My experience as a poll worker in Pennsylvania • Hacker News Board

Re: My experience as a poll worker in Pennsylvania

#171

Post by Fnoord » Tue, Nov 10, 2020, 10:59 PM UTC

tych0 wrote: post #46

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…

I was a poll worker in Denver, and the way it was explained to me was: you can't wear anything referencing stuff on the ballot. So for example you can wear a shirt that says "{Black|Blue} Lives Matter" because there's nothing about whose lives matter on the ballot. Same with a MAGA hat. But you can't wear a shirt that says "Vote no on 2A", or "Trump 2020", because those people/issues are on the ballot. Denver != Penn…

Say there's a vote on decriminalizing marihuana (from what I understood this happened in some states). Are you then allowed to walk around with a weed leaf t-shirt? What if its a band logo called The Amazing Cannabis with a bunch of happy leaves smoking a joint? What if its a flag in colours red/green/yellow with a black weed logo on it?

Re: My experience as a poll worker in Pennsylvania

#172

Post by dragonwriter » Tue, Nov 10, 2020, 11:02 PM UTC

m0zg wrote: post #143

DeRock wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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. T…

Did this only happen in swing states and VA though? And why does drift happen _well after_ in-person vote is already counted? And do you have data to support your point #1? Because people claim that, but I don't really see any evidence to support the claim.

> Did this only happen in swing states and VA though?

I see no evidence that this is the case, but certainly you'd expect differences in the apparent pattern based on state ballot counting procedures. Swing states get a lot more attention, and in addition, the swing states where the effect has been noticed plus Virginia all delay even the beginning of mail-in ballot processing to election day, some not allowing ballot counts of mail-in ballots until after the polls close. So, that forces any systematic differences in mail-in ballots to also produce aystematic differences in vote count over time, whereas systems where the mail-in ballots are preprocessed well before election day and have no required delay after the polls close for counting don't systematically create that issue.

Re: My experience as a poll worker in Pennsylvania

#173

Post by takeda » Tue, Nov 10, 2020, 11:03 PM UTC

jpttsn wrote: post #103

kettro wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Rastafarianism is a religion. I assume religious attire is not restricted.

Is it religious attire if the person wearing it is not religious?

I think argument was that it was worn by an official.

If it was a police officer wearing that or a poll worker, that's not acceptable. If it was a voter in act of voting it is fine.

Re: My experience as a poll worker in Pennsylvania

#174

Post by dragonwriter » Tue, Nov 10, 2020, 11:03 PM UTC

m0zg wrote: post #140

tgb wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

> Why is this not happening in non-swing states other than Virginia?

On what basis do you say its not?

Re: My experience as a poll worker in Pennsylvania

#175

Post by throwaway377383 » Tue, Nov 10, 2020, 11:03 PM UTC

stouset wrote: post #64

tych0 wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was a poll worker in Denver, and the way it was explained to me was: you can't wear anything referencing stuff on the ballot. So for example you can wear a shirt that says "{Black|Blue} Lives Matter" because there's nothing about whose lives matter on the ballot. Same with a MAGA hat. But you can't wear a shirt that says "Vote no on 2A", or "Trump 2020", because those people/issues are on the ballot. Denver != Penn…

MAGA hats wouldn’t be allowed (in California) since they’re official campaign merchandise and part of that campaign’s branding. Source: am an SF election inspector. That said, it’s all up to the specifics of state law.

You just publicly admitted to breaking California state election code.

The California Secretary of State specifically outlined that MAGA slogans and clothing were acceptable at polling places.[0]

[0] https://abc7.com/politics/ca-rules-allow-maga-hats-but-no-me...

Re: My experience as a poll worker in Pennsylvania

#176

Post by philjohn » Tue, Nov 10, 2020, 11:04 PM UTC

tomohawk wrote: post #149

Another POV: https://www.dailysignal.com/2020/11/06/a-pro-bono-lawyer-for...

And yet television pictures during the count refute pretty much everything this person is saying - there were poll watchers mere feet away from the people processing the ballots.

Re: My experience as a poll worker in Pennsylvania

#177

Post by greggyb » Tue, Nov 10, 2020, 11:06 PM UTC

grecy wrote: post #159

ddevault wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your party affiliation is a matter of public record, and you're not required to vote for your party. Not really a big deal IMO. Any attempt by the election workers to suppress your vote based on your answer would be trivially detected by a number of security checks.

> Your party affiliation is a matter of public record, and you're not required to vote for your party. Not really a big deal IMO Can I have affiliation for 'no party' ? Or better yet, never answer the question so the answer is NULL ?

I was obsessively watching this[0] (and several other) page during the last week.

The affiliations listed in that report are (in descending order of count (that count is mail-in ballots received)):

- Democratic

- Republican

- No Affiliation

- Other

- Libertarian

- Green

This is specific to PA, but we are talking in a thread about PA, so I think this is okay.

[0] https://www.votespa.com/About-Elections/Pages/Counting-Dashb...

Re: My experience as a poll worker in Pennsylvania

#178

Post by moduspol » Tue, Nov 10, 2020, 11:06 PM UTC

ddevault wrote: post #71

D13Fd wrote: post #26

This may be accurate for Philadelphia County -- I don't know -- but it is definitely not how voting worked in at least one other area of Pennsylvania. I'm not saying the person is lying, but they may be misinformed about the procedures applying across the entire state. (I'm also not saying anything is wrong with how it was done anywhere in PA.)

What were the differences?

I voted in Allegheny County. We filled in bubbles on paper, and then at the end, put our ballots in what looked like a scantron machine. It had a screen with a simple confirmation message (something like "thank you for voting") that lit up after it scanned your ballot. I also wasn't asked my party affiliation.

Re: My experience as a poll worker in Pennsylvania

#179

Post by chrisseaton » Tue, Nov 10, 2020, 11:06 PM UTC

sk5t wrote: post #33

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…

> I'd probably get upset as well if some poll worker tried to tell me I'm not allowed to wear the American flag on my clothes The flag of the United States is not adulterated with text or anything else in place of its stripes, stars, and field.

> The flag of the United States is not adulterated with text or anything else in place of its stripes, stars, and field.

I could give you a billion examples where it is. Just do a Google image search.

Re: My experience as a poll worker in Pennsylvania

#180

Post by toyg » Tue, Nov 10, 2020, 11:09 PM UTC

giantg2 wrote: post #109

ddevault wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is not a universally held belief.

Perhaps those with a contrary belief should review the UMJC, which restricts political statements/actions for military members, even off duty.

Sadly those lines are increasingly blurry. Isn’t there an issue right now with the new Secretary of Defence, for example, who technically has not been out of Green Berets long enough to be appointed...?