* *** PW_MANUAL_2008-10-07 TXT - 7 Oct 2008 20:08:51 - JKNAUTH Brenda, the new Pollworker Manual looks very good. Below are my comments. I underlined those that I thought were most important. I thought the 10/3/08 PTO class was just as it should be. It was well organized and the handouts were what was needed. I like the new flowcharts, although I saw a couple of bugs (see below). There is no question that the Help Table work is complicated, but if people just take the time to read, understand, and follow the documentation, they should do well. I won't repeat here some of my previous comments, e.g., about rework needed for a few of the forms, since I know those areas cannot be addressed now. However, those long-range things should be handled for elections after 11/4/08. Were you able to make use of some of my other http://nbtha.org/WakeBOE/WakeBOE_TOC.htm pages: Curbside Voting Procedure, Help Table Hints, and Wildcard Searches? ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Terminology thruout: 1) "physical address" should probably be "residence address". I missed that in our August work session. 2) "address search" should now be "street search" to match Gary's later software information, which he put in the flowcharts. Page A-9: There should probably be a note for item A.6 on the form ========= (SPOILED BALLOTS) saying this count does NOT include any spoiled Absentee ballots put into the bag. See the bottom of page A-6. I don't know if the Absentee ballots are easily distinguishable from the ballots given out at the polling place. If not, reconciling could get pretty messy. Maybe there should be a "Spoiled Absentee" written on those ballots instead of just "Spoiled" to make sure they aren't included in the reconciliation count. Page A-10: The first bullet under "Unvoted Ballots" says each pack ========== contains 100 ballots. In past elections I certainly was taking that at face value and not counting the contents of each pack when I opened it. However at the class you said the pack contents were done by weight and that we now needed to count the ballots when we opened each pack. That's definitely scary. Right there you have probably justified the need for the second ballot table official, or required people to start opening up a second pack during a dead time so the pack can be counted then. It takes at least several minutes to do a careful count -- not easy to do when there is a big line waiting to get ballots. I think the company from which we buy the ballots should guarantee an accurate count per package, not imply, "It is pretty close, and good luck!" Page A-11: At the end of the second bullet under "Ballot Box": Add "and locked". Page B-7: Under "Registration Table", item 3: Insert "In most cases" at the front of the second sentence. The voter isn't sent to the Help Table in all cases, e.g., for a name change. Page B-7: Under "Ballot Table": Change items 2, 3, and 4 to bullets and indent them under item 1. Renumber 5, 6, 7, and 8 to 2, 3, 4, and 5. Page B-8: Change bullet 6 to "Voter must verify and sign". Page B-9: Under item '2. Label is noted with "ID REQUIRED"': Add ========= 'Mark "ID Required"' on the right-side label. Actually, I think the Registration Table people are going to completely forget to do this and not pass the indication to the Help Table. I think in our precinct we will just do that right-side markup for all ID REQUIREDs at the same time we highlight the indication on the left-side label in the days before the election. That will leave one less thing for the Registration Table people to do. Hopefully by the next election after 11/4/08 this will be corrected and the right-side labels will be preprinted with "ID REQ'D" or whatever can be squeezed in. Page B-10: Item 4 has an extraneous "ID REQUIRED" as the last line. Page B-10: The font size of item 6 "Pollbook Label Indicates:" is a little smaller than for item 5. Page B-11: Under 4 Exceptions: The first sentence should be a bullet. Page B-11: Under 4 Exceptions: Add "handwritten A" as another way of saying "absentee". Page B-12: In item 2 change "#" to "NUMBER". Page B-13: Under "Reminders": Change "ONLY ISSUE" to "ISSUE ONLY". Page B-13: Under "Reminders": After Emergency Bin, add "or in the process of curbside voting". Page B-14: Rework items 13 and 14 to make sure the ballot and ATV are ========== first taken to the Ballot Table for ATV verification and completion; don't let the judge insert the ballot in the M100 until the ATV processing is done. Note that the "At a Glance" section does now have the correct order. Page C-3: The way the flowchart is now laid out, there are a couple of ========= steps missing in one path. For 2 VERIFY REGISTRATION INFORMATION -> Complete Section B -> Address in Section B is NOT the same as on the label -> Voter did NOT live at address for 30 days -> [MISSING STEPS: Determine Ballot Style (with "Street Search") {because it's blank for a Verify Info label}; Record Ballot Style on label and circle it] -> then continue as shown. I think we had this covered in the last draft flowchart I had commented on in August. I had not seen the flow charts Gary created subsequently or I probably would have caught it. This bug should be fixed the next time the flowchart is updated. Note that the text on C-6 does handle the procedure correctly for the "normal" cases. Other cases, as described below, aren't covered and probably cannot be. As I have mentioned in a previous note (and it also came up in the PTO class), there are some flaky cases where the voter has moved several times and not notified the BOE of the moves. So he may be registered at a very old address, then may have lived at another address (call it address X) for months later, then moved to a third address recently (less than 30 days ago). So address X should really be considered his residence for this election -- not his old registered address, and, of course, not his current (less than 30 days) address. The Help Table person might catch this, but not unless the voter speaks up or the PO knows to ask the right questions. Trying to make the flowchart and text cover such cases would probably make things even more confusing than they are now and be a net loss. So I punted in my comments in August and said let it slide for the documentation, as I still do since I haven't heard a good answer from the BOE. This might require some unusual use of the yellow ATV for the unreported move to address X, but that wouldn't then report the later move to the current (less than 30 days) address, which the BOE also wants for the future registration change. It probably requires a call to the BOE to resolve -- all because the voter didn't keep the BOE up-to-date during this multiple house hopping. Page C-7: In the third bullet you say the new ballot style should be written "on the top right hand corner of the label". However the example on this page shows it written beside the Xed out old ballot style near the middle of the label. That does seem like the right place to put the updated ballot style. Page C-9: In the left-side column bottom block, a "Tear up the yellow ATV" was lost. Page D-4: In item 7. Seventh: At the PTO class, someone raised the ========= question about what to use for the ballot syle in the provisional ballot PCT/VTD field for a voter not found on the laptop. You said "Not in county". That should be included in the text here. Page D-5 For bullet 16: Change "Voter Call-in Instruction" form to "Provisional Voter Call-in Instructions" form. Page E-2: There are four references on this page to other pages in this section, but no page numbers, in contrast to what you did elsewhere in the manual. Page E-3: Check box 4: Change "allowed receive" to "allowed to receive". Page E-4: Check box 3: Change "harms" to "harm's". Page G-2: Say there is a catch under the latch which has to be lifted to free the latch (or something like that). I always forget this and have to relearn it each time. Section H: I haven't seen a revision since last Spring. You have my comments on the old one. There are a number of pages where only a single red provisional bag is mentioned. Since having two bags is probably a one-time thing, it is probably not worth adding something on this in any future manual update. However, the last-minute notes should mention how the bags should be used, e.g., put all you can in one bag; use the second bag only if really required; otherwise return it empty, unsealed, and unmarked. Jeff Knauth, precinct 01-43