THE POLL WORKER ADVISOR Jackson County Board of Election Commissioners 215 North Liberty; P.O. Box 296 Independence, Missouri 64051 August 5, 2008 - Primary Election FROM THE DIRECTORS... We hope you all are ready for 2008 Major Election Number 3. This election is the Missouri State & County Primary Election. In this election voters are asked to cast November ballots to 7, nominate 2006 - General the Election candidates of their political party to run on the ballot in the General Election in November. They will also cast ballots to elect county committee people to represent each township and subdistrict on the county committee of their political party. Voters may be confused about how to vote in a primary election. In this election, voters are required to state their political party preference; in order to receive a ballot. In some areas of the county, there are municipal & fire district questions on the ballot. In those areas, and only those areas, voters may choose to vote non-partisan in which case they cannot vote for any of the primary election candidates. The judges will need to have special patience in explaining the Missouri Open Primary System to the umpteenth voter who has questions. We want to commend you for the good work you ve done in the past and encourage you to keep up the good work in this election. Charlene Davis Director Robert C. Nichols, Jr. Director What s Inside: pg.2 - The Primary Election; Demonstrate to Voters pg.3 - ID Requirement Chart; Absentee Offi ce Hours pg.4 - Provisional Ballot Instructions pg.5 - Presidential Cookies pg.6 - What s New??? Two Polls - One Set of Judges; Wonder Where the Yellow Went pg.7 - Take it Off! Take it Off! pg.8 - The Election Assistant
THE PRIMARY ELECTION The Missouri Primary Election is an Open Primary election. In this type of election, the voter must state publicly a party preference before being issued a ballot. Any voter may request a nonpartisan ballot which just includes issues if there are issues on the ballot in their precinct. In this election, only those voters that live in Blue Springs, Buckner, Grandview, Lake Lotawana or Central Jackson County Fire District may vote on nonpartisan ballots. The Primary Election is conducted so that the Democratic Party, the Republican Party and the Libertarian Party can nominate candidates for the November General Election. Theoretically, the parties select the strongest candidates from the various slates by way of the Primary Election. Different color ballots will be issued for each political party which will be color coded to match the pages in the voting machines. One ballot of the proper color will allow a voter to vote on all party candidates and issues on which they are entitled to vote. Under no circumstances should a voter be issued more than one Ink-A-Vote ballot unless the fi rst one has been spoiled. Some voters have claimed they have voted for candidates in all political parties. Even though they may have punched out or dotted holes in other parties, the only votes that counted were the punches or dots for the political party ballot they requested. Each ballot style for each precinct is preprogrammed on the computer (vote tabulator) to keep the illegal punches from being counted. If a voter insists upon voting for candidates in political parties other than his or her own, contact the Election Board. Someone at the Election Board offi ce will explain the law to the voter. Under no circumstances should a voter be issued more than one Ink-A-Vote Ballot unless the fi rst ballot is Spoiled. Judges will receive instructions on how to issue the ballots (Ink-A-Vote Cards) applicable to their polling place when they attend training. In addition, there will be a ballot issueing chart in the blue pouch that holds the precinct registers. This chart should be placed on the table in front of the judge or judges responsible for issuing the ballots. It will serve as a reminder to the judges on the proper way to handle the proper ballot and give the proper instructions to each voter as they receive their ballot. After issuing the Ink-A-Vote card to each voter, election judges must instruct voters on which pages they are allowed to vote. All ballot pages are color coded to match the cards. Democratic voters with white ballots vote on the white pages and green pages if