Treat Election Day Like A Blizzard is Coming

[KTemplar]

IdeometerPrisoner:


Here’s my predictions:


President Trump isn’t going to start mass deportations, he’s going to shut the money spicket off, which will encourage the bad intended crossers to leave on their own. I have met a couple of Mexican people who are hard workers and very grateful to be here. Let’s keep them!

I’m also hoping for police to be able to do their jobs, crime, drivers without licenses/insurance, violent offenders locked up! Yay!


Abortion: Here we go, the Democrats only non-talking point. Let me fix it for them.

People can buy emergency contraception drugs over the counter now. Contraceptives are not hard to get, but if people for whatever reason still want an abortion, they can get one (It is up to their state).

I would personally love to see the Russia/Ukraine conflict end, else it will end up here.
How many people have to die, with the use of our tax dollars paying for it. I’m NOT ok with that!

NATO needs to pay their fair share. No offense Brits, but we Bostonians already threw your tea in the water over your taxation. Have we learned nothing.

This country needs to be more self sufficient, we barely make anything here. We need a strong, unwavering business /freedom minded President and that President is Donald J Trump.

[FlyersFan]

I don't see it getting particularly dangerous until after Jan 25th

I see two times problems could break out.

Election ... when the decision is made and a winner is declared.

Inauguration day ... with the big crowd on Capitol Hill.

I don't think Inauguration Day would be as bad as Election Day when the winner is declared.  By Inauguration Day, the reality should sink in and people should be more used to the idea of the winner being who it is.  

At any rate .... the day before election day ... I"m going grocery shopping and getting the cars gassed up.   And I"m going to PetSmart and getting more dog food.   The prescriptions just got refilled so we'll be good there.  And I'll do all the stuff around the house like laundry in case it gets really bad and the lights go out.   Like I said ... I'm pretending this is a blizzard coming and I'm going to do everything that I would do ahead of time for a blizzard.

[IdeomotorPrisoner]

@KT

Suppose there is a semi-legal family (parents immigrant, kids naturalized) that is illegal but law-abiding, I'd much rather prefer they get their meal ticket to HHS rescinded than split apart like the first time. That is subdued from what was promised or expected and would temper my feeling that he's an archetypal antichrist.

I don't much like the prospect of going after the illegal gardener to get the asylee Venezuelan, so what you say would be appreciated.

To see him throttle back after winning and moderate a bit from what he said in the campaign would be welcome.

[xuenchen]

Get ready to see false flags blaming MAGA for poll interruptions and chaos. We already have polling places claiming they need to prepare for violence - all part of the setup. 

Ballot transportation may also be targeted 

 

[UltraBudgie]

Oh dear I though I was going to perhaps be able to return to reading the newspaper sometime in November or December, but from the way you guys are talking it looks like it's going to be like January or February, isn't it?  The exploitation has gone full-time year-round it seems.

[putnam6]

As an election judge, I'm getting stressed out about this election.  There's going to be a HUGE turnout.  I don't have enough clerks.  And I'm worried about free-range "poll watchers" who have appointed themselves monitors (we have a process in Texas if you want to become a poll watcher) and haven't bothered to actually go through the steps to be a real poll watcher.

I will be setting up my voting site with preparations on what to do if someone comes in with a gun or if there's a bomb threat.  I'll have to talk with the site (it's a senior citizens center) about fire escape routes and then let my clerks know about emergency procedures.

NOTHING may happen (likeliest scenario) - but I have to plan for the "just in case" option. 

I will be SO glad when the election is over.

Thats pretty cool but what is an election judge? Do you set up a specific precinct? You don't have early voting yet or is that just at specific locations

Regardless yes you have a responsibility to be prepared. Good to hear we have people of intelligence and integrity involved thats makes me feel better, and it's indicative of Texas. 

I might have to tell my daughter who is a teacher to do the same.

Though I also believe the chances are slim all it takes is one incident. Hopefully, the huge mail-in and early voting will make it easier and more normal. 

Lots of people I talk with just want a nice normal election and hope all sides turn down the smears and rhetoric 
Our political discourse has devolved to where it's become its worst form, again both sides. 

Locally and statewide we have had a huge early voting and mail-ins, supposedly over 20% of registered voters that hs to help lower the chaos and potential problems with long lines. 

Hopefully, the TPTB learned how to be more efficient in the last 3 1/2 years, if states didn't learn from Florida in 2000 thats on each state's government. 

Florida had chaos and fixed it all while being a hotly-contested state all of it was done with BIPARTISAN legislation fopr the greater good of the state and all of its citizens.

But of course, in 2000 both sides looked at the chaos as an embarrassment, whereas now the party with the most control looks at it as an opportunity to force legislation beneficial to their side.

[Byrd]

Thats pretty cool but what is an election judge? Do you set up a specific precinct? You don't have early voting yet or is that just at specific locations

Regardless yes you have a responsibility to be prepared. Good to hear we have people of intelligence and integrity involved thats makes me feel better, and it's indicative of Texas. 

I might have to tell my daughter who is a teacher to do the same.

Though I also believe the chances are slim all it takes is one incident. Hopefully, the huge mail-in and early voting will make it easier and more normal. 

Lots of people I talk with just want a nice normal election and hope all sides turn down the smears and rhetoric 
Our political discourse has devolved to where it's become its worst form, again both sides. 

Locally and statewide we have had a huge early voting and mail-ins, supposedly over 20% of registered voters that hs to help lower the chaos and potential problems with long lines. 

Hopefully, the TPTB learned how to be more efficient in the last 3 1/2 years, if states didn't learn from Florida in 2000 thats on each state's government. 

Florida had chaos and fixed it all while being a hotly-contested state all of it was done with BIPARTISAN legislation fopr the greater good of the state and all of its citizens.

But of course, in 2000 both sides looked at the chaos as an embarrassment, whereas now the party with the most control looks at it as an opportunity to force legislation beneficial to their side.

When you walk into a polling place, look around at the machines and tables and everything in the area.  The election judge is the one who sets them up... sometimes single-handedly.  We are the "boss" of a polling location and when there's problems, it's up to us to solve them and get it right (the state will hold us accountable.)

Now, the procedures I know are for Texas, but I have reason to believe that they're similar all across the board.  I now have a regular site but at one time I was a "floater" and went to whatever polling location within 30 miles here in Dallas that needed a judge.

===============
(NB: I'm the Democrat judge and there will be a Republican judge working with me. I'm the "head honcho" mainly because she prefers to NOT be the one in the "hot seat.")

3 weeks before election, I go to a 4 hour training and refresher course put on by the elections board where they remind us of procedures, hand us the thick (at least 100 pages) book and answer questions.

The week before the election (next week) I'll go talk to the people responsible for the site and go over the schedule (when I'll be setting up, so I don't interfere with their work) and contact my assigned clerks to tell them when to be at our location (and offer them the chance if they want to (paid) help me set up the site.  I'll remind them to bring meds, food, drinks, and remind them of the "don't use your cell phone" rule.

Sunday I'll go to the Election Supply Pick Up and get my orange Judge Supply Case and enough clerk terminals for my clerks.

Monday afternoon (at my location) I'll set up.  They deliver a huge box that's the tabulator (it and the voting machines are shown here: https://www.votemanatee.com/Election-Inf...xpressVote) and a big blue cabinet that holds the election supplies.  My clerk (I volunteered my daughter) and I will set up the Expressvote machines (they're delivered in the Big Blue Cabinet.  I have to haul them out and put them together (ours come with an integrated table and legs and they weigh about 25 lbs each It'll look like this) and then turn them on and make sure they work. 

I have to get out the wireless router and plug it in, then set up the clerks' terminals (here they are, sitting in the warehouse)and make sure THEY turn on as well as setting up their ballot printers (and making sure those turn on) and then set up the judges' table with my own clerk terminal, the procedures book, the cell phone that has direct lines to the Judge Help Line, Voter Registration, and other things.  I set up the machine for handicapped voters -- this is the one we take to the car if someone can't physically get into the building

If there's a problem with any of them, I call tech support, muy pronto.

Then I secure the area, lock the door, go home and contemplate my sins... err... get out the clothes I'll need and pack my lunch and premake coffee for the morning.  I'll need lots.

I roll out of bed on election day at 5 am, fumble around and get myself dressed, and arrive at the polling location at 6 am.  Some clerks will be there (they all have to be there by 7 am.)  Once there are witnesses, I swear myself in and swear the clerks in. I go over the checklist with them and we turn on the machines. 

