I just returned from a 3 1/2 hour training session to be an election judge in Montgomery County, MD. My role on November 7 is to check in voters using the dreaded "electronic voter rolls."
Actually, I have many compliments on the training and the intentions of the Montgomery County Board of Elections. [Don't know about those other counties.]
As you may recall, Montgomery County Maryland became "famous," or rather "notorious," for the collosal screw-up on primary day this year. The Board of Elections folks forgot to include in the "secure bag" of voting supplies sent to each voting place the "cards" that allow voters to vote. Thus chaos until around 9 a.m, plus judicial orders that the polls remain open. Also many pissed off voters and a fair number who didn't vote.
This situation prompted me to sign up to work as a poll worker on November 7. I didn't know about the 6 am to 9 pm or later work day OR the "you can't leave the room even if you die" rule, and I debated whether my talents would be better utilized doing GOTV for Dem candidates. But civic duty and curiosity prevailed.
Today's session was led by an articulate, energetic and funny YOUNG guy with the Board of Elections. About 65% of our time was spent going over making sure the person who walks up to the table can vote and the various alternatives if their name doesn't appear on the list from the precinct, they've moved [either into or out of the precinct], they need assistance, or certain "flags" come up indicating their original registration was incomplete (misspelling of name, bad data entry by BoE, etc.)
We also talked about "observers" and "challengers," and the BoE person made clear that any "challenger" who's approaching voter intimidation can be thrown out.
One does NOT have to produce identification in order to vote in MD --- unless there's a problem. In most cases, you walk up to the first election judge (moi) who asks for your name and then types that into the electronic voting roll. (No more digging through the box of cards, which I personally prefer.) Then the judge verifies your address and month+day of birth [no asking the year], sticks the ATM-card like card in the machine, and orders it to produce.
The machine encodes the ATM card with a message to the voting machine that basically says "it's okay to vote." The machine also send a message to the "printer" [looks like one of those printers they use to process credit card purchases] which spits out a strip of paper about the size of an old IBM card (showing my age) with the voter's name on it.
Judge #2 then reads the info off the paper to the voter to confirm it's right, asks the voter to sign the paper, and signs the paper him/herself. The voter then takes the ATM card and the paper to a voting machine. (Usually is directed to a voting machine by another poll worker, who answers quesions on how to work the machine.)
Voter then votes (after first inserting the card to "turn on" the machine)and afterward places the paper in envelope by the machine and returns the card (which will no longer let anyone use it to vote until it's reprogrammed) to a poll worker.
The 35% of the time in the training session that was spent in setting up the machines (the electronic voters' roll and the printer) could have been longer. Some trainees were, shall we say "newbies" in the world of ethernet cords and "ports." But a "cheat sheet" with all the steps was provided.
We then "checked in" several sample voters, progressing from ones with no problems to ones with issues that required calling the Chief Judge.
We also went over the various verification steps we need to follow, both before and after the election. I'm not a sophisticated computer whiz, but the general procedures outlined seemed pretty straight-forward and designed to ward off the most egregious strategies.
The BoE folks were very positive about getting everyone to vote -- suggesting solutions for folks whose names weren't on the rolls, who'd moved, etc. They really seem like they are trying to make up for the "egg on their face" experience in the primary.
So, that's Round One of the report from the field. More later.