there are green pages or non-partisan issues in their precinct. Republican voters with blue ballots vote on the blue and sometimes green pages. Libertarian voters with pink ballots vote on the pink and sometimes green pages. Voters in the special areas select the nonpartisan - the green ballot - may vote only on the green pages. Remember giving instructions to each voter is a necessity. If you have any questions regarding the chart or any questions about issuing ballots, please call Jim Mckinzie (325-4600) at the Election Board. Do not wait until election day. Call immediately. KEY REMINDER We would like to remind all Supervisory Judges who have keys to their polls to PLEASE check the key and call us to let us know if it works. If you don t call us, we have to call and remind you!! Let s have this be the election where NO reminders are needed!! DEMONSTRATE TO VOTERS Always demonstrate to the voter how to insert the ballot into the voting device securing it over the RED PINS. Remind voters to press down with the attached Ink-a-Vote stylus. Instruct the voter to check his or her ballot for ink DOTS after removing it from the voting device. In addition, tell the voter there are no more holes to be punched on the ballot, as it is now done with ink DOTS. 2
ID TYPE MISSOURI DRIVERS LICENSE - ADDRESS MISSOURI DRIVERS LICENSE - ADDRESS IN MISSOURI DRIVERS LICENSE - EXPIRED STUDENT ID - ANY UNIVERSITY COLLEGE VOCATIONAL SCHOOL WITH PHOTO MISSOURI (OR OTHER STATE) NON DRIVER STATE ID - ADDRESS MISSOURI (OR OTHER STATE) NON DRIVER STATE ID - ADDRESS NOT OTHER STATE DRIVERS LICENSE - ADDRESS IN OTHER STATE DRIVERS LICENSE - EXPIRED EMPLOYER ID - GOVERNMENT (I.E. UNIVERSITY) WITH PHOTO EMPLOYER ID - GOVERNMENT NO PHOTO EMPLOYER ID - PRIVATE BUSINESS WITH PHOTO EMPLOYER ID - PRIVATE BUSINESS WITHOUT PHOTO ID REQUIREMENTS CHART POST CARD ID REQUIREMENTS NOT IN IF NAME AND ADDRESS NOT REGULAR ID REQUIREMENTS - ADDRESS DOES NOT MATTER NOT MILITARY ID WIC CARD PASSPORT BIRTH CERTIFICATE IN ONLY IF NAME MATCHES SOCIAL SECURITY CARD IN PROPER ID S During the April, 2008 Election, there appeared to be a lot of confusion as to what was a valid ID. The Election Board has prepared a chart to cover most common ID s. Remember the great controversy over picture ID s and whether a voter can be required to have one in order to vote? Well, the Missouri Supreme Court ruled that election authorities could not require picture ID s in order to vote. However, they did not rule out requiring voters to present some form of personal identifi cation. (NOTE THE CHART TO THE LEFT). There are two (2) columns: One (1) for Postcard Registrations and one (1) for Regular Registrations. Most of the time the same form of ID can be used for both types of registration but in several instances there is a difference. Please pay close attention. Write the type of ID in the space next to the voter s name. ABSENTEE OFFICE HOURS UTILITY BILL, BANK STATEMENT, GOVERNMENT CHECK - NAME AND ADDRESS OF VOTER UTILITY BILL, BANK STATEMENT, GOVERNMENT CHECK - NAME AND ADDRESS OF VOTER NOT PRIVATE ID - BUYERS CLUB/GYM MEMBERSHIP/CREDIT CARD WITH PHOTO PRIVATE ID - GYM MEMBERSHIP/CREDIT CARD WITHOUT PHOTO ANY ID ISSUED BY THE US GOVERNMENT WITH PHOTO ANY ID ISSUED BY THE US GOVERNMENT WITHOUT PHOTO ANY ID ISSUED BY THE STATE OF MISSOURI GOVERNMENT AGENCY WITH PHOTO ANY ID ISSUED BY THE STATE OF MISSOURI GOVERNMENT AGENCY WITHOUT PHOTO NOT NOT IF ADDRESS IF ADDRESS NOT NOT NOT - ADDRESS DOES NOT MATTER - ADDRESS DOES NOT MATTER The Absentee Offi ce is open from 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Monday through Friday until Monday, August 4, 2008. The Absentee Offi ce will also be open from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on the following Saturdays: ANY OTHER PHOTO ID ANY OTHER GOVERNMENT DOCUMENT NO ID BUT BOTH SUPERVISOR JUDGES PERSONALLY KNOW THE VOTER UNLESS IT IS EXPIRED IF NAME AND ADDRESS NOT CALL OFFICE BEFORE DENYING OR APPROVING IF NAME AND ADDRESS IF IDENTIFICATION AFFIDAVIT IS COMPLETED July 12, July 19, July 26 and August 2 OTHER ID CALL OFFICE BEFORE DENYING OR APPROVING CALL OFFICE BEFORE DENYING OR APPROVING Voter Notifi cation Card Not Valid Valid 3
