After (Election Day) Math

 
I slept soundly Tuesday night, secure in the knowledge that no matter how each of my fellow Americans had voted, I had done all I could possibly have done in my community to support a fair and honest election process. When I woke up Wednesday morning I turned on the tv to find out where vote counts stood. Several states were too close to call including Alaska, Arizona, Georgia, North Carolina, Nevada, and Pennsylvania. Unfortunately both Florida and Ohio went for Trump which was disappointing. Worst and most surprising news of all: republicans still had control of the senate. Biden had a slight lead in the electoral college though so I remained calm and hopeful as votes continued to be counted. 
 
Greg woke up grumpy, disappointed and angry that Biden hadn’t won in a landslide. I tried to cheer him up by explaining how Biden had multiple paths to 270 electoral votes compared to Trump who had lower odds of winning this time. Greg remained frustrated and skeptical for the time being.
 
After an hour of tv news coverage I was ready to enjoy the day without wasting any more time or energy worrying about election results. Greg continued to check online, repeatedly refreshing his laptop screen every few minutes. