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| Amy Cozze. The other Amy runs when she sees my camera |
The much maligned ExpressVote XL was flawless, with no issues and positive reviews in my precinct. Countywide, other judges tell me the XL was a great success. Contrast this with poor Bucks County. Paper ballot purists there scared officials into going with paper ballots. The "Better Elections" people never realized that the ballots they obtained were too large for their scanners. It was these same rocket scientists who criticized NorCo for failing to do its homework.
In the meantime, epollbooks are something I have pushed for years, and unsuccessfully, with Administrator Charles Dertinger, P.B.* I thought the force of my excellent arguments had finally swayed him. I was wrong. He's cheap for a Democrat. He went with epollbooks only because it was no longer possible to print them. Well, epollbooks were a big hit, Charles, as I promised. They not only eliminated long waits, but also enabled clerks to tell voters at the wrong precinct where they should be voting. This eliminated numerous calls to the county elections office, and helped voters get to the right place with no waiting. They make it easier to vote.
Superior technology simplified voting on Tuesday. But that's not why the election was so successful. The real reason for this success boils down to the two Amys and the operation they have managed to assemble despite all odds.
The two Amys are Amy Cozze, the Registrar, and her Chief Deputy, Amy Hess. Amy Hess has all the institutional knowledge while Cozze completely immersed herself in elections from the moment she first started working for the County. They have a "no drama" staff consisting of likable, hard-working people like Rich Kessler and Jenna Gerbino. They have always understood their role as county employees is to serve the public.
In the middle of a pandemic, this staff was able to recruit or retain 850 pollworkers at all 156 precincts. Unlike other counties, Cozzev consolidated none of the precincts. I had sworn I was done as a pollworker, but they even lured me back. If we ran into trouble, they were only a phone call away. And throughout the day, we received periodic visits from runners.
They also gave me a very nice thank you note, signed "The Two Amys." I read it to my pollworkers and we were all very touched. Little things like that go a long way. The judge in the precinct next to me got a nice note, too.
They made sure a cellphone went out with every precinct so we could be notified immediately if we needed to make changes. I got a message from PJ Michael Koury reminding us to wear our masks or we would be removed.
I begged to be removed, without success.
Cozze had set a goal of getting the results in before midnight. She succeeded. In fact, she had most of the mail-in ballots counted at 8 pm.
Those who work in the public sector are often demonized. But there are many more who are like the two Amys and who view themselves as public servants. As I write this story, they are probably both still at the courthouse, finishing a day that started well before 5 am.
Executive Lamont McClure was well aware he had little room for error in Tuesday's primary. A disaster would ensure his defeat next year. Yet he pretty much let the two Amys run the show. That should tell you something.
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*) P.B. Proper Bastard. I am an MBA - Miserable Bastard and Asshole
Inquiring minds wish to know:
ReplyDelete1. What are you gonna do with the fat 175 bucks you were forced to accept?
and
2. How long do you gotta wait to receive the county's largess?
Do you have any insight into voter turnout in the County/State?
ReplyDeleteThanks, Amys'
ReplyDeleteThe touch screens are very "touchy" and when I selected a presidential candidate the screen lit up on a candidate for another office two selections down. I was able to readily correct it. Some of the layout on other candidates was a little awkward. The light added to the ballot screening area helped with viewing completed ballot. The only reason the system was able to handle the voters was because of so few showing up. At my 8:30 voting time, the poll worker struggled mightily to navigate the keyboard and I don' know if this was due to unfamiliarity with layout or if screens are awkward to navigate. I then left and stopped by Home Depot. The place was jammed. Amazing our priorities! How cavalier we have become with out precious right to vote. Guess our fear of crowds and exposure ends when we leave the polling place. This is my last time voting. I have earned the right to turn the world over to the mobs in the cities. Will the last person out please remember to turn the lights out.
ReplyDeleteThe answer to you question in the county is right on the county results. The turnout was 29%.
