Election Monitoring in 2004: Notes from the Field II

read part I

Working as a poll monitor isn't all intrigue - it isn't all sneaky tricks. Some of it is keeping an eye on the little things that you never think would be a problem - like having enough parking spaces - and making sure that there's no trouble. Most of it, in fact, is working with people from across the political spectrum who just want to make sure that we have a good, fair election where every vote gets counted.

Another set of problems we faced were things that don't seem so bad at first, but when you really think about it, turn out to be a huge problem. Imagine that there's a lack of parking at the polling site you're going to. Doesn't sound too bad, right? Now imagine that it's nearing six pm on election day, you're driving home with your kids in the back-seat, all of them complaining about how hungry they are, you pull in to cast your vote, and can't find anywhere to park. Which is more likely – that you'll wait for a place to open, or that you'll just go home, make them dinner, and forget about voting until next time?

Similarly, people might be waiting outside the polling site in a giant line. Once again – you're coming home late from work, and you're exhausted. You just want to vote, but are you going to stand in a long line or just head home? We hope everyone would stick around no matter how long it takes (and here in Virginia, if you're in line when the polls close, you're guaranteed to get a chance to cast your vote), but we want to make it as easy as possible for people to vote – not make it more difficult.

How does an election monitor fix these sorts of problems? We talk to the people running the polling place, get people on line moved inside, make sure everyone is warm and comfortable maybe even get access to another polling place or an extra machine to spread out the load. We work to smooth the way, so that voting can be as pleasant an experience as possible, and every vote gets counted.

One of my favorite parts was watching the absentee voting process. That was fascinating. It was all paper ballots. There were literally four women, bless their hearts, two from each party, who would inspect every absentee ballot. There were problems, of course – college students would vote absentee and then, if the election suddenly grew closer, they might show up at home, wanting to vote in person. No one was trying to trick anyone – they were just excited about the election and wanted to take part. We had to figure out which vote should be counted, and make sure that everyone knew what was happening. In the end, we decided in a small town like that, the people working the polls would recognize the voters anyway – so we counted the absentee ballot, put their name on a list, and let them know when they came into the polling place. That way we didn't have to turn them away from both places, and everyone knew that their votes had been counted properly. Most of the work that I did was like that - logistical things that you wouldn't catch without poll watchers there.

... to be continued

and if you're lucky, you just might get to watch the absentee ballots getting counted. 1... 2... 3...