A Day for Democracy

Election Day 2008. So much will likely be written about this day, but I'll give a snapshot of today from my little view as an Election Judge in once precinct in Colorado. Personally, this day could easily be on the short list as one of the proudest days of my life.

My alarm went off at 4am and I popped WIDE awake. So much excitement! I got to my precinct at 5:30am on the dot and immediately encountered my fellow precinct Election Judges and we scurried around like silly mice following our manuals and the marching orders of our precinct's Supply Judge (the supervising election official). I signed the official Election Judge Oath, I assembled portable privacy voting booths, I hung official signs, and then 15 minutes or so before the polls opened, I was assigned to my fist task: Poll Book Judge.

There ware 5 stations/election officials that voters needed to pass through:
1. Greeter (who ensured they were at the right precinct, weren't wearing any electioneering material, and ensured they had ID)
2. Sign-In (verifying that their ID was on the approved list of forms of ID and for photo IDs verified that their face matched their photo, and having them fill out a sign-in sheet)
3. Poll Book (verifying identity by having each voter state their name and date of birth, ensuring it matched the info in the poll book, having them sign the book, recording whether they were choosing a paper or electronic ballot, recording the ballot style from the poll-book onto the sign-in sheet, and if someone "spoiled" a ballot, recording that they were issued a second ballot)
4. Ballot (receiving a correct ballot style according to the type on the sign-in sheet)
5. Ballot Box (verifying their name on the sign-in sheet and casting their ballot in the ballot box)
If someone chose to vote electonically, steps 4 & 5 are combined with a visit to the Machine Judge

I started at the Poll Book judge station at 7am, and every 2 hours shifted down the line to the next station. There were 2 people alternating as Machine Judges (two people of separate party affiliations), and while I didn't work that station, I did get trained on it while also working in the Ballot Box position.

We didn't have lines, and there were periods of time when we had nobody actively voting because so many people voted early or chose to do mail-in ballots.

At 7pm the polls closed. We took down the signs and disassembled the portable privacy booths. We counted the sign-in sheets. We counted the packets of unopened ballots and the blank opened ballots. We got the official end-tape from the machine, and counted the spoiled paper ballots and the provisional ballots that were in their own special ballot collecting pouch. We knew how many paper ballots we started the day with. The Supply Judge had the official worksheet where we tracked all these numbers. And after everything else was counted and put away, we broke the seal on the ballot box and counted the ballots, each in their privacy envelope. Then we took the ballots out of the privacy envelopes and counted again. The numbers all matched. The total number of sign-in sheets matched the number of electronic plus completed paper ballots. The number of paper ballots we started with matched the completed ballots plus provisionals plus spoiled ballots. Everything matched. We signed the documents verifying the numbers were true and accurate. And I, ME! put the ballots in the special transfer case and witnessed the case being locked. The case was then transfered by two people of different party affiliation riding in one car to the county election office.

It was a long day, an exciting day, an inspiring day. A Day for Democracy.