Washblog

I know that at the time, as we were about to close up shop at my GOTV location, we were suddenly told to drop everything and help with ensuring that blank provisional ballots got to polling stations that had run out.  

Anyway, long story short, after some tension, it was made clear that they were going to be allowed to vote, since no irregularities could be found, and that was that.  A few neighborhood relationships probably suffered that day, since you're talking poll workers versus local party reps versus monetarily confused voters, but it was resolved.

Exit Polling

• Exit polling occurs when poll takers question voters about how they voted as they leave the polling place. No one is obliged to answer the questions of an exit poller. The exit pollers might be media representatives, representatives of political parties, or campaign workers.

• Exit polling may be conducted within 300 feet of the polling place but not within the actual polling place itself. It is the responsibility of poll takers to make arrangements with the polling place building owner. The polling place lease between King County Elections and the property owner does not cover exit polling activities.

• Exit pollers are prohibited from engaging in any activities that would interfere with the freedom of voters to enter or leave the polling place or to cast their vote.

• If told in advance that exit polling will be conducted at specific polling places, King County Elections staff will notify inspectors.

• On election day, call the help desk at 206-xxx-xxxx.

Poll watchers are appointed by political parties or campaigns and will often present an introductory letter to the inspector signed by the county party chair or campaign. [The intent here as I understand it is to distinguish between watchers, who are presumably there in a semi-official capacity and observers who are there on their own steam. Anyone can be an observer, you don't have to be sent by one of the campaigns or the parties. If there is a difference between the two, then it is in how we might escalate dealing with activities which were perceived to be inappropriate. -- FWM]

All observers and poll watchers may:

• Observe the voting process before, during or after voting hours.

• Copy voter names from the pages of the "Inspector's List of Precinct Voters", which are posted on the wall.

• Observe the opening or closing process only if they remain quiet at at least an arm's length away from the poll worker's tables.

• Handle ballots, poll books or interfere in any way with the voting process.

• Electioneer within 300 feet of the polling place entrance or exit.

• Remove any items from the poll worker's tables.

• Approach the privacy booths.

• Use a cellular phone in the polling place.

Observers from the media should check in with the polling place inspector to arrange to observe the voting process with the least possible disruption to voters. If media representatives contact the King County Elections office in advance of election day, Elections will do its best to notify you. [That means the inspectors. -- FWM] This is not always possible. As a courtesy to voters, please ensure that media representatives do not record or photograph voters unless the voter has granted permission to do so. Media observers must respect the privacy of the voting booth.

Note: As they are employees of King County on election day, images of poll workers may be used by the media without poll worker permission.

As an inspector, here's what I think; but if you ask me about it on election day my answer will be "I'll have to call the Help Desk and get back to you." Of course, anything I say here is subject to being overruled by specific instructions from King County Elections.

Don't bring your cellphone and expect to use it as a camera. I'll be glad to call the Help Desk and get a ruling, but my guess is they'll stand behind me when I say no.

I went and looked at http://www.videothevote.org/ and in particular their guidelines (unfortunately the link is yet another stupid Javascript popup, so there is no way to reference the URL here). They could change those guidelines, but my feeling would be that if somebody showed up with those guidelines printed, with contact information and signed to give to me (which I would include in the the incident report at the end of the day), plus a piece of i.d., I'd grant them the same courtesy as a party pollwatcher.

It seems to me that the activities of videoing the polls falls somewhere between exit polling and media.

Videoing in the polls while the polls are open, if it is going to record the voters, is only going to be done with their express permission; unless you manage to get the permission of all of the voters in the polling place. I can tell you that based on my experience that's probably not practical: I'm not going to prevent someone from walking in to vote in the middle of your recording and then you're going to have to turn off the camera unless and until you get their permission.

You still can't accompany the voter to the privacy booth, even with their permission. I'd be tempted to give the voter a privacy sleeve to keep their ballot hidden from the camera on its way from the privacy booth to the Accuvote (ballot drop).

If somebody encounters a problem with voting, I personally like the idea that they could record a video statement about their experience. As long as I've been a pollworker I've kept personal notes/logs, and this year King County Elections includes an incident reporting page at the front of every pollbook and we're encouraged to write on it about anything at all. I'd expect the actual videotaping to take place outside of the polling place itself, but you'd be welcome to observe inside the polling place for problems.

You can videotape the opening and closing activities. Better come early (5:30AM wouldn't be too early, I'll be arriving not much later than that) and expect to stay late.. Especially this year in Seattle, it is going to take a looooooooooooooong time to print those opening and closing tapes!

Election protection hotlines in depth

He has compiled a list of election protection hotlines and tested them. Pretty clever.