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Behind the Scenes of the
Election
Posted 10-24-2004
The controversies surrounding
the 2000 presidential election had an impact on the election process that
may not be visible to most voters. But if you talk to people in election
bureaus throughout Pennsylvania and the country, you will hear cries of
anguish. Because of what happened in Florida, Congress passed the Help
America Vote Act (HAVA). It requires states to make many changes in how it
keeps records of voter registration and, ultimately, will force counties
like Westmoreland to replace, by the end of 2005, our virtually tamper-proof
lever voter machines with new computerized machines that produce a paper
receipt for voters.
Most pressing this year was
the insistence of the commonwealth for counties to stop using their own
computerized voter registration databases and join in the Statewide Uniform
Registry of Electors (SURE) system. The system has been nothing but a
nightmare for most counties. It required extensive training, and the system
is cumbersome and slow. Because of the huge number of newly registered
voters in a presidential election year, we are spending money on overtime
and are pressed for time to get all the new registrations into the SURE
system. Most frustrating to counties like ours, and most of the other larger
counties in Pennsylvania, was that we already had computerized voter
registration systems that worked fine. They just were not linked together
with other counties or with the commonwealth. The theory was that the SURE
system would eliminate voters from being registered and able to vote in
multiple counties. We can't get enough people to vote in one county. I can't
imagine many cases of people voting in more than one.
The commonwealth is going to
provide a small amount of money to help fund overtime for data entry to get
new registrations into the SURE system. But in Westmoreland County, where we
are trying to reduce our expenses, we will spend as much, if not more, of
our money on overtime in our election bureau as in the past. Because every
county is sending information into the same systems (often at the exact same
time), the system is extremely slow, and we are often paying people to watch
a screen as it processes a record. As I write this article today, the SURE
system has crashed, and counties throughout Pennsylvania are waiting for it
to get up and running again.
Because of the trouble in
Florida in 2000, we will have lawyers from both major political parties, as
well as employees of the Pennsylvania Department of State, camped out in the
courthouse on Election Day. We are expecting them to not be a disruption to
the hard work of our election employees, but more bodies in a hectic, and
sometimes chaotic, environment is certain to raise the tension levels.
Also because of HAVA, a new
type of vote can be cast. HAVA wanted to be certain to not disenfranchise
any possible voter, certainly a noble intention. So now, "provisional"
ballots may be cast by voters who believe they are registered to vote in a
particular precinct, but whose name is not listed in the records maintained
by the workers that day at the precinct. Those votes will be set aside, and
we appointed a separate bi-partisan board to review those ballots. This type
of vote will add to the time and complexity of counting votes and may be a
source of contention as to the validity of that "provisional" vote.
The competitive nature of
elections today, coupled with the proclivity of people to file lawsuits, has
us very uneasy about this year's election. Turnout should be much higher
than normal, and a large number of first-time voters are likely to show up
to vote on Election Day. The workers we hire to work inside the polling
places, who work for low wages and are becoming harder and harder to find,
will likely be under even greater pressure this year. So please be kind to
them and show your appreciation for their work. In many places, we expect
the polls to stay open longer to accommodate voters who show up to vote
before the polls close but may not get in to vote before 8:00 p.m. We will
certainly make every effort to ensure everyone who is legally eligible to
vote gets the opportunity to do so.
Throughout this highly
charged competitive election year, most attention is focused on candidates
and campaigns, as it should be. But behind the scenes another group of
dedicated, hard-working people are working nearly around the clock to make
sure we conduct fair and open elections. The mandates forced upon our
election workers by the federal and state governments are making the job of
conducting elections more difficult, not easier. Those workers get little
appreciation, but without their work all the slick campaigns and their
truckloads of money would be all dressed up with nowhere to go on Election
Day.
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