majkia

Finally, I have a day off.  I've been working early voting every day since Monday. 

For the most part we've been busier than normal.  It seems the county, and especially the older voters, are finally responding to the ease and convenience of Early Voting. Younger voters were early to embrace it, but many older voters would say they prefer going to their local polling place because it gave them a sense of community and that's what they were used to.  But now it seems they are finding that sense of community to remain intact at Early Voting sites.  YAY!

I've been working exclusively in the north county site this week.  It is located in the local library which makes it very convenient for many voters, as seen by the fact that the numbers of voters increases when the library is open.  For instance, on Wednesdays and Saturdays, we open the polls early for the folks who want to vote on their way to work, at 7am.  That worked better in south county I think, as they are near the entrance to the largest employer in the county, Eglin Air Force Base.  But at our library location, we had only a few folks come in, and voting didn't pick up until the library opened at 10am.

Some voters are unhappy with our limited hours, thinking, I suppose, early voting should be open 7am-7pm just like the polls are open on Election Day.  The problem with this is that

1. By law, we're limited in how many hours we can be open for early voting.  Each county can set their own schedule, but they can only be open for 8 hours a day at most.  Days to be open are also adjustable for counties. I understand some south Florida counties are open on Sunday, since they have significant Jewish populations who are unable (or choose not) to vote on Saturdays.

Within the restrictions, each county can adjust hours to suit their own needs, thus we open 10am-6pm most days and on two days open early and close early.  The Supervisor of Elections and his staff study the voting habits of our residents and attempt to be open when most folks need us to be.

2. Even if we could be open longer, or more often, the problem is, as usual, staffing. Special training is needed for early voting. We use state of the art equipment, which is expensive and very different from our normal precinct equipment. We have to use Ballot on Demand technology because we have to be able to print out a ballot for every individual in the county, which means all 52 precinct ballots as well as splits within precincts for various generally mangled congressional districts, and for local races.

Also, Florida has, generally speaking, a LOT of amendments on every general election ballot. We have a full page of amendments, and might have had a lot more had not the Florida Supreme Court struck down three very LONG additional amendments the legislature tried to add on.

So anyway, if your state (or country!) offers early voting, give it a try. I'm sure election officials and volunteers everywhere are doing their best to make your voting experience pleasant and convenient and memorable!

I survived, barely. Things of note: 1. Nasty voters who scream when they discover they aren't registered the way they want to be. Heaven forefend they CHECK on it. Noooooo. They throw ballots at us, whine that "IT's NOT RIGHT!", yell it "HAS TO BE CHANGED", have "STRONG VIEWS" and the "RIGHT TO EXPRESS THEM!!!!" 2. I hate the DMV. They offer to register folks, but quite often a husband and wife newly moved to Florida come in to vote, and we have one of their registrations and the other one not so much. Mostly, thankfully. it is changes of address that get messed up, thankfully. Amazingly enough, most of these voters are reasonable and nice to us. 3. Junk food all day binges are not the greatest thing, but are essential to survival when you are stuck at a polling place from 6am to 7:30pm. 4. Poll workers are amazing! They put up with all the bullshit and still smile and joke and try their damnedest to create a pleasant experience for the vast number of voters. 5. MORE PEOPLE SHOULD VOTE EARLY! Half their problems could be handled far easier if they would. Especially those folks who come to the wrong precinct 5 minutes before the polls close!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Check people! 6. I need a nap.

Our primary election madness begins tomorrow (Friday) morning.  Friday I have training for early voting (polling stations -2 of them- open to all county voters for the two weeks prior to actual election date of August 24th)

Monday is training for poll worker trainers, when we get final instructions on what to emphasize and what has changed to teach to new poll workers and to highlight differences for experienced poll workers. By Florida statute, all poll workers must be trained before each and every election.

Tuesday, is clerk and assistant-clerk training, when we who run the various precincts get specific info regarding new or changed procedures for actual opening and closing the polls, and how to handle ballots and voters. We are trying something new this time, so it should be a bit complex. Instead of attempting to transmit voting results over phone lines to the central computer, as we've done in the past but hasn't worked very well (because the modems on the accuvotes do not work on digital phone lines and everyone is getting them) we'll instead be transporting accuvotes and touch screens to a central point where they will transmit for us.  Considering how much time we've wasted the last few elections fighting with the hardware, we're all delighted.  So we hope to heck the central collection concept works better than the original.

We're electing a Governor, and a US Senator, both races controversial in light of the Oil Spill especially.  Also, we are replacing a sheriff, the last one elected is in jail for corruption. Tempers running high for that election as well.

Wish us all luck!

Not much has changed as to how we do it since the 2008 presidential election. IN the same building, in the same room, and the setup is similar.  Equipment changes were minimal so it was pretty easy to just fall right back into the rhythm.

However, the number of voters was fairly low so it made for a long day. But we're allowed to bring books so I did get quite a bit of Soulless (The Parasol Protectorate Book 1) read. It makes me laugh aloud quite often, so it was welcome fare.

One voter came in wearing a t-shirt with GWB's picture on it with the caption below: MIis Me Yet?  I, of course, am not allowed to respond, so bit my lip to shut myself up.

Other than that, and the several who complained that the damn Democrats were fielding a candidate and why did they do that to force two elections (Republican primary and actual election).  Gee, sorry. Democracy is messy.

The first day of early voting they voted about 128 or so.
Yesterday was 260. 
I'm not working today, but will be there Thursday, Friday and Saturday.