How the election process prevents widespread fraud
Now that the Supreme Court has dismissed the claims of election fraud in the November 2020 election, and with the primary election approaching Tuesday, it might be a good time to take a look at the mechanics of how an election works and what all those poll workers really do.
I’m the judge of election in my ward. I took over that position when the previous judge of election, my next-door neighbor, decided that after 25-plus years of working the polls, it was time for him to retire. Before that, I was the minority inspector of election.
How had I become an inspector of election? Simple. I wrote my name in about four years ago.
I’d read an article in The Morning Call about the difficulty in finding poll workers, so I thought I’d write myself in to see how the system worked from the inside. My one vote was the winning vote.
My election-day team consists of five members — two inspectors of election, one machine operator, one electronic poll book clerk and me.
I’m the only person who has been elected. The rest are volunteers. We are your neighbors, co-workers, friends and maybe even family.
Who is on my team? There are two women and three men. Two of us are over retirement age, although only one of us is retired.
Three of us have worked elections together for the last four years. In November, the other two people were new; this time, one will be new. One is a librarian, one is a businessperson, one is retired, and I have no idea about the other two.
Neither do I know what any of their political party affiliations are. We don’t discuss that, and it’s immaterial. Our sole job is to make sure that every qualified voter who shows up at the polls is given the opportunity to vote according to the election laws.
We don’t care if you’re an R or a D or an “other.” We only care if you are properly registered.
Election Day starts at 6 a.m., when we arrive and prepare the sealed machines so that the polls can open at 7 a.m. We are then “on duty” until 8 p.m., when the polls close, followed by at least another hour till we pack up the election materials, including the sealed ballot bins and the machine flash drives to be returned to the courthouse.
Two of us have to make that return trip so that no one is alone with the voting materials at any time. The return takes another 90 minutes to two hours. I usually get home around 11 p.m.
In addition to their work on Election Day, poll workers go through a one-hour training to learn how to use the electronic poll books and machines. Even if they have been trained before, my team still reviews the latest training recording before the election to make sure they are up on the procedures, especially if there have been any changes.
Everyone can do everyone else’s job, if necessary. The only one whose job can’t be duplicated is mine. As judge of election, there are certain tasks only I can complete — like “spoiling” your returned mail-in ballot so you can vote on the machine instead.
For all that, poll workers earn the princely sum of $175. And Northampton County pays its workers more than most.
Northampton County’s system is different than Lehigh County’s. Each county in Pennsylvania chooses its own system from an approved list. This is a feature, not a bug. Because of this there can’t be any hacking action that would work in every county.
Across the country, each state makes its own voting rules and chooses its own systems. Again, a feature, not a bug.
There are 3,243 counties and county equivalents in the U.S., each holding its own elections under its own rules.
There are three separate counts of the total number of ballots at the polling place. They all have to match.
It would be impossible to change the ballot tally of one without having the change be obvious on the others.
The November election was a particular challenge because of the lawsuits filed by Pennsylvania Republicans, even though they had written and voted for Act 77 in the General Assembly, which, among other things, legalized mail-in voting.
These lawsuits prevented counties from passing along finalized procedures to poll workers until very late in the season. Northampton County’s registrar of elections Amy Cozze and her assistant, Amy Hess, worked unbelievable hours to get us the most up-to-date information.
So the next time you are tempted to cry “election fraud,” remember that the people you are accusing are your neighbors, co-workers, friends and family.
And before those words cross your lips, perhaps you’d like to sign up to be a poll worker and learn how the system really works.