------------> NOT A VALID ID Question: When using a voter's birthdate, you could get it from the license or from the pollbook. They should match. What if they don't? Which should be used? If it is noticed that they don't match, does that mean the BOE Help Line should be called? I have never seen anywhere the requirement to check for such a mismatch. Check-in Station -------- ------- Page 12: Is the Help Referral form not used when an uncooperative voter is referred to the Help Station? (Not that I am a fan of that form.) Page 15: It is confusing to include suggestions (4,5,6) which apply only to PC database searches, i.e., which cannot be done with hardcopy pollbooks. To avoid confusing inexperienced officials, at least flag those procedures which cannot be done without a PC. Page 15: Suggestion 7: Say Help Referral form is used (not that I am a fan of that form). Page 18: Bullet 2: Shouldn't this say to check that the name variation IS reasonable? Page 20: Last bullet: Say Help Referral form is used (not that I am a fan of that form). Page 23: Why is the Check-in Station (Registration Table) getting involved in this Incorrect Address procedure? Such a voter should be sent to the Help Station (Help Table) for all this checking and the associated form updates. Address vs. precinct checking cannot be done if you just have hardcopy pollbooks instead of a PC with the appropriate database. Page 24: This page will probably be pretty meaningless to most precinct officials, and not apply well to most everywhere on election day. What is a Central Precinct? Shouldn't it be defined if you are going to use the term? Also, I assume "New Precinct" is meant to mean the precinct of the voter's new residential address, not just any "new" precinct, i.e., a precinct which differs from the "old" one he moved from. Page 25: Again, this is being done at the wrong place when pollbooks are involved. Also, procedures/forms are described which do not apply when pollbooks/ATVs are used in a precinct. Page 26: Again, this is being done at the wrong place when pollbooks are involved. Page 31: "Active", "Inactive": I thought those confusing terms had been eliminated years ago and replaced by the "V" (Verify) designation for "Inactive". "Removed", "Temporary", and "Denied": will these designations ever appear on an ATV, or is this more "One-Stop" and associated PC processing terminology that does not apply at an election day, pollbook-oriented site. Page 32: More procedures/forms that do not apply to pollbook sites and require Help Table processing instead of Registration Table processing. Page 34: You say "If the voter complies with North Carolina's photo ID requirements, the requirements under HAVA are met." This sounds false. An NC driver license that expired last year would pass the NC requirements, but fail HAVA requirements for which the license must be unexpired. Page 35: Again, not applicable for pollbook-oriented precincts. Such a voter would not even be in the pollbooks and would be sent to the Help Table for that reason. There the "No Ballot" reason would be discovered and explained to the voter. Page 45: Again, address updating would not be done here for a pollbook-oriented precinct. Page 47: If the precinct official is required to say all this word-for-word, maybe the official should also tell the voter to read the (tiny font) oath the voter is signing, at least on ATVs -- the signed oath is the real gotcha to catch crooked voters. Curbside Station -------- ------- I guess most of the steps not detailed in this section are meant to use the similarly named steps described in the Check-in Station section. See my earlier comments about those. A lot seems to be missing in this section, e.g., about how voter information is recorded to be conveyed back inside. In Wake County it is done entirely via the Affidavit which the voter must sign at the beginning. Other than tacking on the new photo ID processing, I will assume the existing Wake County process is acceptable to the SBOE. Although it requires a lot of walking, it works fine. Help Station ---- ------- Page 3: "Previously Removed" no longer is on the Provisional Envelope, at least the version now on the Wake County BOE Precinct Officials website. Probably "Other" would be used for this now. On the other hand, the latest PO website envelope still includes a reason item for people who said they had tried to register, e.g., via the DMV, but that process still had not resulted in their registration being completed. "The DMV has lost my registration request!" is what we usually hear. Also, on the latest PO website envelope there is a cover-all reason for saying the voter is voting provisionally without a required photo ID and understands