Absentee ballot (non-political)

techmom99
Sat, 22 Oct 2016 20:56:34 +0000

@alwaysamom -

The election I was referring to was a local election. One year, one candidate led by about 150 votes and there were 20 absentee ballots. They weren’t counted because they didn’t make a difference. Another year, one candidate was ahead by 5 votes and there were about a dozen absentee ballots. They were counted.

As for the poll watchers, they are more crazed in the local elections than the state or federal. They are credentialed by the party and the number who can be present at any time is limited. At the last local election, I had to call the police to remove one poll watcher who kept marching up to the voting table and challenging anyone who looked Hispanic. In one instance, she walked up and announced that she was challenging the person’s qualifications because they couldn’t speak English and the person hadn’t opened their mouth yet! I had her removed because she refused my directive to remain behind the taped line that had been put down for the poll watchers. I also had to have a poll watcher from the other party removed because he kept yelling that particular people were felons and not allowed to vote (only one actually turned out to be, but we had to give him an affidavit because we weren’t sure) but I was able to do that by speaking to one of the local officials of that party, who agreed that his poll watcher was out of line and told him to go home. The issue was not that he was challenging people but that he was screaming at and about people in the polling room after I told him to simply signal to me if he had someone he wanted to challenge.

I expect situations at this year’s election. In large part, it will be due to the fact that my polling place is a small room and there are 3 districts in it. There are about 5 - 6,000 registered voters in the district and there will be lines. If the electronic machines malfunction, as they are wont to do, it will be awful.