As a Cog in the Election System Again: Reflections on Working the 2024 Presidential Election

Four years ago I posted my reflections here on the 2020 presidential election. This year, I worked the election again as a precinct election official ("PEO"—a poll worker) for Franklin County, Ohio. Much like four years ago, it was a record-setting voter turn-out year, and unlike four years ago, the process was much smoother. Here are some notes and thoughts that I'll likely reflect on when we do this again in another four years.

I've come a long way since the November 2020 election—my first as a Voting Location Manager and only my second as a PEO. (The primary in March 2020 was, of course, famously called off because of the coronavirus.) This election was my 10th as a PEO, ninth as a voting location manager, and the second in this particular location. Almost everyone who served in this location for the March primary election came back for this general election, so we had a good rhythm set for how we wanted to do things.

This was the second election with the new tablet roster books, and they worked very well. With the last tablet roster books we had, the file of early and absentee voters was too big to be processed in the memory of the iPad, so they crashed. In November 2020, at the last minute, we had to resort to the backup paper pollbook, and that slowed the process down greatly. (See my November 2020 blog post for a description of that fun.)

No, everything went smoothly this time. Monday night setup was good...everyone knew what they were doing, and we had the elementary school gymnasium set up by 8:30. Home for a quick bite to eat and to bed, because it would be time to get up at 4:15 Tuesday morning to get to the polling place by 5:30. We would have just an hour to finalize the setup before the polls opened at 6:30.

When we did open, the line of voters was out the door and down the edge of the parking lot. There were probably 125 voters in line when we started the morning, and it stayed like that until late morning. We didn't get a break with no one in line until about 11:30 that morning. The rest of the day was a steady trickle of people. I don't think anyone waited more than 20 to 30 minutes—the line moved quickly. The noon hour was unexpectedly slow—you'd figure that people would come in to vote at a typical lunch hour, but that wasn't the case for us. It picked up again at 1:30 for a couple hours, then just a trickle until the polls closed at 7:30. We had 1,918 regular voters that day and about 100 people that voted with a provisional ballot. (A "regular voter" has valid identification and we can find in the pollbook; everyone else is a "provisional voter" that is reviewed by the Board of Elections...possibly with the voter needing to go to Morse Road with the needed documentation.)

The equipment held up well. As I mentioned earlier, the roster tablets did their job admirably. This was the second time we'd used this equipment...the first was for the primary election earlier this year. The ballot markers were bothersome again until we remembered the lessons we learned in March. The ballot markers are the devices that take in a blank ballot card then spit the card out with the voter's selections. (This is different from the ballot counter that takes the printed ballot card, scans it for validity, and counts it before dropping it into the secure ballot bin.) They are a bit slow at the start of the voting workflow, and if the slip of paper with the voter's precinct identifier is scanned before the machine is ready, it will throw an error and lock up. Rebooting the ballot marker will eject the blank ballot card and reset the machine, and it took us nine jammed machines before we remembered to put a pause in the process.

The PEO team held up very well. Let's face it...this was a tense election, and we didn't know if there would be protests or violence or people questioning the process. We didn't have any of that in our location, and the 20 people working with me were quite able and notably cheerful about the whole process. That definitely makes the day go faster. We did have one person come into the room to ask how he would know if his early vote had been counted; I showed him the list of early and absentee voters that the Board of Elections gives us on Monday night, and he walked away happy.

One notable story...I didn't get my lunch until about 3:45, so I needed something close and quick. That was the McDonald's at Tuttle Mall. I got my 10-piece chicken nuggets and sat down to eat. As I was finishing, one of the crew shouted, “Mr. Peter! Mr. Peter! Do you remember me? You helped me vote. First time voter today!” He recognized me from my PEO nametag. Damn, that felt Good.

There was one—hmmm...unfortunate?—part of the day: handling the signs as we were breaking down the room. Each election, there are more signs. This year either Franklin County or the Ohio Secretary of State added signs about how voting multiple times is illegal. To say nothing of the 4-foot by 6-foot (120cm by 180cm) poster with the full text of the Ohio Constitution amendment. Seriously, there are at least 20 different signs and posters we need to put up near the entrance to the polling place. That isn't so bad...figuring out where they need to go at the end of the night after working 14 hours is the problem. The sign issue haunted me in bed Tuesday night, so I had to get up and write this rant:

Signs. Can we talk about the signs? Three hours after the polls close I'm lying in bed drafting this survey response. What am I thinking about? Is it the three ballot discrepancy between the EPBs and the ballot counters? Three votes out of 1,819 cast in my LID? No, it is signs.

Each election has more signs. And all of these signs have to go in different places when breaking down the polling site. Some go in the election brown trash bag. Some go in the sign envelope on the machine cart. Some go in the VLM bag back to the Board of Elections on Tuesday night. What is so important about a sign that it has to go back to Morse Road on Tuesday night?

So look. Help us out. If it is important to the Board of Elections staff where signs go at the end of the election, PRINT THE LOCATION IN THE BOTTOM CORNER OF THE SIGN! Or, even better, consolidate the signs. Have the Secretary of State print one sign with their stuff. Then Franklin County can print one sign with their stuff. Then we've got the LID-specific stuff like the sample ballots. We got a 4-foot by 6-foot poster of the ballot initiate for this election for heavens sake...it can be done.

At the end of the election, I'm worried about closing the ballot certificates, ballot balancing worksheets, closing the EPBs, heaven-help-me inventorying each green EPB case, and making sure everyone else is packing things up in a sane manner after working for 14 hours. They want to go home. I want to go home. I don't want to have to think about signs.

Okay, rant done. I think I can go to sleep. I might have the character to copy and paste this message into post-election survey. Or I might edit it. Not sure. Good night!

In another day or two, I'll get a link to a survey in email where I can offer suggestions. I think that rant will make it unchanged into the "do you have any suggestions" box. If, in four years, they improve the sign stuff for the next presidential election, I'll let you know.

List of elections worked

This number is starting to get big, so before I start forgetting places, here are the elections and positions I've worked.

• November 2019, Sutter Park Preschool, Voting Location Deputy
• March 2020†, First Community Church North Campus, Voting Location Manager
• November 2020, Indian Run United Methodist Church, Voting Location Manager
• November 2021, Indian Run United Methodist Church, Voting Location Manager
• May 2022, Indian Run United Methodist Church, Voting Location Manager
• August 2022, Indian Run United Methodist Church, Voting Location Manager
• November 2022, Indian Run United Methodist Church, Voting Location Manager
• August 2023, Upper Arlington High School, Voting Location Manager
• November 2023, Lazelle Woods Recreation Center, Voting Location Manager
• March 2024, Thomas Elementary School, Voting Location Manager
• November 2024, Thomas Elementary School, Voting Location Manager

†: The aborted election at the start of the COVID pandemic. We got part of the way through the Monday night setup, then got the call from the Board of Elections to pack it in...there would be no election in March 2020.