Election Integrity

What has been your personal reaction to the news that our election system is flawed?

By 2018’s primary election, I had heard enough about election integrity that I decided I wanted to know first-hand just how messy our system is. So, I offered my services to the Ashtabula County Election Board.

The 2024 primary that just passed marked my 6^th election served.  I’m paid the munificent sum of $115 to work from 5.45 AM to 8 PM.  It’s been an interesting journey.

• I was required to fill out a very detailed application and provide background checks including having my fingerprints taken and run through the system.
• Each year I serve I must (again) go to, and pass, a one-hour training session.
• In our county, a duplicate system is employed.  That is, completed ballots are kept in lock box as hard copy by being scanned (on their way in the box) for digital counting.
• In our precinct, every task is backed up:
  – Two of us sign people in, four since we split the alphabet.
  – Several of us simply pull the blank ballot by number and precinct.
  – One of us serves as greeter and we double as ballot machine guards.
  – Our captain oversees each of these jobs and deals with any issues.
  – A rover from the county election office visits us every three hours.

• Here is the voter’s journey:
  – Present government-issued photo ID (usually their driver’s license)
  – We match our records with their ID – every detail must match.
  – The voter’s signature must match their signature we have in our books.
  – If all that checks out – ID, address match, signature match – we then give them a ballot, tearing off the ballot’s stub for cross checking later, if needed.
  – The voter, never us, enters their ballot into the scanning machine. Our greeter points if they need help, however, may neither look at or touch their ballot.

Finally, here are the rules that we are trained to and are watched closely on:

• We are prohibited from helping voters; we may only show them the sample ballots.
• Neither we nor any voter may wear anything political (pin, button, t-shirt, etc).
• Occasionally a voter expresses, or asks us for, an opinion – we politely decline.
• We are taught that if a voter insists that we are wrong about anything, say, an unmatched signature or unmatched address, we never argue.  Instead, we provide a provisional ballot.  Provisionals are hand processed by bi-partisan election board.

Are you still wondering if the system is flawed in your area?  Why not be an election worker?