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My experience as a poll worker in Pennsylvania

portal.drewdevault.com

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Re: My experience as a poll worker in Pennsylvania

#131

Post by JustARandomGuy »

tptacek wrote: post #92

This squares with my experience in Illinois after a couple of elections. * As a security/integrity issue, the ballots themselves are much less scary than the pollbooks, which are what we use to match voters against the voting rolls. * Everything's ultimately on paper; there are bar codes, which nobody loves, but they're auditable against the readable printed ballot. * Most of the security is physical/human; for us, e…

I volunteered as an election judge in a neighboring county (Hello from DuPage County) and can affirm much of tptacek's post. Having the experience of an election judge, I'm not worried about anyone trying to steal the election, there's just too much paperwork involved at every level.

Likewise in regards to the police: we had DuPage sheriffs wander in occasionally to look around and chat - they were reasonably friendly with some random chitchat. I don't think they were looking for anything in particular, just trying to deter any mischief by being seen openly.

One thing that surprised me is how hard election judges worked: I started by 6:30 AM and only ended at 8:30 PM, with maybe a 15 min break for lunch. All the other time I was handing out ballots, doing paperwork, giving directions, etc. In DuPage election judges get $100 for the whole day - I would be in favor of doubling that plus some money for lunch + dinner.

Re: My experience as a poll worker in Pennsylvania

#132

Post by kube-system »

estebank wrote: post #13

As a non-citizen who had a chance to observe how the process works in California, I was struck by how little emphasis is put in the secrecy of the vote. The whole system looks reasonable except for how easy it can be for poll workers to know what you voted for. Beyond that, the system is clearly geared towards increasing participation and enfranchising as many people as possible (a good thing in a democratic system).

In the state where I'm at, things worked a bit differently this year because of all the mail-in ballots -- but typically when I vote in person, my name is crossed off a paper list of registered voters and then I am escorted to a voting machine to enter in an electronic ballot that has no identifiers attached.

Obviously that's harder to do with mail ballots, because we have to be able to discern that one voter submitted one ballot. (and my state also allows people to track their mail-in ballot)

Re: My experience as a poll worker in Pennsylvania

#133

Post by dxdm »

zimmern wrote: post #121
sk5t wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you seriously suggesting the "thin blue line" or "back the blue" flags are not political messaging? Lots of folks with different backgrounds and beliefs "support police and military"; however, the bootlick flags are closely tied to just one party.

>>bootlick flags lol, trump has made lefties lose their damn mind.

He's made a lot of things worse for a lot of people, his supporters or not, American or not, and even himself.

Re: My experience as a poll worker in Pennsylvania

#134

Post by hwillis »

CameronNemo wrote: post #60
mmastrac wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a logo that is more strongly associated with one political party than another, being worn by someone who is presumably armed and in a position of authority. If you cannot see why this is a problem, I don't think I can explain it any more.

There is a difference between being in bad taste and being illegal.

??? do you really not get it?

If I wear a shirt with MEDICARE FOR ALL, GREEN NEW DEAL (or SUPPORT ACA and REJOIN PARIS ACCORDS) on it, that's clear partisan support. That's illegal. Thin blue line flags and "support our troops" are out of place and it's two-faced to pretend it isn't just a signal of partisan support. These are some of the major party issues.

Bad taste has nothing to do with it. If someone wears a SUPPORT THE CURRENT PRESIDENT shirt, that's support of Trump, not endorsement of the concept of government or something nonpartisan.

Re: My experience as a poll worker in Pennsylvania

#135

Post by drilldrive »

Der_Einzige wrote: post #23
estebank wrote: post #13

As a non-citizen who had a chance to observe how the process works in California, I was struck by how little emphasis is put in the secrecy of the vote. The whole system looks reasonable except for how easy it can be for poll workers to know what you voted for. Beyond that, the system is clearly geared towards increasing participation and enfranchising as many people as possible (a good thing in a democratic system).

They have an optional secret ballot in all the votes. So does oregon who was doing vote by mail before it was cool...

