* *** POSTMORTEM_2011-10-11 TXT - 14 Oct 2011 09:52:10 - JKNAUTH Postmortem on 10/11/11 Election at Precinct 01-43 ========== == ======== ======== == ======== ===== Problems -------- 1) A page (5306 of 7835) was misprinted in one of our poll books. The text was shifted about 1/3 of an inch to the left. That made holes print in the text on the left side of the page and also made some text get dropped off on the left side of the removable labels. The page immediately after this one was completely blank. The page after the blank page did have the correct sequential page number, i.e., no pages were lost in all this, but one was printed poorly. Also, the "C" tab separator page was misplaced with the reult that the first page of "C" names was put into the "B" section. 2) The handout for the laptop said we should not use date of birth for a voter search. However the Election Manual recommends using DOB to search with a partial name (using % wildcards), which in fact works very well. 3) Somehow we ended up with two curbside stands. One, disassembled, was in a bag in the gray supply bin. Apparently another one was delivered already assembled. It was standing beside the other equipment delivered by the moving company when we arrived for Monday setup. We returned both in the gray supply bin, although we had a bag for only one of them. 4) Every one of the six 100-count ballot packs we opened did NOT contain 100 ballots. The counts were 98, 98, 98, 99, 99, and 99. That left us nine short of the expected 600 ballots. We had carefully counted each pack immediately when opened and kept a record of the actual vs. expected number of ballots, so we knew that we were nine short and reconciled exactly at the end of the day. This again points out that BOE classes should resume pointing out this problem and warning people that they should do the pack-open count to save a lot of hair-pulling when trying to fill out the reconciliation sheet. We reported this problem to our coordinator, but should have included more details in the reconciliation report to note the exact six bad counts and show how we arrived at the reported ballots received from the BOE -- not an exact multiple of 100. 5) A laptop configuration error or programming error caused our laptop to refuse to do searches, etc., when we started it on 10/11/11, election day. Apparently this was true for all the BOE laptops. The BOE Help people walked us thru how to trick the PC into thinking the date was one day earlier. The laptop worked fine with that change. 6) We misordered a step when using the Packing Up Checklist and sealed the keys in the blue bag too soon. We had to reopen the bag to use the keys, then reinserted them, and resealed the bag. Recommendations --------------- 1) The BOE should put version dates on all class and election packet handouts. When we receive several copies at various times, we need to know if something has changed to make the previous copy obsolete, or if it is just exactly the same thing now being redistributed. 2) Tell precinct officials to use the VRN as well as the voter name when using white and pink sheets to mark the poll books. Just using the name is error prone. By the way, the pink highlighters worked well, making the V/ID/A marks really eye-catching. 3) On the Reconciliation Form and on the blue plastic envelope, add a line below the "Red and blue keys on lanyard" line saying something like: "Ensure keys are no longer needed: M100 removed? All doors of steel bin locked? AutoMARK powered off?" Incidentally, the label on our blue plastic bag had no boxes in section B to check off -- just the set of item lines, but without the usual box in front of each one. Interactions with Voters and Others ------------ ---- ------ --- ------ 1) One campaigner kept getting within the 50-foot limit. Partly this was to get out of the rain and partly it was that he was moving from one sidewalk campaign point to another, but traveling thru the restricted area to do this. We warned him to stop this and also discussed it with our coordinator. The campaigner seemed to stop after that, although we (inside the polling place) were not in a position to monitor him continuously. 2) A voter complained that one of our officials had violating the voter's right to secrecy when the official replaced a pen in an adjacent voting booth. Of course the official was not trying to look at the voter's ballot; she was just doing her job to replace a pen that had been removed. 3) A voter questioned the requirement that he must verbalize his name and address. We pointed out the section of the Election Manual that stated this must be done and pointing out it is the law. That seemed to satisfy the voter. 4) A voter stated he thought the BOE produced a document listing candidates, their backgrounds, etc. We think he was referring to the small booklet mailed by the NC Center for Voter Education, which is not a BOE organization. The voter complained that we did not have something like that document available in the polling place. We told the voter that the BOE did not supply us with any such document. A voter is expected to do his research before coming into the polling place. 5) We had two voters who wanted to change their political party. There was no special form for that. (Hadn't there been one in previous elections?) We called the Help line and were told to use the long, standard registration form, which we did. Written by Jeff Knauth, Chief Judge