* *** POSTMORTEM_2015-11-03 TXT - 8 Nov 2015 12:48:21 - JKNAUTH We had a pretty good turnout in 19-09 for the 11/3/15 municipal election, about 22%. See http://jgkhome.name/WakeBOE/Ballot_Count_Reconciliation_2015-11-03.htm Despite the bad weather the voters seemed to be in good spirits. Although we were one short of the planned staffing, all the precinct officials worked extremely well to keep things operating properly. We were able to do a lot of job rotation to let people get familiar with new positions and hope to have all these people back for the 2016 elections. We had no significant problems with campaign workers, the voting equipment, or the facility. Misinformation about Another Polling Place -------------- ----- ------- ------- ----- Shortly after 7:00 PM someone came into our 19-09 polling place saying they heard that the 19-10 polling place (Jones Dairy Elementary School) had already closed. We said that was highly unlikely and called our coordinator. He happened to be standing in the Jones Dairy polling place at that instant and could definitely verify that the rumor was false. A few minutes later, another person came in and asked about the same thing. We were able to tell him right away that it was false. Does the BOE know what might have led to this misinformation being spread? It could certainly have caused some voter problems if anyone thought it was true. Pollbooks --------- 1) We encountered two pollbook printing problems. We reported them on the Help Line and showed the problem pages to our coordinator. a) On one page of one pollbook only the ATV static framework was printed, but none of the variable data -- voter name, address, ballot style, etc. Essentially each of the two ATVs was a blank skeleton. We called the Help Line and gave them the ATV names in the pollbook immediately before and after the bad page. They researched it and found that indeed two names had been skipped. They said they would print another copy of that page and get it to us quickly. In the meantime we said we would have those two voters vote provisionally if they came in before we got the replacement page. The page was delivered about an hour later. Then about 15 minutes after the delivery the first voter for that page arrived, so was able to vote normally using the replacement ATV. The second voter came in near the end of the day and was also able to vote using the other replacement ATV. We were happy with how this was handled by the BOE people. We flagged the cover of the problem pollbook and put a tab on the page of blank ATVs to make it easy for the BOE to find later. We went thru all the other pollbooks, but found no similar skeleton pages. b) In another pollbook we found one page with a different type of printing problem. This was discovered when one of the associated voters was processed at the Registration Table. The left side of his ATV had much lighter printing and the leftmost part of the page (the part remaining after the ATV is removed) was completely blank. The ATVs themselves were readable enough for voter name and address identification, so we let the voter proceed normally. We reported the problem on the Help Line, verifying our plan to let these voters proceed. We flagged the cover of this second problem pollbook, tabbed the bad page, and put a note in the blue bag with the voter data and the ATV numbers so the BOE could easily find the ATVs when they researched this problem. 2) In this election we put the pollbook labels on the side edges vs. the inside top edges. It did not cause a problem; a label could be moved easily if the attached ATV had to be removed. This position made the labels much more useful. Help Table ---- ----- 1) Our Help Table officials thought the SOSA lower right icons were too small and hard to interpret, especially the one for "ID required". I definitely agree. 2) The Help Table officials thought the current HT class was inadequate, even for experienced officials, much less for those new to the position. Since in this cycle I attended only the CJ class, which had subsetted Help Table information, I can't comment from any direct experience with the main Help Table class. One thing mentioned was that they had not seen the Laptop Quick Guide with the wildcard information. I reminded them about the Training Resources section of the precinct officials website where the Quick Guide could be accessed. I gave them my copy to experiment with on the laptop. If not given out in the class, the Quick Guide and its contents should at least be mentioned. I know the online tutorial covers some of this, but at a high level. *Reminder*: See my 10/10/15 comments on the Laptop Quick Guide, http://jgkhome.name/WakeBOE/2015_More_Documentation_Comments.txt All three officials went thru the workbook exercises. They thought the exercises were good, but pretty basic. Maybe some more challenging problems could be added, perhaps involving punctuation or spacing ambiguities for voter and street names, spelling mismatches between the voter's real name vs. what the BOE has in its database, etc. (In fact we encountered one for real in this election.) It's too bad wildcards cannot be used for street names. In any event the officials needed to be reminded about the dropdown assist for street names. It's mentioned in the online tutorial, but does not work in the tutorial exercises, as pointed out in my previous comments (see the *Reminder* above), so may have been more easily forgotten. Perhaps one of the workbook exercises could emphasize that feature. 3) The Help Table officials pointed out an ambiguity on the provisional envelope which led to some confusion and discussion. At the bottom right, under "Use Street Search Screen", the instructions say "Type the Voter's Address in Section A". However Section A contains three separate addresses (residential, mailing, and previous). They wanted to use the one in the Previous Address field. I told them they should use the one in the Residential Address field since in all the cases in question the voter had lived at the Residential Address for more than 30 days; that then is the voter's legal address from the BOE's perspective and results in the ballot style he would be given if in his correct precinct. At any rate, the officials said (and I agree) that the provisional envelope should make clear the residential address is the one to be used in that section for the precinct and ballot style determination. 