VOLUME 1 ISSUE 24 The POLL WATCHER March 1, 2016 Inside This Issue 1 Message from the Directors 2 Reminders and Tips 3 Code of Conduct for Observers 5 Observer Procedures 6 Calendar and Contact Info Open Practice Dates Monday and Tuesday March 7 th & 8th Thanks to all of you who came to our Station Training. We had 68 workers attend the first day, 87 on the second day, and 43 on the snowy third day of training. Remember, whether or not you attended one of these sessions, you may still attend the Open Practice sessions on Monday or Tuesday March 7 th or 8 th. You may come any time between the hours of 9:00 A.M. and 3:00 P.M. in the 1 st lower classroom at the Longview Center. For this Election only, we will pay $10 for each person attending the open practice. (Normally, there is no pay for the Open Practice session.) You can stay just an hour, or as long as you want. Be sure to sign in when you come so that we know you were here to add the pay onto your check for working the polls. The checks will be sent out approximately a week to 10 days after the Election and will include all class pay. We submit the poll worker payroll to the County Finance Department on the day after the Election. Depending on the Finance Department s schedule, they generate the checks within a few days for us to mail out to you. PJ s should have contacted your polling place for access, and contacted your poll workers by now. Be sure and notify our office as soon as possible of your set-up time so that we can compile the Rovers schedules. The PJ s call to the workers is the last point of contact for us to know for sure if the poll workers are planning to work or not. We have purchased 3 new signs/notices stands to try out. The Rover for precincts 2-A & 2-B at Holy Trinity, 2-C & 6-A at St. Pete s Franciscan Center, and 3-C & 3-D at First Presbyterian will bring these to you and show you how to set them up. You will still have a couple of notices to post on the walls at these polling locations, such as the Rand Paul sign, etc. in your folder. You will be responsible for taking the sign boards down and bringing them back to us when the polls close. Remember that not all precincts have Questions or Issues this Election. If your precinct has no Issues on the ballot, there is no ballot to give to voters who request a non-partisan/issues only ballot. You should ask each voter for an ID, ask their name and address, and ask which party s ballot they would like to vote. Their choices are Democratic, Republican, Green Party, or, in some cases, non-partisan/issues. Even if you know their name, and possibly know their party, you MUST ask. Any voter may request any party s ballot, regardless of which party they have been affiliated with currently or in the past. There is no other way to change your party affiliation in Ohio, other than to request the opposite party s ballot at the polls.
2 Miscellaneous Reminders/Tips We will be including an extra stylus pen to use on the EP s. You can leave the one on the string attached to the middle of the EP for the voter to use when you swing the unit around, and the poll workers can use the extra one. Please try to keep track of the extra one and don t let someone inadvertently walk away with it! Many of you asked for one which wasn t on a string, so we ordered enough extras to have one per precinct. If you cannot locate the voter s name when scanning the driver s license or State ID card, please try to locate the name by keying in the voter s name don t just assume they are not registered since the scan didn t bring up the name. 11 precincts which have a larger number of registered voters will be getting 2 EP s. They will be married to each other, or networked, so that each will be marked as a voter is issued a voter access card. You may have 2 workers operating them if you have a large turnout, or if not, you may use the 2 nd one for issuing paper and Provisional ballots so that the line is not held up whichever works out best for your precinct. The precincts with 2 EP s are; Man 1- D,Man 1-E, Jeff-A, Mad-E, Mad-I, Ply-A, Ont 3-A, Ont 4-A, Lex-B, Lex-E, and Weller. Each precinct will have a larger number of paper ballots issued than normal. Most will receive between 100 300 paper ballots. These are used for Provisionals, 17 year old voters, Curbside voters, voters who just request to vote on paper instead of the TSX units, and also in case of power outage or TSX malfunctions. We were directed by the Secretary of State to issue each precinct at least 20% of the last Presidential Primary turnout totals. If you would get low on paper ballots, (it s doubtful), please notify your Rover or our office immediately. We have 2 ballot-on-demand printers which can generate additional ballots quickly. When setting up your EP s, make sure you have all the peripherals plugged in securely before you turn the unit on. If you have any trouble with the Magnetic Stripe Reader, unplug the small square plug and the large round plug, and plug them back in. And you can always reboot (re-start) the unit without losing any information. If the EP fails completely and we have to bring you a replacement EP, you can program the voter access card by using your encoder. You will also have a hard-copy printed poll book to use to determine the split, if any, and to have the voter sign. You should only use the printed poll book if your EP fails. If the EP screen freezes, hold down the power button for 30 seconds, and then you should be able to reboot/re-start the EP and bring it back up. Man 1-B precinct at Berean Baptist Church will have an Exit Pollster assigned from the major news organizations. They will show the PJ their creditials either in the form of a letter, or a landyard stating their news affiliation. An Exit Pollster may be within the 100 radius of the entrance and talk to voters as they exit the polling place. They have stated that they also want to review the final tapes from the TSX s which you place on the door as you leave the polling location. We don t have any Observers assigned yet, but we expect to have them in many, if not all, precincts. The deadline for Observers to be appointed is March 4 th. We are posting a review of the Observer process on the next page of this newsletter
