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Mar

4

Ohio poll worker training deficits impact voting


From Blue Bexley, who is located in a Columbus, Ohio suburb (thank you so much for blogging again):

I held Charlotte [his child] while my wife went up to the table. They found her name, checked her ID, took her to the machine, and she commenced voting. While I waited, a mother and son came up to the table, (This is not the important part, but it’s necessary for my conclusion) and the son indicated that he was 17 and planning to vote. The two pollworkers at the table conferred for a moment, with one asking whether he could vote for both affiliation and issues. They decided that they remembered that a 17 year old could not vote for both, so they were going to give him an issues-only ballot. I butted in at that point, saying that a 17 year old can only vote affiliation, there’s a special ballot. They looked up at me, and conferred again more quietly. Soon, a young female pollworker came over and discussed it with them, explaining that a 17-year old cannot vote on issues, and explaining how to get him his ballot.

At this point I wasn’t thrilled, but at least the pollworkers seemed to know what they didn’t really know, and the 17-year old vote is a bit quirky and particular to primaries. And, of course, a person who was obviously freshly trained and in command of the procedures was on the ball and made sure things worked correctly.

Then my wife finished, and I got to go up to the table. I gave my name and they asked for my ID. I gave it to them, and the woman with the book frowned and asked if I had something with my Bexley address. I replied that I didn’t need anything with my valid Bexley address, as they had the correct address in the book, and I had a valid Ohio Driver’s License. She insisted that the addresses needed to match. I asked the woman next to her – “You know that the address on a valid Ohio License doesn’t need to match the address in the pollbook, right?” She told me that I was wrong, they had to match.

Go read the rest, even if you don’t think you want and especially because you don’t think you want to.

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 2:01 pm March 4th, 2008 in 'Roots News, Blogging, Elections, Ohio, Politics, Primary, Voting 

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