* *** COMMENTS_2018-01-21_DOCUMENTS TXT - 25 Jan 2018 22:07:11 - JKNAUTH Comments on 1/21/18 Documents for the 5/8/18 Election -------- -- ------- --------- --- --- ------ -------- Mary, I have finished reviewing the documents you sent me. Per your request I'm mailing back the marked-up QGs. For the Manual, I'm sending a copy of just the marked pages. (I don't have the toner or time to copy the unmarked pages.) Mail pickup is late here; hopefully USPS will deliver the package to you by Monday. Below are amplifications of the comments. I did not want to handwrite all the marks' details/rationale on the hardcopies. As usual, I have flagged the most important comments with "======" under the page numbers. General Items (I did not mail you any specific marked pages for these) ======= ===== 1) Thanks for putting a revision date on the Manual. Unfortunately there was no revision date on any of the QGs, just "Revised: May 2018", which does not adequately identify a particular draft. All drafts and the final published version (hardcopy and online) need a displayed, accurate revision date. I assume this was an oversight. Please make sure anyone new to the WCBOE documentation area understands why this is important. 2) In the Manual some pages have a "New" splat icon, e.g., page 34 for things that were new last year (I guess), but other pages that are just as "new" do not, e.g., page 33. In last year's manual it was done consistently. I'm not sure what the intent is for this year's Manual. Is there really something new for 2018 on page 34; I couldn't see it. If there is really nothing new in 2018 (vs. what was in 2017), I'd recommend deleting all the splats, including the top of page 13. If there does need to be flagging in 2018 for people who didn't serve in 2017 and missed those changes, shouldn't more pages be splatted, e.g., page 32 (Pollbook Label Layout) and page 86 (Acknowledgement Notice), as they were in 2017? 3) A nit, but disconcerting to me: The dates on the sample ATVs kept changing -- sometimes exact for this 5/8/18 election, sometimes off in 2024 or other future years. I realize that they are just samples and it's wasteful to have to change them to exactly match the next election if nothing else on the sample ATV needs to be changed. Maybe you could adopt a fixed standard nonsense date, realizing that any fixed date would not work for both a primary election ATV and a general election ATV. Maybe the 2024 was a step in that direction, but it wasn't used consistently in the current Manual. Ditto the T and M ballot styles were mixed with D's, etc. 4) The various Table QGs no longer have checklists for the items required for those tables. I assume the new bags now have these checklists as labels or inserts. Right? I think the idea of the new bags is good, but will know for sure once I see it in use. 2018 Primary Election Manual (dated 1/21/18) ==== ======= ======== ====== Page 8: Under Resolve, use bold font for "(leaving the ballots in the ====== bin)". This was previously noted for the 2016 Manual. See "Page 8" in the updates near the end of the comments file, http://jgkhome.name/WakeBOE/2016_Documentation_Comments_for_March_Primary_2016-01-23.txt I once had a disagreement with some officials at a precinct where the BOE had asked me to fill in. The officials there had missed the requirement that emergency bin ballots must be left in place after a Tabulator repair had been made. I had to get the coordinator involved, who fortunately had just arrived. I know this rule is also documented elsewhere (and the officials missed those, too), but this is the main place. Emphasize it here. Page 14: First sentence under "Voter Eligibility": age, residential -> age, and residential determines -> determine Page 25: Do all the voting booths now have the "twist in legs" stickers? Many didn't previously. Given that, I had recommended that a warning be put here, but that was never done. Page 35: I thought you were going to move the pink As off the barcodes, etc. Is it guaranteed that a mark over a barcode won't mess up any post-election scanning? Page 36: Bottom balloon: reigstered -> registered Page 36: Why doesn't this dialog ask the voter for their preferred ======= ballot style? The scenario specifically says the voter is unaffiliated. Page 38: Why isn't step 4 in bold font? It's part of the "non-normal" subset of steps. Page 39: Why ISN'T step 4 bold and why IS step 5 bold? Shouldn't the reverse be done? Page 39: Step 3 (check for a valid ID) should be done first, before the ======= label is peeled off and stuck on the ATV. Note that the RT QG flowchart has it right. As pointed out in the first "Q" of my 2017 comments, http://jgkhome.name/WakeBOE/Comments_on_2017-09-21_FAQs.txt, and in one of your FAQs from last year, big problems might arise if, for example, the voter says he left his ID in the car. Has anything changed in this area? I suspect not. Page 40: You haven't yet provided the updated page. I sure hope any new ======= "List of Acceptable IDs" addresses the problems (e.g., driver license expiration) that I have pointed out often, e.g., Manual page 37 comment in http://jgkhome.name/WakeBOE/Comments_2017-11-07_Election_Documents.txt Page 44: Last paragraph: the Absentee List -> the Last-Minute Absentee List Page 46: Last line: SSpoiled -> Spoiled Page 51: Last paragraph: transfered -> transferred Page 53: Even though the ATV label says D004, ballot style T004 was ======= issued. There are no checkmarks in the ATV's Help Table block that would explain such a ballot style change. Looks like an error. Page 65: I never got any response to my 2017 Manual page 61 comment ======= where I pointed out that the statute I was sent actually supported what I said, not contradicted it. In the package I am returning, I'll include a highlighted copy of the statute. Here is the 2017 comment file with the page 61 comment including the relevant statute text: http://jgkhome.name/WakeBOE/Comments_2017-11-07_Election_Documents.txt Page 74: I thought you were going to move the pink As off the barcodes. etc. Page 83: Second bullet: reason -> reasons(s) [two places] ======= See the provisional envelope comment in http://jgkhome.name/WakeBOE/Comments_2017-11-07_Election_Documents.txt. It applies also to the Manual text about reason handling. Multiple reasons can apply for the provisional processing. Registration Table Quick Guide (undated) ============ ===== ===== ===== Flow Chart: UNAFILLIATED -> UNAFFILIATED [two places] Flow Chart: Item 3 in right-side block in next-to-last row: reason -> reasons(s) [There can be multiple reasons for sending the voter to the Help Table, so multiple boxes can be checked. Note that this is also what Manual page 41 says.] Ballot Table Quick Guide (undated) ====== ===== ===== ===== No comments. Help Table Quick Guide (undated) ==== ===== ===== ===== Checklist: Next-to-last major bullet: I was surprised to see that the mouse, power cord, and extension cord would be packed in the Help Table Kit bag at the end of the day, instead of in the laptop case. Are they in that bag at the start of the day? Flow Chart #2: Be careful -- the tiny footnote callouts may be easily missed. They were almost invisible in the hardcopy I got. Flow Chart #2: "Check Absentee Status" block: Now only the laptop is ========== checked here vs. also checking the Last-Minute Absentee List. I was told in 2017 that people would be taught in the Help Table class about a different procedure to be used for later checking that list. But my HT people said they were not told anything about that in their classes. See my postmortem report, http://jgkhome.name/WakeBOE/Postmortem_2017-11-07.txt in the HT QG section and the MUCH more detailed analysis it links to in http://jgkhome.name/WakeBOE/Comments_2017-11-07_Election_Documents.txt Flow Chart #2: "Determine the Voter's Ballot Style" block: I could see in a second primary how the "NO" might occur. Now that I think more, I guess it could happen in 5/8/18 if the voter's party did not need to run ANY primary race (unopposed candidates or no one from the party running for the offices), and also there were NO nonpartisan races. Possible, but unlikely. Is this reasoning correct? So for general processing (to cover any election), the logic seems right, just not likely to take the NO path for 5/8/18. Flow Chart #2: "View the Precinct ..." block: ========== Precinct of the Address -> Precinct of the Residence Address Flow Chart #2: "Determine the Voter's Options" block: How can the voter not be in the pollbook for the 5/8/18 election? I assume this would be related to the "Determine the Voter's Ballot Style" block question above. If so, that information sounds like a good addition to VAST's display, avoiding having to call the Help Line or the other precinct to prevent a bad trip. Flow Chart #2: "Determine the Voter's Options" block: In title: Options. -> Options All Officials Quick Guide (undated) === ========= ===== ===== Back Page: Under "Final Tasks": The CJ PG has a "Things To Leave at ==== ==== Your Polling Place" section (page 15 in the 2017 version) that covers the the items listed here in the AO QG, but the CJ PG also mentions the "specific to your precinct" items. At our precinct we have some of those that we need to put by the gray bin, e.g., cones and laminated signs. Maybe the AO QG should have a bullet: "If the Chief Judge got any precinct specific items at supply pickup, e.g., cones, move them to the delivery area by the gray bin.", or words to that effect. Voter Assistance Quick Guide (undated) ===== ========== ===== ===== Q/A Pages: See http://jgkhome.name/WakeBOE/Comments_2017-11-07_Election_Documents.txt, VA QG section, about voluminous and (not quite) duplicate text between the VA QG and the VA part (pages 58 and 59) of the Manual. As in 2017, the last item on Manual page 59 did not make it to the VA QG. I wish all of this could be put in just one place and kept accurate there. My 2017 comments say more. Other Duties, Abandoned Ballots section: Duplicates text on Manual page 65, so the above Manual page 65 comment applies to the VA QG also. Other Documents ===== ========= You said you would send me the CJ PG when it is available. Apparently (per the HT QG FC #2, footnote 1) the Laptop QG is being updated; I would like to see it also. Ditto for any other major documents/forms. Did anyone ever contact the NC SBOE about the bug in the Absentee Voter envelope I have pointed out for every election since 2015? I assume this form is under their control vs. WCBOE's even though the envelope says "Wake County" in multiple places. See item 5 in http://jgkhome.name/WakeBOE/BOE_Wish_List.txt. I never got any WCBOE feedback on this. Jeff Knauth