* *** COMMENTS_2016-11-08_ELECTION_DOCUMENTS TXT - 5 Sep 2016 14:19:10 - JKNAUTH Below are my comments on the documents recently published on the BOE Precinct Officials website for the 11/8/16 election. The new documents are clean and easy to understand, now that all the photo ID checking, Help Referral Form, Reasonable Impediment Declaration, etc., material has been removed. However there were a couple of places (noted below) where a backwards step was taken in which a correction made in the March/June documents got undone when you reverted for November to some text from older documents. As usual, the more important comments below are flagged with "=======". I may have more comments when I get the hardcopy documents to read. I won't repeat here the items from my BOE wish list: http://jgkhome.name/WakeBOE/BOE_Wish_List.txt. I assume many of those items are still open; I won't really know until after the election, e.g., whether VAST had handled my SOSA issues. I'll update the wish list and the referenced BOE supplies file after the election. 2016 General Election Manual (8/23/16) ---- ------- -------- ------ Page 13, bullet 2: This bullet ends with the sentence: "If the contest ======= is nonpartisan, there will be no party affiliation listed." In fact the party of a judicial candidate is now listed, at least for some races in the "Nonpartisan Offices" (sic) section of the ballot. I don't recall any details about which races that new law applies to. However on my G006 ballot just printed from NCSBOE, all the Court of Appeals candidates have a party listed, but none of the other "Nonpartisan Offices" candidates are so marked. I'd suggest just deleting that (previously correct) ending sentence and leave it to the legislators and NCSBOE to explain the ballots' "Nonpartisan Office" terminology as well as the other inconsistencies. Page 13, bullet 6: "page 62" -> "page 52" Page 18, Registration Table: "send to the Ballot Table" -> "send the voter to the Ballot Table" Page 33: "Confidential Voters: ... address is listed as xxxx ======= Confidential, Raleigh, NC 27699." This is mentioned nowhere else and seems to have some gigantic voter verification and processing holes. All the photo ID stuff was minor compared to what problems this seems to enable, e.g., for the Help Table. Sounds like an immediate call to the Help Line would be appropriate for each one. I hope someone knows what they're doing and this gets a lot of explanation in all the classes. Hopefully there will be zero of these (Witness Protection Program? Abused Spouse?) people in Wake County. Requiring the person to supply a VRN instead of only a birthdate would seem appropriate and not that hard to do if there is now a real requirement for this sort of thing. Page 36, "ID printed on ATV List". The expiration requirements are ======= unclear for the items in the "Current and valid photo ID" section. If they have an expiration date, must they be unexpired? All the recent photo ID algorithms have muddied the waters. It would be best to just clearly say something like: "If the ID has an expiration date, the ID must be be unexpired. Otherwise it is acceptable." Page 39, last sentence: "Ask the voter for the information needed to complete this section." This is a leftover from filling out the old Help Referral Form and should have been deleted. Pages 44 and 47: What is the purpose of writing a big "JD" on the ATV ======= if the Jurisdictional Dispute box is also required to be checked (as mentioned on page 47 but not on page 44)? In any event, if the "JD" marking were done as shown on page 47, it appears to be way overdone, covering up information someone might need to read. Page 54: A fix was undone that had been made in the previous edition of ======= the manual. Add to step 9: "Then mark your initials on the ATV." Delete step 11 and renumber the remaining steps. One of our officials had pointed out that the way it currently reads can be a problem unless the official had brought two pens to the curbside -- one for the voter to mark the ballot and one for the official to initial the ATV. You had agreed and changed the text. But this apparently got undone when you took out the photo ID text for the latest edition. Page 55: For the abandoned ballot scenario, there is no specification of what to do if the officials CANNOT definitely determine whether the ballot had been disturbed (maybe it was, maybe it wasn't). For that situation the safest approach would seem to be to assume it was disturbed and take the action specified for that case. This makes things more complicated for reconciliation, but so be it. To do update the document most simply, just change: "If the determination is that the ballot HAS been disturbed," to "Otherwise," Page 55: Might it not be helpful to mark an abandoned ballot as both "spoiled and abandoned". I don't know what sort of post-election processing is done with the material in the spoiled bag. Page 59: Is a wildcard capability still provided? A problem if not. ======= Page 62: See Help Table QG comments below on Flow Chart #1. Page 69: See Help Table QG comment below on Flow Chart #2, block 3. ======= Page 70: Don't let the Help Table officials forget to check the ======= last-minute absentee voter list as well as the laptop. Page 74: "What precinct number do I write on the ballot and in section B of the provisional envelope?" Add, "Per Section B, be sure to call the Help Line if the voter checked the NO box on the 30-day question in section A." Chief Judge Pocket Guide (8/23/16) ----- ----- ------ ----- Page 16, "As You Load Your Car": The "This Pocket Guide" bullet is ======= misplaced. It should be a sub-bullet under "Chief Judge Binder", not under "Blue plastic bag". The CJ PG is needed to pack the CJ's car and so cannot be sealed in the blue plastic bag; the bag sealing is done prior to the car loading. Also under "Chief Judge Binder", there should be "Chief Judge Badge". That item was there in the previous edition of the CJ PG. It is needed there as was explained in my comments for prior editions. I assume the deletion here was a typo rather than intentional. ************************************************************************ There are no revision dates on any of the Quick Guides. BAD! Having the online versions in color is pretty, but makes them harder to read and most definitely harder to print in black and white for review. If you want to use color for the onlines, please make the color much lighter. I assume the files sent to the print company for the class hardcopies, etc. do not have the colored background. Don't they just print black and white images on colored paper? I.e., they don't do expensive color printing of the Quick Guides. For an HTML/CSS file I know how to turn off the colored background for home printing; I don't know how to do that for a PDF file without editing the file. ************************************************************************ Registration Table QG (no revision date) ------------ ----- -- Page 1, bullet 3: This bullet is very misleading. It says to use the ======= absentee list from the first pollbook box to mark pink A's in the pollbooks. However every precinct that has had at least one absentee voter (mail-in or early voting) by the Saturday cutoff for pollbook printing will have an absentee list in box 1. That's the big list we hang on the wall Monday night. Those voters will not be in the pollbooks (or laptop) and no pink A marking is required for them. The current QG words really seem to apply instead to the "Monday Night Absentee List" (CJ PG terminology), aka the "last-minute absentee voter list" (Help Table QG terminology). [Aside: There should probably be just one term for this list.] That's the usually very small list posted on the BOE website Monday night as well as called in to the polling place Tuesday morning so we can update the big list described above, mark the pollbooks with pink A's, and provide a laptop status addendum to the Help Table. Nowadays is there any case in which such last-minute absentee information (requiring pink A's) is packed in pollbook box 1 for Monday night work? In any event, the current wording is bad. It certainly makes Registration Table people think they must mark pink A's for all the people in the big list of (almost all) the absentee voters for a precinct. If they tried, they would find that every one of those voters was not in the pollbooks, right? But it would be a wasted effort to have to determine this and would cause unnecessary consternation. In fact, in the March election when I pointed out this problem to my previous coordinator, he told me that a precinct official in one of his other precincts had quit in disgust (walked out) at Monday setup when she thought she was going to have to mark the pollbooks for all those MANY names. Of course that quitting was certainly not a good reflection on her (I assume she is no longer a precinct official), but she thought she was being told unambiguously by the RT QG to do something that she thought was very unreasonable. I don't know if the CJ called the Help Line to be assured that no such marking was required; that would have settled things quickly. But why is the QG still written in such a way that raises the question at all? Ballot Table QG (no revision date) ------ ----- -- Page 2: See "JD" comment above for General Election manual page 44. Help Table QG (no revision date) ---- ----- -- "Monday Setup", first