Questions for elections officials (updated)
Photo by Sarah Conrad | freelance
Update below
Last week, we published an editorial calling for an election experiment, an exercise in “crowd sourcing” in which “engaged citizens and advocates” are empowered by local election boards to “follow, critique and participate in the planning process” for the coming election.
We have been promised — and are expecting — updated data and other information about registration tallies and expected turnout per polling place, as well as the most current plans for resource allocations to specific polling places (voting machines, paper ballots, poll workers, etc.)
So check back this afternoon as I will update this post.
Meanwhile, though, some readers of the editorial have pooled some questions they would like posed to St. Louis County election officials:
- Will poll workers separate early on in the process those voters using paper ballots from those using touch screens, in order to speed up the line?
- Will poll workers be instructed to remind voters using touch screens to review paper trails AS THEY VOTE, since the ES&S touch screen machines scroll as you vote?
- How much time did staff calculate that the average voter will need to review the paper trail as they vote?
- Will poll workers be instructed to remind voters using paper ballots (optiscan) to fully fill in the oval next to each of their choices?
- Will poll workers be instructed to allow voters to take a paper ballot and mark it up using a magazine, briefcase, corner of a table or chair, etc, to prop it on, rather than waiting for a cubicle to be free before leaving the line to mark their ballot?
- Do poll workers record any electronic tally results at the polls at the end of the day before sending the equipment, etc back to headquarters? If so, would the Commission be willing to instruct staff to instruct poll workers to post these results on the door of the polls before leaving for the night?
What say you St. Louis County Elections officials? The comment section is open to you.
What other questions would Citizens like poses to elections officials? Put them as comments to this post. We will try to get answers.
(Pictured: St. Louis voters cast their ballots in Nov. 2006 at Busch Academy in South City using the new electronic voting machines.)
Update: We received a bunch of new data from Judge Joseph Goeke, director of elections for St. Louis County, which we have posted here. It gives updated numbers on registered voters, poll workers and distributions of paper ballots, and revised paper ballot distributions based in increased voter registrations. The most dramatic example of this occurs at the polling place serving Washington University, which according to election board chairman John Fox Arnold has 1,700 registered voters, up from 950 registered voters in August — necessitating 1,000 additional paper ballots on hand.
Here too is the City of St. Louis’ data — number of (and increases in) registered voter by precinct and allocation of personnel, ballots and equipment. It came with these qualifications:
Here are our numbers. Please note that we will be tweaking the ballot numbers/judges/etc. in certain precincts - Heritage House is an example of a registration swell in a particular precinct. In addition, there will be a technical specialist and a registration specialist at each polling place in addition to the election judges listed on the spreadsheet.
Eddie Roth writes about education, social justice, public safety, transportation, legal affairs and historic preservation. He joined the Post-Dispatch editorial page in 2008 after six years as an editorial writer with the Dayton Daily News. But he is not new to St. Louis. Eddie grew up in Webster Groves and south St. Louis County. He's a lawyer who for many years practiced with a downtown firm, and was active in civic affairs, including serving a term on the St. Louis Police Board. He and his wife, Jeanne, and their three daughters, Emily, Julia and Alice, live in the Shaw Neighborhood.
When it comes to community organizing, he endorses Quentin Crisp's advice: Rather than keeping up with the Joneses, it's better to pull them down to your level. 
Why are we asking questions of St. Louis county election officials when we all know the fraud is in the city?
— Nick Kasoff
“Why are we asking questions of St. Louis county election officials when we all know the fraud is in the city?”
Because there are Republicans in St Louis County and we know from Florida in 2000 and Ohio in 2004 that some Republicans left unchecked and unmonitored will be able to exercise their corruptness. Like the GOP guy in California arrested for voter registration fraud. All the whining and gnashing of teeth about ACORN and the only arrest is a GOP’er.
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Gawd, that must really hurt and be so embarrassing and humiliating.
We have been promised — and are expecting — updated data and other information about registration tallies and expected turnout per polling place, as well as the most current plans for resource allocations to specific polling places (voting machines, paper ballots, poll workers, etc.)