ReplyDeleteDemos voted heavily by mail, while Rs voted in person. Rs who were smart enough to wage a mail-in campaign, like Lisa Scheller and Ann Flood, won. If Rs fail to change their goofy thinking about mail-in voting, they better prepare to lose a lot more, lol. You can thank politicos like Lee Snover for what appears to be another GOP disaster in its way.
https://www.northamptoncounty.org/CTYADMN/ELECTNS/Election%20Results/ELECTION%20SUMMARY.pdf
7:02, Everyone who works the polls in NorCo is paid at least $175, the maximum allowed by statute and TWICE what LC pays. Judges are paid $200. The judges get this $ from the county the weekend before the election and are responsible for paying the workers. Most of us pay our workers in cash on election day.
ReplyDeleteElection workers work about 14.5 hours, so this comes down to about $12.06 per hour.
Judges work about 15.5 hours on election day bc they make the returns and they must go to the bank to get the $ ready for their workers, which makes it 16 hours total, or about $12.50 per hour.
If you want to work on election day, contact the two Amys and advise of your interest.
I was down one person on election day bc my usual machine operator went to Allen Tp, where she actually lives. I did not realize this until the last minute. I was unable to recruit anyone among my friends in such a short timespan. I had to return $225 in cash to the county last night, which I hated bc I was afraid I would lose it. I probably should have tried to recruit someone on my blog, lol. You must be a registered voter in Pa. That is all.
"I probably should have tried to recruit someone on my blog"
ReplyDeleteYou really don't have any standards.
What is “goofy thinking,” Bernie? I (D) voted in person because that is how voting should be done by anyone who is mentally and physically able. Oh, and the machines weren’t cleaned between use and I managed to still wake up this morning. Our lazy society gets lazier when people can’t go to the polling place during a 13-hour span.
ReplyDelete"At my 8:30 voting time, the poll worker struggled mightily to navigate the keyboard and I don't know if this was due to unfamiliarity with layout or if screens are awkward to navigate. I then left and stopped by Home Depot."
ReplyDeleteThis is not surprising. Had you gone a little later, there probably would have been no issues. We are all on a learning curve on election day, and make most of our mistakes early in the day until we get familiar with systems we only use twice a year.
A friend at 14-2 tells me some of the pollworkers there were struggling with malfunctioning XLs, but I suspect that the machines were probably fine. Fortunately, the county acquired more XLs so if turnout at the polls increase, you can simply add more machines.
Nobody waited at my precinct bc I ran the machines myself. I am quite familiar with their operation and was able to answer questions from outside the privacy curtain. I asked nearly every voter what they thought of the XL, and they almost unanimously loved them.
The epollbooks were a Godsend. There were only two voters who were registered but did not show up, and that is bc they registered right before the June cutoff and were not in the state system at the time the data downloaded. Those two voters were allowed to vote on the machines.
The XL and epollbooks are similar in sensitivity to an Apple. Some people adjust to that right away. Others take a bit longer.The technology helped.
Mail-in ballots will reduce turnout on election day, so you will likely never see long lines again except in counties too cheap to buy enough equipment.
Thanks for your perspective.
Great post - thanks for sharing Bernie!
ReplyDeleteLow turnout I think would be expected, but all things considered 29% aint too bad.
April 2016 was 36%. No virus, no delay and competitive primaries for both parties. Even May 2018 only had 21% turnout.
"What is “goofy thinking,” Bernie? I (D) voted in person because that is how voting should be done by anyone who is mentally and physically able. Oh, and the machines weren’t cleaned between use and I managed to still wake up this morning. Our lazy society gets lazier when people can’t go to the polling place during a 13-hour span"
ReplyDeleteThere is nothing "lazy" about voting by mail. When you do, you receive email confirmations when (1) your application is received; (2) when your ballot is sent to you; and (3) when it is received by the county. During this time, you can make yourself familiar with the candidates and make an informed choice. Doing this is actually a more efficient use of your time than standing in line at a polling place. If your ballot is not received, you can go to your precinct and file a provisional ballot. If your ballot is lost in the mail, your provisional will count. I had nine provisionals from people who received a ballot but never sent it back. One mom told me her kids got to it and did a number, lol. These people were not lazy. They voted.
