I thought I was done with this #electionofficer thread because the #elections were Tuesday. But not quite.

I found out today that my collector officers were the very first out of all 19 precincts to turn in their results. They got cheers from the staff when they arrived. There aren’t a lot of trophies or bragging rights in elections, but getting stuff turned in fast and accurate is something to be proud of.

Nobody had to do the “walk of shame” on Wednesday, and we were really fast getting out.

What is the walk of shame? We have umpteen different forms that have to be signed. Some by any 2 officers, some by all officers, some by the chief, etc. Overnight, the County officials check all the paperwork for all the required signatures. If any are missing, they call the various officers and make them come in on Wednesday and sign what they missed. I’ve had to do that once. So you’re in line with a bunch of other officers and you all know why you’re all there. 😜

So we got out fast and had no errors. That makes me feel good.

This thread is getting a little attention so I thought I would add one more #electionofficer opinion. This is my personal opinion and I speak for no one but me.

Fairfax County #elections are secure.

The election hacking happens every day EXCEPT #electionday. Otherwise well-intentioned people are persuaded to vote for republican troglodytes. Then we very securely use a trustworthy mechanism to correctly and accurately record those votes.

We have so many checks, double checks, 2-person reviews, double-entry book keeping, etc. It is just impossible in my mind to alter an election result with foul play. Every precinct is gonna have one or two irregularities. But those are along the lines of maybe we checked in the wrong voter (checking in Arturo Sanchez Jr, when it was Arturo Sanchez Sr who came in).

It is super unlikely that someone who is totally ineligible to vote wanders in, gives their name, shows some ID (or solemnly swears they are themselves) and votes. Even if one or two got by (which I highly doubt) you wouldn’t get one in every precinct. You couldn’t do it at a scale that could change a result.

So my opinion is that people should look elsewhere to influence elections. Get out the vote, fight disinformation, build community, etc. But don’t spend time on conspiracy theories about space lasers hacking voting machines or some such shit.

@blogdiva Volunteer isn’t exactly the right word. I’m paid $350 for this day. I did have to take the day off work (which pays more than $350), and I have to take a bit of time off work to do some mandatory trainings (like 4-6 hours a year). But I do take the money.

As a chief #electionofficer I have to pick up supplies on Monday, lead the precinct setup that afternoon, and drive a bunch of stuff to the government center after the election. Hence the extra money.

Assistant chiefs get $300, because they do more training and more work than officers, but don’t have the extra errand running that chiefs do.

Regular officers get $250. They optional help set up on Monday, shown up at 5:00am on Tuesday, and go home afterwards. Minimal training.

Electing a democratic governor got me a $50 raise for the next few elections. 😜 (chief is always the same party as the sitting governor: some weird Virginia election law)

My crew was great this time. Everyone was experienced. Nobody wondered what to do. It’s really one of the best teams I’ve ever worked with. I just asked them to do stuff and the next thing I know, it was done.

Virginia has a strange rule that the chief in the precinct has to be the same party as the sitting governor. So for the last 4 years, I was always assistant chief. For the next 4 I will always be chief. I’m fine with that.

I suspect they picked experienced people for this one because we did it with minimal prep and a small crew. As far as I’m concerned, it worked out great.

I’m tired. Goodnight all. I hope you enjoyed reading about #elections from an #electionofficer point of view.

12/fin

Closing has 3 phases:

11/
#elections #electionofficer

Fina couple #electionofficer posts for today. We had about 270 in-person voters in a precinct of about 2500. Add to that I think 100 absentee and early voters and this precinct had a participation rate of about 15%.

The vote total was about 170 D to 100 R. So the democrat took it handily.

Very few unusual scenarios. Last special election, in October, was election on hard mode. My precinct at the time (Centreville Public Library) hit like 19 out of 23 “what if”s. Today we did the inverse: 4 of them.

10/
#elections

So we have been visited by 2 different members of the board of elections. One member and the chair. With only 19 precincts in a compact district, they can do that. Chair Hanley was impressive. Former Secretary of the Commonwealth, former chair of the Board of Supervisors in Fairfax. And nice. Apparently she is 82 years old. I wish I could be as active, bright, and engaged at 82.

Having said that, we should have mandatory retirement ages and term limits on most elected positions. Since it is clear that some generations won’t willingly give up power, we kinda need to force it.

https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/elections/electoral-board-members-0

9/
#elections #electionofficer

I think the schools save money by not running much heat over the weekend. Then yesterday was also a holiday. And it’s been really cold here the last few days. The upshot of all this is that this wing of the school is COLD. Of the 6 officers here today 4 are wearing coats and/or hats. And there’s a bit of work we have to do outside (signage and such at the beginning and end of the day), which is super cold.

We have spoken to the school staff. They’re doing what they can.

Maybe we will pile up some ballots in the center of the room and make a campfire to warm ourselves up. 😜

8/
#electionofficer #elections