Election Day Worries

I’m an election judge for the upcoming general election. I went to training yesterday morning. We set up a polling place in exactly the same way we will on Election Day, ran through some sample voters and tried to handle the problems we ran into. It was pretty clear that all of us knew what to do if someone tried to campaign within the polling place or tried to vote twice. But not too many of the judges were really sure how to handle any technical issues that came up.

In my county, we use Diebold machines — purchased before Diebold became Premier Election Solutions last year. The demographics of our judges skews heavily toward the older end of the spectrum, although there are younger judges as well. But it’s not just age that causes some of the technical programs: these machines are just specialized computers and prone to all the problems of any other computer. Loose cables, power surges and other such problems happen with voting machines, too. What does worry me about the judges, though, is that few of them are technically minded. An unplugged cable requires help from IT — and I’m scared to consider the ramifications of that fact on a day when we expect record turnout and have one IT guy for ten precincts.

Wish me luck on Election Day. I think I’m going to need it.

And one last bit of information, folks: most precincts are expecting record turnout this year and don’t have enough judges to handle it. Check with your local board of elections if you’re interested in working as an election judge. In some states, you’ll even get paid for your work.