Finally, it’s election day. Things will go wrong, by accident and in some cases because people do bad things. There will be rumors. If form holds, there will be scary DKos story titles. Some of the accompanying stories will describe dreadful polling place experiences and other bad news; some (maybe including some of the same ones) will be wildly speculative.
Chances are that things will go pretty well in most places. No matter how badly things go, scaremongering can make them worse. (“That crazy 9/11 story about another terrorist attack really helped me prepare,” said nobody ever.) Whatever happens, people will be working to make things better — and you can be one of those people.
Let me just say: 1-866-OUR-VOTE. Nationwide election protection hotline. Loads of experience. Deep bench. If you need to know something — whether it’s about provisional ballot procedures in your state or how to deal with voter intimidation efforts — they can probably help. (If that doesn’t work, stay cool. We’ll figure something else out.) A few more thoughts below the fold.
Poll worker care. In general, your neighborhood poll worker is not The Man. Most poll workers are people much like you who work on election day because they think it’s a good thing (and/or because their circumstances are such that a little bit of money can really help out). Most are friendly, but some may be a bit surly, by disposition and/or because they got up insanely early and struggled with the $#%@ machines, and/or because voters have been complaining to them for hours about things completely beyond their control. Many are amazingly good at their occasional jobs, but some may be slow, or undertrained, or easily flustered. Collectively, they make democratic elections possible. If we all try to treat them that way, things will tend to go better. (Of course, if a poll worker is doing something really wrong, it has to be addressed. Often someone in charge can help with that.)
”The Republicans are stealing another election!” This is not an election protection message. My work in election protection is non-partisan, but even if it weren’t, this is not an election protection message. In particular, I personally have little patience for people who treat every report of a long line as a harbinger of the apocalypse. Yeah, I know, some jurisdictions deliberately misallocate resources. But, also, too, sometimes lots of people want to vote, and that’s a good thing. Sometimes equipment fails, and poll workers, the first responders of democracy, work frantically to save the day. Don’t be the person who sits around loudly prophesying doom. I know somehow that can feel helpful, but please trust me when I say that it isn’t.
Helpers. Did I mention 1-866-OUR-VOTE? Good. You might want to know (or to be able to find) some other numbers: perhaps the local board of elections or equivalent, perhaps political party offices; perhaps the Justice Department Voting Rights Hotline, 800-253-3931.
Provisional ballots. I wish I had a dollar for every time I read on Daily Kos that if you cast a provisional ballot, you might as well flush your vote. That is (in general) false, and definitely not an election protection message. In election after election, most provisional ballots do get counted. Now, it’s important to try to suss out why you or someone else is being asked to cast a provisional ballot, and what the likely remedy may be. It might be that, instead of casting a provisional ballot where you are, you need to go to another polling place. It may be that you’ll have to provide some documentation after election day. Even weirder scenarios are possible. Stay calm, gather facts, look for helpers, work the problem — and don’t let anyone tell you that “you should never cast a provisional ballot.”
If I were building a U.S. election system, I wouldn’t start with this one. But many wonderful people make our elections work, and make them work better. Let’s all be with them.