Have any of you ever tried applying ocamās razor to this?
My thoughts from a poll workers point of view.
1) provisional ballots are an organized nightmare. They are time consuming, and leave lots of room for error. My own true story. Three years ago I
moved to my new home and forgot to change my registration, So I had to vote provisional. No big deal, took about 15 minutes. The next time I went to
vote I wasnāt on the roll at my new polling place. Was I victim of republican foul play or some vast right wing conspiracy? No, I doubt it. My
change of address card didnāt get processed. Iām chalking it up to human error. That means more than likely my provisional ballot would not have
been counted.
2) There isnāt just one provisional ballot for everyone. They are individually made for each precincts political subdivisions. In our case we can
have as many 7 depending on school districts and fire districts that may or may not have ballot initiatives. This introduces even more opportunities
for errors as they all have different boundaries. Sometimes itās right down the middle af street. So normally if I find out a person isnāt showing
up in the system I refer them to the provisional person. However itās my job to figure out where they are supposed to vote. So I send them on to the
next person with a slip of paper that has that info. Itās not uncommon for a person to get their ballot done only to find out they have to go
somewhere else. Usually school district misinfo. So did they intentionally vote twice for malicious reasons? Nope. This happens, once again you may
not think about it, but there are a lot of bounderies, and some only matter every now and then. So chances are if someone were to vote twice thatās
the reason. Iām going to be honest. I donāt know how they deal with those. I think they all get sent and the boe gets to deal with it. I stay as
far away from provisionals as I can.
3) elections only happen twice a year. Maybe three if there is a special election. So we only perform our jobs a couple times a year. So itās not
like we are a well oiled machine that executes in perfection at every step. We are pretty darn good. But we make mistakes. Heres an example that could
perhaps, be misconstrued if one wanted to put us under a microscope. Sometimes the tape on the machines jams and has to be replaced. There are rules
that need followed to replace it. If we are slammed sometimes the first available person will āfixā the problem and the printed material could and
does get misplaced, and sometimes thrown away if severely damaged. The old reel may not get properly marked and stored properly. I know this sounds
simple but if you wanted to really put us under the microscope this could be chalked up to something it isnāt.
4) Poll workers donāt make the determination of the legitimacy of a ballot. We follow the guidelines set by the boe. The boe makes the determination
as far as legitimacy is concerned.
5) The areas in fla with a relatively high provisional ballots come from strike me as areas where a lot of the people may be barely literate. This
makes the likely hood of a mistake pretty dog gone high.
6) Something you probably didnāt know is. Provisional ballots are only counted if they can influence an election outcome, so quite frankly. If you
vote provisional around here itās likely your vote is never counted. And hence there isnāt an outcry of voter fraud because something doesnāt
match up to what itās suposed to be.
7) when you work the polls you work the entire 14-15 hour shift. The āexpertā provisional person takes breaks and others fill in, and believe me
they make a lot of mistakes. So itās possible for ballot stuff to end up in the wrong place. It happens.
8) We arenāt election professionals per se. I signed up via the state elections website when I submitted my previous change of address. One day a
card showed up in the mail and said show up here at this time. So I did. It was all balls to the wall on the job training. So itās not like you have
thousands of dedicated professionals who only live to serve you. Itās mostly people that do it for an extra couple hundred bucks.
9) the main reason this seems to keep happening in fla in my opinion comes down to money. Provisional ballots cost money. Counting them requires
humans and that means billable hours. This all costs money.
10) finally at the end of a very long day you get to pack it all up by yourselves. You didnāt think these polling stations set themselves up did
you? No they donāt. We do it all. Pick it up at the boe, set it up, operate it, tear it down, and then take it back. My typical day starts at 5 am
and I get home around 11:30 that night. By the end of the day we are all fatigued. Itās a mentally draining gig. The chances of something getting
put in the wrong place at the end of the night is pretty high. Am I talking hop shod just throwing things in with no regard. No not at all. Itās
more like someone who is barely walking and talking from fatigue misunderstands an order. If someone with an agenda were to open up our package they
could fine many āirregularitiesā that could be twisted to fit someoneās agenda. When in reality is just a dozen people doing the best they can
do.
I feel they need to elect someone new in that county, but I almost guarantee you that the problem will remain. Itās the nature of the beast. Until
they overhaul the system from the top down itās not going away anytime soon as far as Florida is concerned.
a reply to:
ConspiracyofRavens
edit on 13-11-2018 by soundguy because: (no reason given)
edit on 13-11-2018 by soundguy because: (no reason given)