Things were a little more chaotic than this
Note: I wanted to write this the night of the primary but I’ve only now recovered enough to hopefully sound coherent :)
3rd CLERK
That was my humble title on the assignment sheet received in the mail from Los Angeles County. That doesn’t mean I was the 3rd best (out of 3) but just the one who procrastinated more than the others. Our valiant crew consisted of an Inspector, a multilingual clerk who spoke Japanese and two better prompter clerks. The others seemed familiar with each other but this was my first time working at this precinct and with any of these individuals. I’m north of 50 but I was the youngest of the group.......
by at least 10-15 years.
The Inspector had requested me to come the day before to help set up the voting booths and table but I bailed. My admittedly selfish view is if I wanted to schlep voting booths, the precinct ballot reader (PBR), move tables, etc., I would sign up to be the Inspector. They are getting paid the big bucks (ok, not really. I believe they get $175 for the day plus another 2-3 hours on a different day to attend the training class). Volunteer Clerks get $80 for election day and another $25 for attending the 2 hour training class so the $105 total for about 17 hours of service works out to a whopping $6.18/hour. I bet my decision not to go on Monday night looks more reasonable doesn’t it?
Our polling place was located in a fine dining establishment on the property of a learning institute geared towards those with a fresh perspective on life although some sticklers for accuracy might for some reason insist on calling it an elementary school cafeteria. We shared this establishment with another precinct. The two precincts are identified by the colors orange and green. The County helpfully provides a table cloth and precinct signs in the appropriate color and prints the information on the voter’s sample ballot.
I arrive a little after six and was made even later because there was no parking that was not pre-assigned for the learning institute’s staff. After finally dragging myself in the building, I began helping in the setup of the official table and putting up the outside signs. The Inspector informed me that they have not yet been able to set up the PBR. The PBR or Precinct Ballot Recorder is a large grey box that sits atop the ballot box. In addition to being the device used to operate the audio ballot booth, it also checks ballots for
- No Selections
- Over votes (Too many selections for a particular contest)
The PBR is supposed to be one of the first things set up but after plugging it up, it asked for a password which none of us had ever experienced before. We tried to call the help center but there was no answer. We were told later that EVERYONE in the County had that problem. About 6:30 or so, the other precinct’s Inspector spoke to someone who gave him the password and we were able to start the zeroing process (weird thing is, the Inspector probably got about 10 automated calls throughout the morning giving her the password and a reminder to pick up the voting supplies in October). Header cards for each ballot type are run through the PBR generating a “Zero Report” to show there was nothing on the reader before voting begins. There were 10 types of ballots for this primary and a zero report must be generated for each:
- Democratic
- Republican
- American Independent
- Libertarian
- Green
- Peace & Freedom
- No Party Preference (NPP)
- NPP Crossover Democratic
- NPP Crossover Libertarian
- NPP Crossover American Independent
Our group divided the jobs as follows: Roster Clerk who was responsible for making sure the voter was listed, that they had not received a VBM ballot, and to have the voter sign. The next position was the Street Index. Instead of alphabetical order, this index is organized by street name and then house number and is designed for pollwatchers GOTV efforts. There is a master list and two copies. The master stays on the table and the copies are updated and switched every hour out near the entrance to the polling place. Next is the Ballot Clerk who distributes the correct ballot that has been called out by the Roster Clerk. The 4th person receives the ballots and operates the audio booth and hands out the all important “I Voted” sticker. Our 5th member parked himself at a separate table to handle provisional voters.
The three major problems of the day were disputes over party registration, vote by mail (VBM) voters, and the US Senate race.
Part II to follow:
