Barn Quilt

 

More snow flurries this morning and the ruts I made in the snow have frozen solid.  Really solid.  The drive out was a bit bumpy till I found my 'groove' (so to speak).  Chief Inspector Barb and I ran through the Public Test of the tabulator, verified the results, applied locks to the machine so the cartridges/printer/bin couldn't be messed with before the election and then sat down to talk.   From a poll workers viewpoint, this election will be a trifecta of complications.  First there is the partisan Presidential Preference race.  That means a voter can pick a Democrat or a Republican but not both.  It's likely we'll have people who will make that mistake and need a new ballot.  To make it even more confusing for the voters the names of those contenders who have long since dropped out of the race are still on the ballot.  Second there are two Referenda.   Referenda are never written to be easily read or immediately understood.  That process will take time for those voters who haven't checked out what will be on the ballot ahead of time.  Worst, both referenda are printed on the back of the ballot so, as poll workers, we'll need to remind voters to turn the ballot over.  Third, this ballot also contains the race for County Board member.  As you know, I've been furious ever since the county ripped off two sections of the town and put them in other wards. That means we have three different 'varieties' of the same ballot and it's imperitive that we give the correct ballot to a voter dependent on where they live in the town.  As poll workers, we will manage that but explaining to an already skeptical voter community why some of them get a different ballot than their neighbor can be tricky.  I'll handle those questions by taking the opportunity to explain how the vapid simpletons on the county board made absurd ward boundries after that last census.  ... Best spout that particular diatribe after they've voted for county rep.