that appropriate ID material must be presented to the BOE in time (or this ballot will not be counted). Multiple reasons may be checked. Page 7: This page specifies a "Provisional Voting Application" form, which I think will not be used in Wake County. Wake County does all this via filling out forms on the provisional envelope. I assume the existing Wake County process (amended to add things like the photo ID and Reasonable Impediment items) is acceptable to SBOE. It works fine. In fact the Wake County process handles many details not covered by this SBOE document, including the things this document says (incorrectly for a pollbook-oriented precinct) are handled at the Check-in Station (Registration Table). Page 8: The procedures documented here for "SOSA", "printing", etc. do not at all describe the SOSA system used in Wake County precincts on election day. This writeup describes something else entirely. Page 9: The text for item 4 seems self-contradictory. Was a parenthetical phrase lost in the second bullet? Page 10: See page 7 comment. Page 11: It's unfortunate that item 3 is included here without a simple statement that it does not apply on election day since the deadline will have passed by then. You have to go two more pages to see that. Page 27: I did not understand the flowchart. The terms were not clear. Page 28: Lost an "ago" in first heading. Page 28: Will it be possible in Wake County to handle the unreported move into a new precinct (30 or more days ago) as described here instead of ALWAYS requiring a provisional ballot? The probable inability to contact the old precinct makes me definitely think the answer is "always provisional". (Anyway, allowing this sort cross-precinct collaboration seems like a big exposure for making mistakes, e.g., the other precinct might mark the wrong voter as having voted; also the type of mark to use is unclear.) Some verbiage on this page (second section from bottom, the concern about the ballot style being affected) would not apply to pollbook-oriented precincts, e.g., for address updating. In Wake County we would ALWAYS record any changed address on the ATV (Section B) or the provisional envelope. The ballot style used would be the one appropriate for the old address. Page 29: See comments on Page 28. We would not have this problem in Wake County since we would always use a provisional envelope. Any "multiple vote" errors would be caught after the election when the provisional envelopes were checked against the voted ATVs. After some confirming research, a provisional ballot would be rejected if this ATV check showed that the voter had already voted (and the sheriff would then pay the multi-voter a visit). Page 31: There is no warning to the voter about the bad aspects of voting in the incorrect precinct, i.e., might not get a good ballot style. Page 34: The provisional envelope "Incorrect Precinct" reason explicitly warns the voter that this ballot may not be counted. Why is that not in the verbiage here? Page 37, This seems to be oriented toward a one-stop site where an Page 38: acceptable alternative ballot might be easily available. At an ordinary polling place on election day, it's not too likely that a good alternative ballot can be found for the voter. Ballot Station ------ ------- Page 1: Record precinct/VTD on ballot?! Definitely not anything done for an election day, pollbook-oriented site. Page 1: No mention of recording the issued ballot style. Page 3: "Ballot Dispute" and "Voter Decided Not To Vote" vs. always using "Spoiled". Using the more explicit terms might be helpful and should be considered by Wake County. Page 3: There is no consideration noted here about the sequential numbering being thrown off by some of these issues. Voter Assistance ----- ---------- No mention that a precinct official can be asked to assist. No consideration of devices like the AutoMARK. ######################################################################## LIST OF CORRECTED TYPOS AFTER MY INITIAL POSTING ######################################################################## Fixed on 1/25/16 ===== == ======= Acceptable ID ---------- -- Paragraph 4 in intro: "details those environments" -> "details of those environments" Page 9: "page 19 shows" -> "page 9 shows" (Changed again on 2/1/16) (My eyes need fixing!) Page 9: "to get the age" -> "to get the date" Help Station ---- ------- Page 28: "also they type of" -> "also the type of" Updated on 2/1/16 ======= == ====== Acceptable ID 4 ---------- -- All the page 8 and 9 references in my comments should have been to 18 and 19. Now all fixed. Page 4: Added [[[...]]] comment because of SBOE update. Page 18: Added my thoughts about what the license check expiration checking should be.