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I think that the P-D should run the election. It is obvious that they are looking for anything they can get their hands on to allow reporters to cast a doubt over 800,000 or more votes because they can root out a dozen horror stories of people going to the wrong polling place, or having to stand in line on election day, or being asked for an ID from a list. So since the P-D thinks that the election boards are so horrific, we should throw a resolution out there to let THEM run this thing. The middle man “election board” would be cut out of the process, saving taxpayers millions, and there would be extra revenues, if the P-D published the results in a “special” edition, like Maguire’s 70th homer. And if anybody complains about anything wrong with the election, rather than having to explain it to a federal commission, the P-D can just delete their comments.
Personally, I think that our St. L City/County BOEs both do a great job. I have worked in the field with both on election days going back several years, and despite any minor issues that have come up, I applaud the efforts of both for their overall integrity and ensuring that we have a free election process for EVERYONE.
If Obama is serious about his “Americorps” idea in making people earn what they get from the government (despite his adaptation of this theme being STRONGLY against the D party base’s belief), then he should allow letting people be an election judge to fulfil part of that community service pledge. Then, they would have the answers to all of the questions above, and would be TRUE participants in this Republic. Unless, of course, the P-D decides to run it on their own.
STL - your remark “… guy in California…” should say just about everything. Not only has he not been proven guilty (he has only been arrested), but even if he IS guilty, being from California should make him legally insane. Judge us by us, and them by them.
MO and CA are politically a million light years apart on the political spectrum. The founding fathers knew this, which is why they wanted states to be represented in congress, as well as the people. Unfortunately, the Dem Party managed to make Senators directly elected (instead of representatives of the states) just before they turned the economy and U.S. monetary policy over to the fed (how did that work out? - they sold us out before we were born), so now, the states are completely unrepresented, and each have their own party platform, and the Chinese own a major block of everything… and they don’t even vote.
I don’t think that ANY state platform calls for election fraud, except the Basque separatists, but only Spain has to worry about that. Do you really think this guy represented the GOP, or do you think, like the Dems who sold us out almost 100 years ago, he was in it for the money because his company was paid so much by whoever? I bet it is the latter; regardless of which party he purported to represent, he was in it for no one other than himself. Therefore, your comment is, well, not very sound, I don’t think.
“All the whining and gnashing of teeth from you wackos about ACORN and the only arrest is a GOP’er”
#1. ACORN has been and continues to be investigated by the FBI and there have been several arrests and convictions - just because they are not publicized does not mean they don’t exist.
#2. There has to be a prosecutor willing to prosecute. Investigators do their job and supply evidence. Lack of prosecution lies at the hand of those unwilling to rock the political boat and go to court.
#3. Every single voter should be required at some point to work the polls or spend a week observing the operation of the board of election. I guarantee that the majority of the public does not have a clue about what goes on in those offices: before, during, OR after an election. The level of preparation required and the endless hours the employees put in are never discussed or publicized. When you call the office, ask the person you are talking to how many hours they put in that week. Ask them how many Saturdays and Sundays they have worked this month. Ask them how many hours of overtime they have put in. When you get to your polling place at 6 a.m. on Tuesday, November 4, most election board employees have already been at the office for several hours. They will work an average of 20 to 24 hours, with no breaks, very little time to shove a crappy sandwich down their throat, all while enduring insults and vitriol from voters (who, the majority of the time, have not done THEIR part to be prepared for what they claim is such an important “right”). Long after you have turned off your television and gone to bed, these employees will still be working. Why don’t you pick up the phone, call an election board and tell the person who answers, “Thanks for all your hard work.”
Long after you have turned off your television and gone to bed, these employees will still be working. Why don’t you pick up the phone, call an election board and tell the person who answers, “Thanks for all your hard work.”
Seriously?—– This is the best comment of the day/week/month/year/century. Those of us who serve at the polls do not generally do it for the money. And to cut that money up a little more, the “income” for this service is taxable. Poll “supervisors” make 50% less in St. Louis County than the poll “workers” in St. Charles County and in Illinois. The only people who have it worse are the guys who actually work at the election board. And yet somehow, we actually enjoy doing this service - all of us, from us in/at the polls, to the guys there at the board. THAT is why we are sometimes quite offended when we try to put on a fair election, and someone is trying to find some loophole/scam to defy what some of us perceive to be our greatest freedom - the right to vote. I speak only for me, but somehow, I feel that a lot - the majority - feel the same way.