Oregon has one of the worst voter-registration online systems in the country however, a date of birth + residency will give access to party registration of the individual, alongside some other information I believe.

Re: My experience as a poll worker in Pennsylvania

#136

Post by tgb »

m0zg wrote: post #125

Biden only gets lucky in PA a full day after that if you look at vote share per batch, well after in-person votes are counted, and the later you go, the luckier he gets. The pattern is the same in every swing state except Arizona, and in Virginia as well. If you plot out Edison data that has vote count updates, in "normal" states (both Biden and Trump dominant), things are chaotic initially (when in-person votes are…

This was literally predicted ahead of time based off the known demographics of the regions and the time it would take to count the ballots in different counties and the expected differences between in-person and mail-in ballots. It's absolutely misinformation to pretend that this is suspicious and should be investigated.

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/why-pennsylvanias-vote-...

Re: My experience as a poll worker in Pennsylvania

#137

Post by DeRock »

m0zg wrote: post #125

Biden only gets lucky in PA a full day after that if you look at vote share per batch, well after in-person votes are counted, and the later you go, the luckier he gets. The pattern is the same in every swing state except Arizona, and in Virginia as well. If you plot out Edison data that has vote count updates, in "normal" states (both Biden and Trump dominant), things are chaotic initially (when in-person votes are…

Its not "lucky" at all, this was an orchestrated outcome. Theres 2 components to this:

1. Mail in ballots were heavily partisan. The president made a point to instruct Republican voters to vote in person, and not by mail. And many other correlated factors (eg. COVID and social distancing has also been heavily politicized, influencing whether a voter would vote in person vs mail in).

2. Mail in ballots were delayed. This happened both legally (https://www.npr.org/2020/10/14/922202497/in-swing-states-law...), as well as though strategic dismantling of USPS mail processing facilities.

And now this pre-meditated orchestration, set up by a Republican president and Republican State house, is being used as evidence of some grand conspiracy. Its not, and has been predictable for months now, with countless news articles about it.

Re: My experience as a poll worker in Pennsylvania

#138

Post by maxerickson »

dx87 wrote: post #15

This part seems incorrect: > There are strict laws regulating police and poll workers while the polls are open. Police are not allowed within 100 feet of the polling location, unless they're actively voting or there on official business at the request of the election board. Additionally, anyone working at the polls in an official capacity is not allowed to wear any clothing with political messaging. One of the office…

It's not just the flag, it's a stylized flag blended with the oath. Which is much more political than a plain flag.

A simpler example might be a flag with 52 stars. It's blatantly political, even though it would likely be harder to notice than the hoodie I looked up.

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/119415827607659191/

(whether that's the exact same hoodie, who knows, but it matches the description close enough)

Re: My experience as a poll worker in Pennsylvania

#139

Post by no-dr-onboard »

mmastrac wrote: post #34
dx87 wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A "thin blue line" flag also doesn't fit any of the banned criteria. You guys are basically saying that supporting police and military is only done by republicans.

It's a logo that is more strongly associated with one political party than another, being worn by someone who is presumably armed and in a position of authority. If you cannot see why this is a problem, I don't think I can explain it any more.

For some reason I can't imagine many people utilizing that sort of logic with the transgender flag on a hat.

Re: My experience as a poll worker in Pennsylvania

#140

Post by m0zg »

tgb wrote: post #136
m0zg wrote: post #125

Biden only gets lucky in PA a full day after that if you look at vote share per batch, well after in-person votes are counted, and the later you go, the luckier he gets. The pattern is the same in every swing state except Arizona, and in Virginia as well. If you plot out Edison data that has vote count updates, in "normal" states (both Biden and Trump dominant), things are chaotic initially (when in-person votes are…

This was literally predicted ahead of time based off the known demographics of the regions and the time it would take to count the ballots in different counties and the expected differences between in-person and mail-in ballots. It's absolutely misinformation to pretend that this is suspicious and should be investigated. https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/why-pennsylvanias-vote-...

Why is this not happening in non-swing states other than Virginia? And why does Biden's luck improve over time when _only_ mail in ballots are counted?
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