The Republican judge and I break the seals on the tabulator (showing that I got it exactly as it came from the warehouse) and record the seal numbers AND put the seal in a special envelope to be returned. The big tabulator has to do a "zero printout" ... three copies of what's store in its database.  It will print out the name of everyone on the ballot as well as the number of any proposition on the ballot.  I can only do this when my Republican colleague is around because they have to verify the printout, watch it being printed and verify the zero count.  I will also go over safety measures with the clerks.  

The clerks put up the signage around the building and inside the building ("vote here") and the distance markers ("you are welcome to your opinion, but you can't electioneer beyond this point... and by the way, you can't wear campaign/candidate material inside this limit.")  And the feather flag.This is a feather flag. We hates it, Precious. We hates it.

If there's problems, call tech support and go "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!"  (and yes, I've had to do that on several occasions)

At 7 am on the dot, we open for business.

If there's a huge line, I'll check people in but mostly I'm there for crowd control and problem solving.  If the equipment dies or has problems, I get to deal with it.  If someone can't be found in the register of voters, I have to call headquarters and figure out why... if they're entitled to vote, I go through the provisional ballot procedures and let them vote.  If there's someone who's frail or in pain in line, I can allow them to jump the line.  I show people where to insert the ballots in the tabulator.  I de-escalate situations and can call the Marshals if things get bad.  I check the certification for poll watchers and shoo away people not authorized to linger.

When the monitors from the election committee show up (they check on us to see if we need anything and if the machines are okay), I'm the one who signs off on the forms.

The other judge and I will step in and take over clerk stations to allow them to rotate out for quick bathroom break or quick bite of lunch (many will eat at the desk.)

At 7pm, I go out and collect everyone in the parking lot and bring them inside.  Anyone showing up at 7:01 or later can't vote because I've locked the door (election rules.)

AFTER voting is done (which can be very late if there's huge lines), the clerks go out and take down the signage.  I start closing out the tabulator and tell the thing to print.  It prints a HUGE long list in triplicate.  My Republican colleague and I sign each of those copies.  We shut down all the machines and pack them away.  I fill out a million forms in quadruplicate (carbon copies...and maybe it's not a million but at midnight it sure feels like it.)  Then I find the right envelopes for each of those copies and distribute them so that I have one set, and the others go back to the state and county.  I have to keep mine for 2 years.

Student clerks with strict bedtimes are dismissed.

I go over the closing checklist (about 100 items, and I'm not kidding) and take the lovely orange Judges Case plus the clerk terminals plus the wireless router back to the Election Pick Up spot and wait my turn.  

The folks on the receiving end (who probably won't get to bed before 7 am) check me in and if ANYthing is missing (no matter how small), I have to drive back to the site and fetch it.  So... believe me, I make sure that EVERYTHING is there in the car.

Then I go home and FallOverDeadTHUD!



and that's how my election day in Texas will go.

[UltraBudgie]

and that's how my election day in Texas will go.

thank you thank you thank you this is great very norman rockwell and really gives such an anticynical feeling that i won't even make the joke i was going to make and that is a blessing for everyone!

[putnam6]

and that's how my election day in Texas will go.

Well, we know that one precinct has it sh--- together, thank you for that. It can't be easy at all I hope the compensation is enough 

My sister worked at a polling precinct in her county for years, for years it had one precinct for the whole county, so your situation sounds so much more complex. 

I noticed the voting machine is like what they use in Florida, again Florida is the gold standard in holding elections.

Isn't it weird big massive states like Florida and Texas seem to run elections much more smoothly than other states? 

Hope it all goes smoothly everywhere, especially at your location...

PS Ive worked trade shows with the feather flags but they were mostly indoors and on stands so we only have to put them up and take them down once.

Are they the ones where you have to slide the rod through the little tiny sleeve the whole length of the flag?

[Byrd]

Are they the ones where you have to slide the rod through the little tiny sleeve the whole length of the flag?

Ah yep.  And the rod comes in three pieces and they're not necessarily obviously matched.  And sometimes they've gotten into a brawl and positively loathe each other.

We hates 'em, Precious.  We does.