I have screwed up my #electionday threading already. 2 toots are over here. I’ll try to keep the rest of them as replies to this. So you can mute this thread or follow along as it suits you. #uspol #election #vote

infosec.exchange/@paco/1134305…

It’s a little unusual to have this much food in our #electionofficer break room. Seems like lots of people brought food to share.

We start our day at 5:00am, polls open at 6:00am. Polls close at 7:00pm and we usually get to leave about 8:30 or 9:00pm. The rules are that officers may not leave the #polls during the day. So you have to bring any food, drink, medicines, or anything else you might need during the day. Or you have to have a wonderful partner like I do, who brings you dinner toward the end of the day. Dress in layers, comfortable shoes, you know the drill.

I usually bring a thermos of coffee, some snacks, and a lunch. I always have a couple ibuprofen in my bag just in case.
#uspol #electionday #election2024

#Virginia is one of many states that prohibits #firearms and #guns in a #polling place. I’m no lawyer so I don’t really know how long it’s been in its current form. It seems like this law has been on the books a long time (since 1950 with various amendment over the years).

This is the first year we have made much of a fuss about it. We have 2 prominent signs and we got a tiny bit of training on how to handle the situation. (Pretty much tell people the law, try to calmly persuade them to go away and come back to vote without it, and escalate anything serious to 911, who have been prepped for this.)

I’ve been doing this 20 years and I don’t think I’ve ever seen a firearm in a polling place except an active duty police officer in uniform coming in to #vote.

#election2024 #electionday #uspol

law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/ti…

One of the main #election #security mechanisms is as old as time. Double ledger entry and independent verification at lots of steps.

The county knows how many ballots they sent us (1600 in this precinct). They come in shrink wrapped packs of 200. We open one pack at a time as we need to.

When we open a pack of blank ballots, even though we think the ballots were counted properly at the printer, we check. Two officers count them, then swap piles and check the count. We have high confidence in how many paper ballots really were present in the precinct.

At the end of the day, there is a thorough form we fill out that accounts for every single paper ballot in the room. Did it go into a scanner with a vote? Did it go into a provisional vote envelope? Was it spoiled? (Sometimes the machine can’t read it, or a person makes a mistake. We ask them to fill in every bubble so it isn’t clear who they might have meant to vote for. And we take that spoiled ballot and issue them a new blank) We know and must account for the disposition of every ballot.

At the end of the day, the sum of ballots in the machine + provisional ballots + spoiled ballots + blank unused ballots must add up to the total that were sent to us. It can happen that there’s a discrepancy. It’s usually something like a spoiled ballot that got thrown in the trash instead of being put in the right place.

The error rate is like 1, 2, or 3 out of 1600. We’re human, after all. But many times the error rate is 0. If you’re careful and follow instructions, it’s easy to be perfect.

#election2024 #electionday #uspol

You might wonder “Paco, are you sharing details about #election #security that you shouldn’t share?” I have a high regard for #Fairfax County #Virginia. They make a lot of their #voting training public. You can see the training that I was given on their YouTube channel. All the details I’m sharing are in that training.

I really think they do it right. I have no complaints about how the County does things. But sometimes I think State law is not great. So we follow the law but that can be annoying sometimes.

#electionday #election2024 #electionofficer #uspol

m.youtube.com/@fairfaxcountyel…

Fairfax County Election Officers

Election officer training videos from the Fairfax County Office of Elections

^YouTube

We love it when parents bring kids to #vote. We have stickers! We make sure the kids get the “Future Voter” stickers.

Around 10:00am we had 5 voters and 6 kids. More kids than voters!

This year we have special “presidential election” stickers. First time I’ve seen those.
#electionofficer #election2024 #electionday #uspol

I’m in the #CovidIsNotOver crowd and still wearing my N95, especially if I’m going to deal with 1000 total strangers. Rough average in the US is 1 in 60 have an active infection. So if I do see 1000 people today, probably something like 16 will have an active infection. Virginia’s rates currently are pretty moderate. Maybe it’ll be less than 16. But there’s no reason to think there will be zero people with #covid #voting.

Of the 15 officers in my #poll precinct, 2 of us are wearing masks. Few #voters are masking, maybe 5 out of 200. Airflow is good in the room.

We offer free #masks to those who want them. But it’s a bit pointless. Nobody who wants a mask shows up without one.
#electionday #election2024 #uspol

I’m reading about long lines on #electionday in other parts of the country. I love early #voting. We had maybe 10 voters waiting at 6:00am who we quickly processed. Since then, it’s been slow and steady.

In 7 hours we’ve done maybe 300 #voters, so a little less than 1 a minute. But that doesn’t mean nobody is voting. They probably voted early or absentee.

I’m a big fan of early voting. It just makes #elections easier. #election2024 #electionday #uspol

Continuing my #electionday #electionofficer live mega thread. Scroll up to see more, mute the thread to see less, without blocking me entirely.

One fun thing we do in my precinct that I enjoy is yelling “first time VOTERRR!” And cheering a little when people are voting for the first time. We don’t know it from their records. But if they say something we cheer.

I’m sure I have also processed a few fiftieth-time (or more!) #voters and I wish we could celebrate them also.

#election #election2024 #uspol

Finally something kinda funny happened. Voter came in and the officer next to me knew her so he’s checking her in and they’re chatting. He asks her to say her legal name (part of the process in Virginia) and she accidentally says the wrong last name. (Not sure if perhaps a former partner’s name or just a maiden name). They chuckle and she’s embarrassedly saying “don’t tell my husband!” It was all sweet and familiar and funny (not creepy, which it can seem when I write it that way). Just neighbours chuckling with neighbours in their polling place.

#election #electionofficer #electionday #election2024 #uspol

Ooh. You may have read in the news that the OSCE is sending election observers to the US for this #electionday . We just had 2 Italian women arrive and ask a few questions and chat a little. They are not official observers (meaning they didn’t present a letter from the county board of elections) so they can’t hang around like authorized observers. But we had a quick chat and shared numbers and info that we would share with any member of the public.

npr.org/2024/10/16/nx-s1-51348…

#election2024 #electionofficer #uspol

And now a funny goof I did as an #electionofficer earlier.

A woman walked up to the check-in table and handed me her ID. The system comes back with nothing. So I search and she’s not in there. She mentions that she has changed her name. So I search a bit more. Nothing. I search by address. Nothing.

Finally the officer next to me leans over and asks “are you registered to vote?”
“No.” She answers.

Face palm.

So I’m asking a little sooner now when someone strides up and then they’re not in the system at all.

#election2024 #electionday #uspol

Probably not gonna toot a lot more now. It’s the after-work rush. And once 7pm hits it’s all #electionofficer work. Surprisingly heavy turn out. Surprising me mainly because I thought a lot of early #voting would reduce the load. But we had dozens of same-day registrations! So they were unexpected voters. Hard to anticipate.

I’ll toot out some final thoughts after 8:30 or 9:00pm EDT
#election2024 #electionday #uspol