Thoughts and Observations About Super Tuesday

As many of you know, I work as an Election Officer in my home precinct in Fairfax County, Virginia. I've blogged about the experience many times, stressing how it has enabled me to understand the inner workings of our electoral system and to push back with authority when I'm confronted by dumbasses whining about rigged elections when their candidate doesn't win.

I worked at my local precinct for the presidential primaries on Super Tuesday, and thought I'd share a few of my candid observations with you. I don't pretend that every voting precinct in every state is as well-organized and well-run as those in my county in particular and Virginia in general, but I firmly believe that our elections are overwhelmingly free, fair, and honest. Is there corruption? In a very few isolated instances, probably. Is it on a vast, organized scale that would tip an election? Don't make me laugh.

Here are a few of my observations.

To those of you who maintain that fraud is rife and elections are rigged, you are simply displaying your ignorance. The number of checks and balances built into the system makes it all but impossible to rig the system. Consider the system we use to calculate and validate the counts at the end of the day ... 

Once the polls close, we cannot leave until every number balances. Using example numbers, say we started the day with 1,000 shrink-wrapped ballots in packages of 200. The packages are opened one at a time as needed. Each voter who checks in receives a ballot card, which they exchange for a ballot at a separate station. After marking the ballot, the voter takes it to an optical scanning machine, where it is recorded. After the polls close, we must account for every single ballot: the number of voters who were checked in must equal the number of ballots we handed out, which must equal the number of ballots scanned. Ballots which were marked in error by the voter or rejected by the scanners for whatever reason must be turned in, marked as spoiled, replaced by new ballots, and accounted for at the end of the day like any others. The number of votes cast, as tabulated by the optical scanners, must agree with the number of voters checked in. 

On Super Tuesday night, we went crazy for a while because our numbers were off ... by one vote. It took us a while to figure out the discrepancy, which was the result of human error ... because this was a two-party primary, voters had to check in for either the Democratic or the Republican primary (although a number of people wanted to vote in both, which was not allowed). Depending on the primary in which they wanted to vote, they were issued either a blue or a red ballot card, which was then exchanged for the appropriate ballot. What happened to throw off the numbers was that a voter had checked in to vote in the Democratic primary, but - once he'd been issued his ballot card - had changed his mind and announced that he wanted to vote in the Republican primary instead. There being no way to go back into the system and change his choice of primary, he was simply given a card for the other primary and allowed to proceed. Thus, at the end of the day, our records showed a one-vote discrepancy between party primary check-ins and votes recorded ... a discrepancy of one vote, which we were able to explain. I doubt that that single vote would have been sufficient to sway most elections.

A few other observations ...

Although our precinct is historically strongly Democratic, voters in the Republican primary outnumbered voters in the Democratic primary by almost three to one. Why? Was it a measure of surging support for the GOP, or an attempt on the part of Democratic voters to sway the Republican outcome, or were there just more excited Republicans coming out to vote than Democrats? No idea, but the ratio was interesting.

Many voters didn't realize that there were two separate primaries running in parallel. As we checked in each voter, we told them that there were two primary elections - Democratic and Republican - and asked them which one they wanted to vote in. Some voters objected to having to publicly state a choice of party, claiming it violated ballot secrecy. When we explained that they could vote in either primary, and were not being asked to specify which specific candidate they would vote for, most understood. There was, however, a small handful of voters who continued to grumble about it, although no one refused to vote over the issue.

As I noted above, quite a few voters wanted to vote not in one or the other primary, but in both, and some were upset that this wasn't allowed. Go figure.

A distressingly large number of voters arrived unsure of what they wanted to do, and agonized at check-in over which primary in which to vote. Many seemed to select voting in the Republican primary because there was "more choice" - there were five names on the GOP ballot, and three on the Democratic one.

The average age of the voters skewed to the high end, which is normal in primaries. We did have two young, first-time voters, both of whom were excited to be casting their first votes and one of whom wanted to know how to apply to work as an Election Officer in the future. We always make a fuss over first-time voters (clapping, cheering, handshakes, etc) ... they're momentarily embarrassed, but we want them to know it's something special.

Although we election workers are forbidden to make any sort of comment or give the least sign of any partisan leaning*, the same isn't true for the voters. When I was handing out ballots, I'd tell each voter that they could sit an any of the desks we'd set up to mark their ballots, and that we'd placed pens at each table for them to use. I'd usually note that there was a pen at each table "unless it had been stolen as a valuable souvenir" (silly, because they're the absolute cheapest of mass-produced plastic pens) ... one voter actually glared at me and growled angrily that, "those f...ing Democrats probably steal them like they steal elections." I guess I know how he'll vote in November.

One of my duties is to serve as a "Same-Day Registration Specialist." Virginia law allows a person who has not already registered to vote to register on election day and cast a provisional ballot, which is counted at the County Board of Elections after the registration has been confirmed as accurate and legal. The process is complicated and time-consuming, but it allows more people to vote. I think it's great that Virginia tries to make it easier, rather than harder to vote.

Those are a few of my observations on how the Super Tuesday voting went at my precinct in Northern Virginia. Election days are always long for us (5 AM until all the numbers balance and everything is cleaned up after the polls close ... usually around 9 PM), but it's good to be able to see the election administration process from the inside and to recognize that, for all the baseless claims of rampant fraud, we run a clean, honest, and accurate election.

I'll be working two more elections this year - another primary in June, and the General Election in November, which will be ... interesting. Get out there and vote. And if you are one of those people who are convinced everything is "rigged," volunteer to be an election officer and get trained on the actual procedures that ensure voting security ... it will help keep you from sounding stupid.

Have a good day, and come back tomorrow for the naming of the Right-Cheek Ass Clown for March ... more thoughts then.

Bilbo

* It's not mandated one way or another, but most of us won't even wear anything red or blue for fear of being accused of sending subliminal messages.