Elections - 2006

Voters went to the polls to cast their ballots yesterday. I, for one, did not. I cast my vote on October 27th, during early voting. This is because I would be spending all of election day (6 AM to 9 PM) working as a poll worker.

Why did I sign up? Several reasons. First, I wanted to help out. I had seen that in several places in Utah there was a shortage of poll workers. I felt like I was in a position to help, as I am able to take time off work more easily than some, and duty-bound to do so. Second, I wanted to get an up-close view of the voting process. I've always voted in every election. But, like many voters, my experience consisted of going to the polls and voting, and then going home. I wanted to see the details, understand what is happening, and understand how robust our voting process is.

What was it like? It was a lot of work! I was one of 7 dedicated and hard-working poll workers in my location, setting up and running 10 new voting machines for the 3 precincts that voted at that location. I spent much of the day helping people to cast provisional ballots. That's where someone comes in, thinks they are registered in the precinct, lives in it, but isn't in the register. In such a case, we establish their identification and that their current address is in the precinct (using the ID or bills they get at their address), and then give them a paper ballot to vote on. These ballots will be looked at individually at a later date by the county, to decide if they count.

We did some rotating of jobs so that everyone did most jobs they wanted to throughout the day. We took people's names, encoded voting cards for them, explained the machines to them, helped them when they had problems, etc. Our compensation for 15 hours of work? $80. Here are some conclusions/impressions drawn from my experience yesterday:

TOO FEW PEOPLE VOTE - In our precincts we had 2716 names listed on the register. We had a total of 416 regular and provisional voters throughout the day. There were another 50 or so on a list we were given of people who were in the register, but who had voted early or absentee. That's a pretty low turnout if you look at it that way. But really, I think that the number of people in the register is too high. More about that later. I think we as a society focus too much on voting as a right and a privilege, and not enough on voting as a duty.

PEOPLE ARE VERY UNINFORMED - From my interaction with several hundred voters, it seems like most people are uninformed to one degree or another. Some voters knew most of the things they cast votes for. But many were totally oblivious. We had people who came in and got to the machine and asked us who to vote for. Of course, we couldn't help them decide that, but it was eye-opening. Many expressed vocally that they were here to do their duty (mainly the elderly), but didn't really know anything about any of the candidates, so they were just going to vote by party, knowing nothing about the candidates and almost nothing about the party. The number of business professionals that I saw come in was much lower than the elderly or the college students. Did these people vote early? Who knows. But I have a lot less confidence now in the voters' decisions due to the massive amounts of ignorance I saw at the polls.

THE PROCESS IS STILL CUMBERSOME - Despite the new voting machines, which I think were an improvement over paper, the process of voting is still very old-fashioned and cumbersome. As a voter you walk in and (if you haven't had to wait in line too long) soon meet a register clerk. This clerk asks your name and looks you up in the register. In 99% of cases you don't have to show ID. As long as you said that is your name, you can vote. You sign the register and move on to the poll book. A poll worker then asks your name and writes it down in the poll book. He/she then tells the register clerk which number voter you are for the day, and the register clerk writes that number down next to your signature. Once that is done, you move to the ballot clerk, who encodes a ballot card with your precinct number and hands it to you. At this point you can start voting. This process is much longer if you're not in the book and need to vote provisionally. This process is also, in my opinion, very easy to fool in order to commit fraud. Realistically, we can do all that and more with a computerized system and only 1 or 2 workers rather than 4 or 5.

POTENTIAL FOR FRAUD - The new voting machines are, I believe, much less succeptible to fraud. However, it would still be an easy matter to get names out of the poll books and have others vote there as someone else. Or, someone could easily vote in a district they no longer live in. The fraud potential is biggest where there is the most human and register interaction. The registers need to be updated more aggressively than they are now. We should all at some point be required to show proof that we are who we say we are, and that we still live where we do.

INCONVENIENCE - The new early voting is a nice upgrade to allow people to vote more conveniently. But I would like to see that kind of thing expanded. Why not expand the number of early-voting locations? Even if early-voting is only open for a week or so before the election, having several key early voting areas around the city would really speed up everything on election night, and allow a county to have fewer machines to worry about.

I still believe in the right of the people to cast their votes for what they believe in. But when I see the potential for fraud, the cumbersome nature of the process, and the ignorance displayed by many voters, I fear for what kind of decisions are being made by the people as a whole when they come to the polls.