PROVISIONAL BALLOT INSTRUCTIONS A provisional ballot is provided for the voter who can not be found in the precinct register at the poll. The provisional voter is entitled to vote on the full ballot but the ballot must be enclosed in the yellow provisional envelope and deposited in the provisional ballot slot. A provisional ballot is only counted contingent upon verification of that voter s eligibility. If the voter enters your poll and you are unable to find them in the precinct register, on the can vote list, from the Election Assistant or on the beeper, complete the Election Day Registration Inquiry, review the map to verify that the address the voter has given you is within your precinct, and CALL THE ELECTION BOARD. The Election Board will either find a registration, in which case they will give you further directions, or they will not find a registration. If they do not find a registration and the voter wants to vote: PREPARE THE BALLOT ENVELOPE 1) Add the voter s name and address to the back of the precinct register on the bright green sheet; 2) Have the voter sign next to their name (Do Not Sticker); 3) Compare signature with the voter s ID; 4) Complete a registration card, have the voter sign the card, place completed registration card in Completed Forms Envelope; 5) Issue the voter a provisional ballot & a yellow provisional envelope; 6) Ask the voter to complete and sign the voter s side of the yellow provisional ballot envelope; 7) Verify that the voter s side of the yellow provisional envelope is complete; 8) Complete and sign the other side of the yellow provisional envelope. VOTE THE BALLOT 1) Hand the voter the ballot & the yellow provisional ballot envelope and direct them to the voting booth; 2) When the voter has finished voting, have the voter place the ballot in the yellow provisional ballot envelope; 3) Remove the yellow provisional ballot envelope stub and give to the voter; 4) Place yellow provisional ballot envelope in the ballot box slot under the PBC unit marked PROVISIONAL BALLOTS ONLY (orange sticker). EVENING COUNT 1) Separate the provisional ballots from all other ballots - DO NOT OPEN Provisional Ballot envelopes; 2) Enter information regarding provisional ballots on separate Provisional Ballot Certification Form, located in the orange provisional bag. If you have no provisional voters, enter 0" and return the Provisional Ballot Certification in the ballot carrier. If you cannot connect with the Election Board by phone, advise the voter that their best opportunity to have their ballot counted is to go to the Election Board. However, if they wish to cast a provisional ballot at the poll they have the right to do so. If they wish to vote at the poll, follow the above outlined procedures. 4
PRESIDENTIAL COOKIES (Cookie recipes of the Presidents of the United States by Bev Young) In the last two issues of the Poll Worker Advisor, we introduced our election day workers to Presidential Cookies, featuring cookie recipes from many Presidents as researched by Bev Young in her book, Recipes of the Presidents of the United States. We continue with that tradition since it is a Presidential Year, we are going to touch on a bit of history with a recipe by Eleanor Roosevelt, wife of Franklin D. Roosevelt, the 32nd President of the United States. President Franklin Roosevelt is the only President to be elected four times. At his last inauguration on January 20, 1945, he celebrated by hosting a lunch for more than 2,000 guests. Then at four-thirty, the White House staff held a tea for 1,800 new guests and served 100 unfrosted marble cakes and 200 dozen cookies. In the Presidential cookbook, Feeding the Roosevelts and Feeding Their Guests, Mrs. Henrietta Hesbitt, the White House housekeeper, writes that while she was always on the lookout for new cookie recipes to serve at the First Family s large teas and receptions, she also baked thousands of cookies for veterans and hospital groups, delivered in style by the White House. Because butter was in short supply during the war, the First Family turned to macaroon recipes of every possible kind, which used ingredients such as coconut, chocolate, cornfl akes, dates, nuts and bread crumbs instead of using butter. HONEY DROPS 1 cup sugar 1 cup honey About 3 cups fl our 1 cup shortening 2 tsp baking powder 1 tsp salt 1 egg 1/2 tsp cinnamon 1/2 tsp almond fl avoring 1/2 cup chopped walnuts 1/4 cup chopped orange peel 1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. 2. Mix all ingredients except fl our. 3. Add enough fl our so that the mixture can be rolled into balls and placed on a cookie sheet without running. 4. After placing rolled balls on cookie sheet, bake for 12 to 14 minutes. Sample Ballots are available on our web site at: http://jceb.co.jackson.mo.us 5