4) After the provisional envelopes were sealed, the Help Table officials realized they had written the wrong precinct number on several ballots. It turned out that the identical ballot style would have been used in the voter's residential precinct as in the precinct the officials wrote on the ballot. However to be safe I had them put a note on the provisional envelope about the error. Procedures ---------- 1) We decided to try using the gray supply bin as a ballot box holder during the day and as a container for emergency evacuation of critical items. This was a previous suggestion from the BOE. It worked well. Previously we had used the bin as a central place to keep all the office supplies, forms, etc., which otherwise tend to get scattered and hard to find. This time we put all that stuff on gym benches behind the CJ table. 2) After having gone thru several iterations of the current procedure, our curbside official recommended moving step 12 under step 9 in case only one pen had been taken to the curbside. The official cannot initial the ATV if the voter is using the pen for something else. Also, I still say the ATV should be taken to the Ballot Table and OKed there for completeness (as all other ATVs are) before the ballot is given to a judge to insert into the tabulator -- alters steps 13 and 14. Equipment/Supplies ------------------ 1) The metal rods of many of the vinyl signs came apart easily after sign assembly. This is especially not good if the signs are falling apart when you are carrying them around a large area for setup on a rainy, dark morning. We ended up using blue tape to secure the legs. Many of the experienced officials mentioned that working with the vinyl signs was usually the worst part of setup. 2) The large metal VOTE sign with the small wheelchair logo is not good for this site. The big "VOTE" brings people to the bus lot -- bad since we want only curbside and accessible parking there. The small wheelchair logo is easily overlooked until it is too late and a car is already turning across heavy traffic into the bus lot. We don't use that sign now. We also don't use the bus hour sign since the bus times change; people ignore the sign anyway. Instead we have to devote officials to work with school personnel to minimize bus/voter parking conflicts. 3) Our emergency bin was hard to open. It seemed as if the inner frame might have been warped. It did not appear to be a problem with the lock. I had to insert a screwdriver blade to pry the door open. It then opened and closed easily. However at the end of the day, it was hard to open again, although this time I was finally able to open it with just my fingers. 4) Some of the voting booths (4 of the 15 I saw this time) did not have the setup instruction label on the inside, the one telling people they should turn the legs a quarter turn when inserting them. As mentioned in some earlier comments I had sent to the BOE, http://jgkhome.name/WakeBOE/2015_BOE_Supplies.txt, many people do not do this twist and the legs fall out easily. Maybe a note should be added to the manual as well as putting the label in the remaining booths. Usually I find people have not set up the wheelchair-accessible booth using the extenders. Then I have to show them what those funny things velcroed to the side are used for. I know the manual covers this and has pictures; however the manual seems to be ignored. Sigh. That booth was one that had no instructions in it about the legs. Probably it should also have instructions in it for the extenders. 5) Via another e-mail I had passed on a mildew concern our officials had about the wet vinyl signs put in the gray supply bin at the end of the election. 6) Label on key bag in mesh zipper section: "PLEASE RETURN CHIEF JUDGE BADGES IN THIS BAG" -- Why would there ever be more than one badge? 7) Label on red plastic bag: poll book -> pollbook (two places) 8) Label on white plastic bag: Should explicitly say that only the CJ can seal this bag, as the red and blue plastic bags do say. 9) Label on white plastic bag: Using a rubber band on a pack with only a few (ATV or curbside) forms does not work well at all. A paperclip is better in cases where a rubber band would just mangle a ring having only a few forms. A rubber band is very good for a pack of many ATVs. 10) Label on blue plastic bag: When I get this bag on Saturday, I always add three boxes by the lanyard item as a reminder to be sure the keys are definitely no longer required: [] AutoMARK [] M100 [] Steel Ballot Box x 4 11) In all the documentation, sometimes "double check" is used and sometimes "double-check". The latter is probably better. 12) The pink sheet in the mailed CJ packet said a customized map was attached. It wasn't. However I did know how to get to the dropoff site. Saturday and Monday Pickups -------- --- ------ ------- 1) Auditing of ballot box contents was much improved in this Saturday pickup, actually letting the CJ see what he was signing for. 2) At Saturday pickup, it would be better if the person directing traffic at the loading area stood at the front near where they wanted the car to stop instead of waving the car thru and standing beyond its rear. The driver doesn't know where to stop, particularly if the other people in the area are gathered around talking and hiding the stop sign. This worked better in prior years. 3) The Harris Creek Elementary School pickup went pretty well. I arrived a little early and was at the end of the mommy line. I followed it along for a few minutes and was then waved thru into another lane at the last turn when I said I was doing BOE pickup. I parked by the truck; no one was around. It was only after a few minutes that I found that the delivery people were actually back in the direction I had just come from. They were under the school entrance canopy to be out of the rain, which made sense. Unfortunately they were not too visible among all the other people, who were involved with loading kids into cars. There was no sign at the truck pointing to where they had moved. I had not seen them when I drove by in the outside lane the school people had directed me to; I was trying to avoid cars and people, not looking under the canopy. Report written by Jeff Knauth, Chief Judge for 19-09 with input from the other officials for this precinct