GREETINGS FROM BEDROCK

Everyone knows that the wheels of democracy sometimes move slowly but when it comes to the process of voting, the speed drops a notch or two more because the wheels on the democracy bus are made of rocks. In fact, the bus itself looks something like a vehicle that Fred Flintstone might have driven.

In actuality, we are not far removed from the days when a vote was cast by filling out a slip of paper and placing it in a box. The only difference now is that we cast our vote using a large expensive machine and at the end of the day, the machine prints a slip of paper. That paper is then processed in a number of ways by humans who eventually place it in an envelope and then into a box.

Here's a more detailed peek behind the curtain of a very arcane process.

At 8:00 pm, the deputy constable executes his only real act of the day by checking the front door to see if anyone is still in "line" waiting to vote. Since there has been nothing resembling a line all day, it is not too remarkable that no one is outside. He closes the door, officially closing the polling station.

At this time, the polling supervisor turns the key on each of 3 voting machines to begin the tallying process. Each machine begins to generate a 5 foot long paper (think cash register receipt) which lists every candidate on the ballot along with a count of the number of votes received by each candidate along with the write-ins entered for that position and the number of votes not cast for that position (by all voters using that machine). This paper prints at the rate of approximately 10 characters per second. (I hope you can grasp how slow this is).

Each machine prints its list in triplicate (or more - I may have dozed off at some point). The printing process takes about 15-20 minutes.

While this is happening, absentee ballots are unsealed, opened and tabulated in a random fashion so as to protect the identity of each voter from the list of who they voted for. If there are many absentee ballots, each ballot is read aloud, candidate by candidate, and all of us do a stroke count for EACH candidate and each ballot. At the end, we add the numbers separately and compare our counts with each other for consistency. In last year's presidential election, we did this for 22 ballots and often needed to resolve discrepancies.

By this time, the machines have completed the first set of voting summaries and they are brought to a table where committee people from each party sum the totals of each of the 3 machines - by hand. The summary counts are written on paper, verified, cross certified and passed around for everyone to sign.

Write in names are added to the paper along with the total votes each received. As usual, Homer Simpson received a write-in vote, this time for one of the judicial positions.

Each machine has a counter - and in the case of primary elections, a separate count for each party. The numbers are recorded at the start of the day and at the end of the day. The difference is taken (total votes cast) and compared to the hand summed totals (total votes accounted for). Any discrepancy needs to be documented and explained.

Usually during this time, to lighten the mood and keep us going at the end of a long day, someone reads the tabulation instructions that the state has provided -- to give us something to laugh at.

More forms are filled out, signed and together with the machine receipts, placed in large manila enveloped and sealed.

The set of envelopes are put in a box and someone drives to the county office where the votes are further counted and combined with the counts from every other voting location in the county (again, without the use of any technology more sophisticated than an adding machine). The process continues in some fashion onward and upward to the state and the national levels (if appropriate).


That's about it... something to consider the next time the subjects of voting reform and/or electronic voting comes up.