3 CODE OF CONDUCT FOR OBSERVERS ADOPTED 11-01-2006 BY THE RICHLAND COUNTY BOARD OF ELECTIONS Richland County Board of Elections The Richland County Board of Elections welcomes the opportunity to demonstrate the steps we take to ensure a fair and impartial election, as well as one that includes all legally cast ballots, whether they be election day, absentee or provisional, in the count. The Ohio Revised Code 3505.21, states that observers shall be permitted to be in and about the polling place for the precinct during the casting of the ballots and shall be permitted to watch every proceeding of the judges of elections from the time of the opening until the closing of the polls. The observer also may inspect the counting of all ballots in the polling place or board of elections from the time of the closing of the polls until the counting is completed and the final returns are certified and signed. We respectively ask observers not to impede the voting or tabulating process in any way. We ask that you respect the integrity of the vote and of the voter. We ask that cell phones be turned off in the polling location or in the board office, as our Board has adopted a policy banning the use of electronic devices in these areas. There shall be no video, still or audio recordings in the polling location or the board offices. We reserve the right to answer questions concerning the process when and only when the process is complete. All questions should be directed to the Director of Elections or the Deputy Director. Oath (Located on the back of the poll worker oath form) All observers must take the following oath, which must be administered by an election official, prior to beginning their observations: You do solemnly swear that you will faithfully and impartially discharge the duties as an official observer, assigned by law; that you will not cause any delay to persons offering to vote; and that you will not disclose or communicate to any person how any elector has voted at such election. Signature of 1 st Observer Signature of 2 nd Observer, (if applicable) Signature of 3 rd Observer, (if applicable) Observers who will observe on multiple days/times need not take the oath every day, or leave a polling place and return later, must affirm to an election official each time that they understand they are still under oath.
4 OBSERVER PROCEDURES Attendees at our Station Training sessions this year, with PJ s & Seasonal employees Patricia Harvey and Linda Westfield as Instructors Observers may register for every precinct and/or board office. They must present a form #215 Certificate of Appointment of Observer to the Presiding Judge upon arrival. PJ reads Oath of Office to all Observers. Observers may not disrupt polling place, poll workers or voters. Observers may take notes, but cannot take calls or make calls inside the polling places. They must step outside so they re not distracting the voters or workers while they re on the phone. PJ & Seasonal Employee Erin Underwood instructing poll workers on paper ballots and splits. They may stay while you close the polls and run reports, etc. They may not talk to voters inside the polling place or flag radius, and may not challenge a voter for any reason. Observers are only allowed to watch and listen to poll workers and voters. They cannot interact with voters or poll workers inside the polling place or within the 100 flag radius. Instruct Observers to contact our office if they have any questions. PJ & Seasonal Employee Jen Dover and regular staff member, Andrew Brinley, Election Specialist II, assisting poll workers on the EP s Please be polite and courteous to any Observer. They may sit in a chair near or behind the check-in table if they desire. If they would happen to cause any disruptions, please contact Bill or Paulette and your Rover immediately. They have a right to be there to observe, & we have the right to remove them from the location if they do not comply or are being disruptive to the voting process.
5 ELECTION CALENDAR March 5th (Saturday) Open 8:00 A.M. until 4:00 P.M. for Early Voting March 7th - 11th (Monday through Friday) Open 8:00 A.M. until 7:00 P.M. for Early Voting March 12th (Saturday) Open 8:00 A.M. until 4:00 P.M. for Early Voting March 13th (Sunday) Open 1:00 P.M. until 5:00 P.M. for Early Voting March 14th (Monday) Presiding Judge Pick-up Day & Set-up Day & Early Voting 8:00 A.M. 2:00 P.M. (please note that you may not vote early after 2:00 P.M.) March 15th (Tuesday) Election Day Polls open at 6:30 A.M. Close at 7:30 P.M. RICHLAND COUNTY BOARD OF ELECTIONS BOARD MEMBERS MICHAEL A. CASTO, CHAIR JOSEPH H. MUDRA, MEMBER LYDIA J. REID, MEMBER JEFF WILKINSON, MEMBER ADMINISTRATION PAULETTE HANKINS, DIRECTOR, phankins@richlandcountyoh.us 419.774.5533 BILL FREYTAG, DEPUTY DIRECTOR, bfreytag@richlandcountyoh.us 419.774.5532 STAFF DEBBIE OBENOUR, IT TECHNICAL SUPPORT SPECIALIST V dobenour@richlandcountyoh.us 419.774.5537 ANDREW BRINLEY, ELECTION SPECIALIST II, abrinley@richlandcountyoh.us 419.774.5236 CARRIE HILL, ELECTION SPECIALIST II, chill@richlandcountyoh.us 419.774.5235 DIANA NAUMOFF, ELECTION SPECIALIST 1, dnaumoff@richlandcountyoh.us 419.774.7878 Our past newsletters are all available for review on our website at www.richlandcountyoh.us/boe Click on the tab at the top of the home page entitled Newsletters. If you re a substitute worker, and/or new worker, and have not been assigned yet there s still a good probability that we will need you to work for a regular poll worker who becomes ill, or has a scheduling conflict. There s been times when we ve had to call a replacement worker at 4:00 A.M. on Election morning to take the place of an ill worker. Make sure you vote early or absentee, and have some food ready to pack in a hurry in case this would happen this year! We will review the 17 year old voters process in our next newsletter.