Write Team: A day at the polls in America

I worked as a judge for the 2024 General Election a few weeks ago. It was a long day.

We set up Monday night along with election judges from a precinct that shares our polling place. We put up two rows of tables and chairs, a single set of informative bulletins on an easel. We set up a row for marking the ballots, taped signs on the front door and unpacked papers and materials we would use the next day.

At 5 a.m. the next day, workers from each precinct set up their pollbook, a tablet computer with a label printer attached, while others unpacked and assembled the shared equipment; a new touchscreen voting machine that is handicapped accessible, voting booths and a new optical scanner that we call the tabulator. You know it as the machine where you feed your marked paper ballot. From the new tabulator, now turned on and working, we printed and individually signed a printout that indicated zero votes cast.

Finally, each precinct broke the seals on their own carton of individual ballots to hand out to voters. Election judges from each precinct separately raised their right hands, repeating and swearing aloud to uphold the election judge oath. By 6 a.m. we were ready.

Illinois has had elections dating back to 1818, when the state was formed. Election procedures change over the years, but old traditions remain. When I heard this one as a judge at my first election, I thought the experienced judges were pulling my leg.

An older veteran election judge handed me a short script and told me to go outside the door and announce the polls were open. I read the script and looked back at her.

“Really?”

“Yeah, really. Bark it out nice and loud.”

“OK.”

I stood outside the door and yelled, to an empty neighborhood.

“Hear ye, hear ye the polls are now open!” Crickets.

When I did it at our last election three men standing in the parking lot. One replied.

“About time. I’ve been waiting four years for this.”

They walked in, signed their applications for a ballot, and after being cleared as eligible voters, made their way to the voting booths. We were off and running.

We had expected a large turnout, but when we saw the long list of early voters we thought perhaps not. We were wrong. I haven’t checked the turnout of our precinct or La Salle County’s but given our experience that Tuesday, I wouldn’t be surprised if it was a record. We had a steady stream of voters all day.

The polls close at 7 p.m. but the work is not over. Both precincts took down the voting booths, packed up the equipment, and turned to the most important task of the day: separating the ballots by precinct and counting them. Totals from the pollbook, the spindled signed applications, a hand count of paper ballots, and the tabulator must match.

They didn’t. All other totals matched, but the tabulator total was three over. Nothing could explain it - spoiled ballots, provisional votes, etc. Early in the day the tabulator kept jamming and we called for help. A representative from the tabulator company helped us and it improved. But we couldn’t sign off. We called the County Clerk’s office for guidance.

We were told all judges from both precincts needed to come to the courthouse on Etna Road and run the ballots through another tabulator there. Did we want to go? No. It was already late. Did we go? Yes. We had promised to provide an accurate count of all votes cast and we had to resolve the problem.

One judge from our precinct gave me each ballot one by one and I inserted them into the tabulator while the others watched. It took a while. We had 272 voters. As I put the ballots in, I thought of all the people who marked their choices. First time voters, voters with their little kids, adult children with their elderly parents. Each trusted their vote would be counted accurately. The other precinct did the same. The second time through the tabulator total equaled the others. We signed the tapes and our day wasw.

Put the results of the election aside and consider the process. As a country we’ve spent four years arguing about election security. All elections are locally run and staffed by your neighbors who undergo training and strive to make them fair and accurate. What do you say we have some faith in each other?

Dave McClure lives in Ottawa. He is a long-retired director of a local private agency. He is also a blogger. You can read more of Dave at Daveintheshack.blogger.com