Some people might prefer voting in person bc they view it as a social occasion. They get to talk to the neighbors.
As for cleaning the machines, we were instructed to do this between each use. I confess I forgot a few times, but git better as the day progressed. I was not as good as the people working at Giant or Wegman's, but they have more practice.
We were all good at wearing masks or face shields. We did take them off periodically when voters would leave. I could have done better at cleaning machines between each use.
First off, congratulations to Northampton County for what seems like a job well done. As you note, it was a big turnaround from how things went last time, and all should be commended.
ReplyDeleteAlso, Lehigh County should find out how Northampton was able to count all their mail-in ballots by last night. In my mind there's no excuse for Lehigh County voters to have to wait an extra day for their results, when a neighboring county is able to do it on Election Night. That's a major fail in my book.
Not only that, the Northampton Election Results site is far superior to Lehigh County.
Not only did the NorCo site promptly show the results in either total vote or precinct detail, the website also showed the breakdown of votes for each candidate between absentee ballots or a vote at the polls. Lehigh County's site is slow to post, difficult to read (particularly when accessing results from a phone), and didn't have an in-person/absentee breakdown. If the election results pages were video games, Northampton's looked like Mortal Kombat last night, while Lehigh was still playing Pong from the 70's.
Also, when voting in Lehigh, my paper ballot is read and I have no idea if the machine read my ballot correctly (or at all). We all know that machines can malfunction, and without allowing people to see how their votes are being recorded an important oversight function (by the voters themselves) is absent.
Lehigh County politicians gave the county a tax hike last year. It sure didn't go into upgrading the voting process. I don't really know what the excuse is there, but hopefully they can make some upgrades by the General Election.
One more comment about the Election Results pages: Both counties could make the results link more prominent on their Home Pages for easier access on Election Night through the day the results are actually certified.
I don't have a problem with mail-in ballots being used, provided sufficient controls are in place to prevent voter fraud from occurring. Mail-in ballots is more susceptible to fraud, and you can be sure that as time goes on there will be those that find ways to abuse the system.
ReplyDeleteThat said, I think some voters are actually making a less-informed decision the earlier they mail in their ballots. For instance, in this election cycle there were write-in candidates (some who were very late to the party) and a Presidential endorsement of one of the congressional candidates that came only a week and a half before Election Day.
We're also in the middle of an extended lockdown of our lives by the PA Governor, where the reasons for the lockdown and goal posts for getting out of it seem to change daily. How you feel about those orders and those supporting/opposing them could have affected how you voted in certain races.
Those mailing their ballots in earlier didn't have the latest information available, which could have influenced their votes.
I realize that you can wait until Election Day to mail in your ballot, but I believe you can also request and return one 50 days out. That seems excessive to me.
The laziest voters are not those who vote by mail, or even those that choose not to vote at all, but those who vote by any means and legitimize a manipulated election with no real choice.
ReplyDeleteThe mask is a representation of your willingness to keep your mouth shut about the obvious manipulation of this election.
Nero said give the people more bread and carnival?
ReplyDeleteNot sure what point you are trying to make but you haven't made any.
ReplyDelete"The laziest voters are not those who vote by mail, or even those that choose not to vote at all, but those who vote by any means and legitimize a manipulated election with no real choice.
ReplyDeleteThe mask is a representation of your willingness to keep your mouth shut about the obvious manipulation of this election."
If you believe there were no real choices in this election, you failed to inform yourself. There were real choices in numerous races, including state row offices. There was real choice in the 138th and in the Schweyer and Simmons district. There were real choices for anyone living in Upper Naz, where an important library referendum was held.
The mask, if nothing else, was a representation of courtesy.
I found the ExpressVote XL much easier to use this time around. However, when I tried to write in Bernie O’Hare, I found no apostrophe character on the keypad...design glitch
ReplyDeleteLol, the apostrophe in my name is something practically no computer will recognize. They will only recognize me as ohare.
ReplyDelete