Election Clerk viewpoint

 Election Clerk

Monday, November 2nd, 2020

For the past three weeks, I worked as an election clerk for Williamson County Texas.  I also worked in the same position in February 2020 for the primary election; and in June 2020 for the run-off election (if a candidate didn’t receive 50% or more, there is a runoff of the top two candidates).

I wanted to share my ideas - some (back to February) are pre-COVID and the June and October work are COVID-19 experiences.

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Security

Security has been made an issue in this election.  Yes, voter fraud can exist; but I didn’t see it this year in my work.

As a voter entered the voting room (generally down a hallway from an entrance), they were screened.  The most important document was the driver’s license (ID), although we took gun-carry licenses, passports, and even out-of-state licenses. 

The voting clerk would take the ID and hold it up to compare the photo against the person’s current image.  This did get tougher in the COVID elections as almost all people had masks.  Texas driver’s licenses are good for six years - so a picture from six years ago could have more variations.  I lightly kidded women who had changed their hair color, style, and similar aspects of their pictures.  Almost all take off their glasses for pictures - if they wear glasses.  But, as they came to vote, they did wear their glasses.

The hardest might have been males.  Some came with masks (expected), but also with caps (‘baseball caps’ style).  I asked them to raise their caps and/or lower their masks.  Pretty much all did this - maybe with a little laugh - as they realized we really did want to make sure the person was who he or she said he/she was. 

We scanned the driver’s licenses (there is a barcode on the back), which brought up an entry on our check-in screens.  We then asked, “What is your current address” (while we held the license).  We probably had a 99.9% perfect identification as the person stated their address.  

The difficulty was for those who had moved.  If the person had moved within Williamson county, they filled out a simple change of address form.  There were many of these voters since, during COVID-19, the department of motor vehicles shut down for a while and even yet is limited to avoid crowds.  Therefore, if they had moved from outside the county, it was hard to verify their address.  Some were smart and had stopped at the elections office and made the change officially. 

All the check-in positions were surrounded by plexiglass and all the surfaces in the room were wiped down regularly.  Everybody had masks (or facial screens).  There was no touching between staff and voters - no handshakes, nothing.  The voters did an electronic signature on the check-in tablets (that also were wiped regularly), and could use their fingers or styluses to sign.  The process was safe and fairly quick.  

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Flexibility

One thing that I learned in my voting work this year was that Williamson County allowed county-wide voting at one location.  Voters from Liberty Hill, Taylor, Cedar Park, and Georgetown can go into a single location (really any location in the county) and vote.

As we scan the driver’s license it reveals the voter’s precinct and location.  The ballot that is printed has an encoded sequence at the top.  The voter takes this pretty blank ballot to any of our 15 electronic voting machines.  As the voter inserts the ballot into the machine, the machine decodes the code and brings up the races that are germane to that person.  So, as I voted, my machine brought up the presidential contest, senate, congress, Georgetown specific contests.  But, the voter at the machine next to me might be from Liberty Hill - across the county.  They can also vote on the presidential and Senate contests (as those are statewide races), but Liberty Hill is in a different congressional district, and they are voting for their local officials.  

After reviewing our ballots, we push the “print ballot” option, and the machine prints the voters' choices on the ballot and ejects the ballot.  The voter carries it to a specialized ballot box that reads and counts the votes appropriately for that voter. (and, all votes).  Nobody will know those results until the end of the election and the correct access password.  

Limited Ballots and Provision Ballots

Texas has opted to allow pretty much all people to vote.  If you moved from Travis County to Williamson County, you shouldn’t be allowed to vote on Travis County issues or on Williamson County/Georgetown issues - but they can vote a “limited ballot” - like voting for a presidential candidate and United States Senator.  

Then, there are provisional ballots.  Let’s say you moved from California to Texas.  You want to vote for President - but you didn’t get around to registering to vote in Texas.  You can cast a provisional ballot.  These are set aside until the very end of the election process.  If (say) the Presidential Contest is something like 20,000 difference between the two major candidates - and statewide there are 50,000 provisional ballots - so they will (carefully) be added to the mix.  The issue that is Texas election officials is that the person could technically vote in California and in Texas.  (And, voting twice is illegal).  Texas (and all states) do have intra-state databases and Texas officials can see if a particular person voted in California - in which case that ballot will be destroyed.  But, if the person only voted in Texas, their ballot will be considered if the overall totals are close enough to be considered.

Tomorrow - another election oriented blog.  I do have some ideas for Wednesday and Thursday!!!  

Stay tuned this election week!!!

LOVE WINS!!!

Hugs!!

Karen