WHAT S NEW???? Sometimes, for whatever reason, the reader of the PBC (Precinct Ballot Counter) will not accept a ballot. Other times, the reader stops accepting any ballots or sometimes shuts down entirely. With voters onsite, there appears to be a crisis at hand. The fi rst step to take is to call the help desk. The help desk team may have a quick fi x for the PBC. In the meantime, give the voters waiting a choice of waiting to place their ballot in the PCB reader or placing their ballot in a yellow By-Pass ballot envelope, sliding it into the provisional ballot slot of the PBC, where it will be counted when it arrives at the Election Board offi ce. These yellow By-Pass Ballot Envelopes are to be used whenever the voter s ballot has not passed through the reader of the PBC. Have the voter place their ballot in the envelope with the Ink-A-Vote dots to the back. Then, have them place the ballot envelope in the provisional slot. Under NO circumstances allow a By-Pass Ballot Envelope near the PBC reader. WONDER WHERE THE YELLOW WENT Judges will fi nd the PC (Post Card Registration) voter list in the red folder in the blue pouch in the ballot box. A PC voter is someone who registered by mail and no one from the Election Authority has seen an ID for this voter. TWO POLLS - ONE SET OF JUDGES Judges often get confused by Election Board terminology such as Two Polls with one set of Judges. This is not the same as multiple polls in the same building. It is actually two separate polling places set up and run by the same set of judges simultaneously. The judges in these polls have separate tables, separate voting machines and separate supplies but they only have one ballot box. These judges have double duty. The voters are divided into two polls because they vote on different candidates and different issues. This is because they are in different districts of the same type. A good example of this occurs in the Blue Springs area where there are pockets of unincorporated areas in the middle of the municipality. The voters in these areas cannot vote on the municipal questions. Most of the time, one of the polls is very small and consists of only a handful of voters. It is not reasonable to assign a set of judges to the small poll of only two, three or four voters. What a boring day that would be! In prior elections, judges were asked to take a yellow hi-liter out of their supply guide and highlight the names of the PC voters in their precinct register and write PC next to their name. Not any more. The Election Board has highlighted the names for the judges. We suggest that you write PC next to each of these voters. We hope this will remind you to ask the voter for an ID and write down the form of the voter s ID in the comment section by their name. Now you know where the yellow went the unnecessary hi-liter that is! 6
TAKE IT OFF! TAKE IT OFF! When you open your White Box containing the unvoted ballots on Election Morning, take ALL of the ballots out of the box and place them on the table. In some cases, a poll may have white, blue, pink and/or green ballots for each precinct in that poll. Also, remove the yellow Demonstrator Ballots, which are also in the White Box. From top to bottom there are four (4) parts to the long ballot: LITTLE STUB - Ballots are in packets of 50. The LITTLE STUB holds the numbered packets together. LITTLE STUB SMALL STUB WRITE-IN STUB BALLOT SMALL STUB - This stub is used to help the voter cover the ballot when transporting it from the Votomatic to the PBC. All Election Judges MUST REMEMBER to remove this stub BEFORE the voter places it into the PBC. If this stub is not removed, the PBC will reject the ballot. WRITE-IN STUB - After voting the ballot, the voter folds this portion over the voted ballot for secrecy. It may also be used for writing a candidate s name for a particular offi ce. If Write- Ins are not allowed in your poll, ask the voter to remove his/her Write- In stub and take it with them as a receipt. GRAY BALLOT CARRIER