Thursday, August 2, 2012

In Anticipation of the August 14th Primary, my election judge training

I recently signed up for and attended the election official training in our county so that I could serve as an election judge in the upcoming primary and general elections this year.
The training was incredibly well organized, well conducted, well staffed.  We had hands on time with not only using the required election equipment, but trouble shooting it as well for any of the usual problems. (The automark voting machine is particularly impressive.)
We were familiarized with all the possible forms for voter registration, precinct finding practice, and were familiarized with all of the various oaths that go with the different forms and their function.  It was very interesting stuff; it was fun to see that a couple of the other people in the class also had been volunteers for the 2010 Governor's race recount.
That experience - the recount - started out as a somewhat tense experience, but by lunch, volunteers from both parties observing the recount had come together.  There was a lot of hard work put in, but also a more pleasant give and take, laughing, joking and pleasant banter that grew as the day went on, as people could see that neither side was trying to pull anything or do anything underhanded.  The GOP volunteers early on DID, as was reported elsewhere, try to challenge ballots that really were not even remotely challenge worthy in the count.  But as the scrutiny made them look foolish and unreasonable, that tapered off rapidly. 
As partisan polarization and partisan politics, particularly dirty politics, causes more and more division, and as I see the right wing media and blogosphere, and especially the parties and their politicians try to generate fear, distrust and suspicion, and in particular as I see them circulate misinformation (unintentionally erroneous content) and disinformation (deliberately erroneous content), I hope to see the same pleasant and happy polling places in my county that has always characterized elections.  In that vein, one of the subjects of our election training included some of the stories from the LAST election that received a lot of public attention - but that were FALSE.  Unfortunately the false accusation fuss gets a lot more attention than the outcome of investigations and the truth does.
I am very impressed by our county auditor; and I have no idea what his politics are - nor do I care.  He clearly knows his job, is used to dealing with difficult people, and with actions that could result in his finding himself part of a court case over an election.  He is down to earth, and intensely factual, both qualities I admire and respect.  One of the topics of interest covered was the enforcement of not having campaign materials inside the polling place; apparently wearing political buttons or clothing while voting is something currently involved in a court case.
I was particularly intrigued when we were covering the topic of challenges to a voter having the right to vote - a challenge can be because someone known to the challenger is not 18, or is not a citizen, or not a resident of a precinct where they are attempting to vote,  or because of their status as a felon, or because they are not eligible to vote because their right to vote was taken away as part of being placed under a guardianship because of some form of incapacity.  Voter roll purging - it is automatic if you haven't voted in the last four years for example - was another topic.  We have a much more fair, honest, and accurate method than some southern states like Florida where their purges appear to be intended to alter the outcome of electiosn by disenfranchising legal voters who would likely vote for democratic candidates and initiatives.
In light of the pending Minnesota Constitutional amendments - we received copies - which would change our practice of voting, one of the instances of a voter being challenged in a previous election was brought up for educational purposes.  In that case, one of the election judges knew the person, and knew they were voting fraudulently.  The judge specifically knew that the voter owned property in the precinct but did not live in the precinct; however the voter had a utility bill for that property in the voter's name, which entitled the voter - with photo ID required by MN law to do so - to vote.  The voter was given the benefit of the doubt, and allowed to vote --- BUT the case was submitted to the county attorney's office.  The outcome of the county attorney's investigation was not clarified in the class, nor was it clarified if the person who made the challenged vote ALSO voted or not in the precinct where they actually resided.
What it did clarify for me was one more case where photo ID is ineffective in preventing voter fraud. We covered examples of where someone's ID would not reflect a change of address for voting purposes, such as a voter having moved into hospice for the final days of a terminal illness.  I'm looking forward to the upcoming elections, and I hope that we have our usual good Minnesota turnouts.   What I took away from my election judge training was not only more in-depth information on top of what I had learned about our election process from previous elections, but also a deep faith from what I learned about how we hold those elections that our elections ARE honest, that we DO have more than adequate safeguards in place, more than the average voter is aware of -- and that's too bad in a way.  Because there is a lot of unfounded suspicion about our elections that is not warranted.  There were a lot of people in my class session - and that class session was only one of eighteen sessions training people over a period of a month or so. 
If you are concerned about election fraud - go vote, but more than that, go take the training to be an election judge, and go serve your community.  One of the aspects of the 2010 recount that I found so striking was the difference in how the experience was described by the Republican election judges, versus the right wing fanatics who insisted on believing without any evidence to support them that fraud was taking place.  Same politics, same facts...........but facts did not make a difference to the conspiracy fantasy crowd.
Fight the fantasy with facts. Fight the conspiracy theories with volunteering.  Our democracy is participatory --- PARTICIPATE!  Don't sit on your behind, don't expect someone else to do it for you, and don't whine, accuse - or make up shit.  Participate!

And a little appreciation for whomever your county auditor/treasurer isn't a bad idea; whatever their political party, if they do a good job they put up with some incredibly long hours, tedious and meticulous accuracy, and a lot of unpleasant people.  I think some of them should qualify for a sort of secular sainthood for what they are put through by our citizens.

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