Mastodawn

So Virginia has a special election on April 21 because we have a constitutional amendment on the ballot.

Any of you who have seen my #electionofficer posts know that I'll live post throughout the day. I just got my assignment.

Back in January, I was at a library where I called it "election officer on hard mode." Every possible edge case came through at least once. And 33% of people who walked in the door were turned away because they thought they could vote there, but they couldn't.¹

I'm back at that precinct in April. Expect more craziness from me on Tuesday April 21.

¹ if this sounds bad, it isn't, I'll explain in a reply to this post.

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The Department of Elections envisions an electoral process that is trustworthy and accountable at all levels and engages Virginia’s diverse citizenry in the most fundamental right - the right to vote.

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Paco Hope 15h ago

Why did we turn 1/3 of people away!? That sounds terrible!

The precinct is a public library. In the weeks running up to an election, many libraries like this one are satellite voting locations. Anyone in Fairfax County can walk up and identify themselves. They confirm eligibility, figure out what precinct you're in, and print the right ballot for you. Doesn't matter what precinct you live in for early voting, they handle the whole county at all satellite voting locations.

On election day, however, that library is exactly one precinct. The only people who can vote in the library on election day are people who live nearby in the precinct. We only have ballots for that one.

This leads to voter frustration because they'll come in on Tuesday and say "but my spouse just voted here on Friday!!" and they're right. Their spouse did vote here on Friday. But they can't vote here on Tuesday.

It kinda sucks. But it is what it is.

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Amy Maybe

@paco Yeah, that is confusing. I can see why people would be annoyed. (Thank you for doing this important work!)