BALLOT - Portion on which the voter uses the Ink-a-Vote stylus to make his or her selections. After 7:00 p.m., when the polls are closed, the Election Judges will remove the ballots from the large Black Ballot Box beneath the PBC. Then, they will examine each and every ballot card for Write-Ins (if allowed in their poll), and placing those ballots with Write-Ins in a separate stack. Do not remove the stub from these ballots. They will assemble the cards so the cut corner of each ballot is all facing in the same direction as the others. Then count the cards. Any stubs left at the poll will be placed in the WHITE BOX along with the unused ballots. The voted ballots without the stubs attached, will be placed in the Gray Ballot Carrier, just like before. Make sure all ballots are placed in the Gray Ballot Carrier with the corner slash in the upper left hand corner. PBC HELP DESK NUMBERS ONLY... 325-4632 325-4635 325-4636 WHITE BOX 7 THIS NEWSLETTER WAS PRODUCED BY THE JACKSON COUNTY BOARD OF ELECTION COMMISSIONERS SOLELY AS INFORMATIONAL AND INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIAL FOR POLL WORKERS.
THE ELECTION ASSISTANT In April 2006, the Jackson County Election Board introduced the Election Assistant to onethird of the polling places. The Election Assistant was quite a success and eliminated election judges having to call the office requesting information. The Election Assistant is a software application that runs on a Palm Pilot. The easy- to- use Palm Pilot allows election judges to access the entire voter registration file including all active and inactive voters as well as the street directory file. Voters in Eastern Jackson County are now able to go into any polling place that has an Election Assistant to fi nd out their voter status and where to go to vote. If a voter finds he/she is inactive (moved without notifying the Election Board), a form is completed by the Election Assistant Specialist or Election Judge and sent to the Election Board office to change their status to Active. Then, the Election Assistant Specialist sends the voter to the correct polling place to cast their ballot. The Election Assistant is easy to use! It can be mastered by any election worker regardless of age or technological experience. The election judges search the countywide voter registration records by last name and birth date. They type in the last name and enter the birth date on the keyboard. The Election Assistant will give the election judge the Voter Status (active or inactive) and the township & precinct of the voter. How easy is that? If the voter has moved and is a registered voter, the Election Assistant Specialist can type in the new street name and zip code, and the Election Assistant will give the Election Assistant Specialist the new township and precinct, as well as the new or proper polling place. In a Primary or General election, this operation could eliminate a lot of Provisional Ballots. The Election Assistant has made the election judges lives easier by decreasing phone calls to the Election Board Office by 50%; reducing the number of Provisional Ballots issued; shortening voter lines by allowing voters not in the precinct register to verify registration and poll location right on the spot; and making election judges happy by allowing them to verify voter eligibility immediately, which of course makes the voter happier. Many counties in Missouri and seven other states have used the Election Assistant in previous elections. They have reported their use to be a great success. We hope the election judges that use them in August will feel the same. In August, 2008, all election judges will find a list of the Election Assistant polls in the red folder inside the blue pouch on election morning. Any voter not listed on the precinct register and not listed on a Can Vote list, should be looked up on the Election Assistant if there is one in the poll. If there is not one available in the poll, election judges can try to call the Election Board. If they cannot get through to the Board Office, they can send them to an Election Assistant poll. Anyone interested in becoming an Election Assistant Specialist in future elections, should contact Barb Rathbun at the Election Board Offi ce. Election Assistant Specialists receive additional compensation for training. 8