bullet: Call the coordinator as part of the phone test. Flow Chart #2, block 3: This lost checking of the "last-minute absentee ======= voter list" as well as the laptop. That check had properly been in the 4/29/16 published QG and is mentioned in other places in the current documents. Flow Chart #2, block 4: Although asking where the voter lived on ======= 10/9/2016 is a good first step and likely will provide the correct ballot style, maybe then the PO should check to see if that address matches the residence address listed on the laptop for that voter. If they match, proceed. If they don't, call the Help Line for guidance. Someone might have lived at a temporary address for only a few days, including 10/9/2016, after having to vacate the house they just sold while waiting to move into their new house. Using the 10/9/2016 temporary residence as the voter's current address would certainly not be consistent with what the manual says, for example for Flow Chart #1. The Help Line people should know the right questions to ask. It could get even more complicated if the voter hadn't bothered to keep the BOE updated for moves made after he/she had originally registered years ago. Flow Chart #1, middle block 2: Note that you are publishing the phone number you didn't want to make public. This image is also included in the manual on page 62. Flow Chart #1, mid-page right block: Try to determine why mail did not work for a "SAME" case. The manual has some good suggestions. Flow Chart #1, "Different Precinct" block: Tell the voter to go to the RT in the new precinct (so the RT official can tell them to go to the HT). Voter Assistance QG (no revision date) ----- ---------- -- Page 1: A header says "UNREADABLE MARKS or MISSED TIMING MARKS", but the corresponding Causes/Solution sections for timing marks have been deleted (vs. the 4/29/4016 VA QG). Was the deletion intentional? The manual, page 51, still has the details. All Officials QG (no revision date) --- --------- -- I have never been clear on what an "H-Frame" sign is. The term is used here on page 2 in the sign section and is also in the CJ PG in the "Things To Leave at Your Polling Place" section. The AO QG (third bullet) in the sign section says put them in the gray bin, so they must be small. However the CJ PG lumps them in with the A-frame signs in the section of things to leave for the mover, so they must be larger than what goes into the gray bin. There is some document editing needed. I think the "A-frame" signs are the big metal things we unfold for curbside and accessible parking, etc., which look like an "A" (or upside down "V") from the side. Those we leave for the mover to return. The vinyl signs (or "wire-frame" signs) are those many "Vote" and directional signs for which we have to screw together two rod legs into a "C" top and then slip over a vinyl cover. Those we disassemble at the end of the day and put back into the gray bin from which they came originally. So what are the "H-frame" signs? Could you give an example? In a note I had sent Jacqueline Cameron a few months ago with proposals for some new signs we require for New Bethel Baptist Church, I had suggested that you create a website file showing all your standard signs. It would make references a lot easier and would help answer things like the question above. Laptop QG ------ -- November election version not yet available for review. I'm definitely curious to see what VAST is and how it addresses the issues I had raised about SOSA, and if it has new problems of its own. See my http://jgkhome.name/WakeBOE/2016_Documentation_Comments_for_March_Primary_2016-01-23.txt comments on the 1/16/16 Laptop QG for the SOSA comments. I couldn't tell from the General Manual, but I sure hope VAST has not lost the full wildcard capability. Provisional Envelope (UNDATED, NO FORM VERSION ID!) ----------- -------- Front, top right corner: (something I had raised years ago and forgot about) Shouldn't the "before Election Day" be "before General Election Day"? Labels on Plastic Bags ------ -- ------- ---- In my comments and markups of material for prior elections, I had pointed out some problems with the labels on the plastic bags. The main comment was that there was no warning that only the CJ could seal the white bag. In fact there was a specific directive on the white bag label saying "Seal the bag", which could easily cause a BT official to seal the bag while following that label's bullet list before seeing that the BT QG said the bag must be delivered unsealed to the CJ. In contrast, an appropriate warning was on the red and blue bags. I hope those label problems are being addressed in the new labels, which I won't see until Saturday pickup. Jeff Knauth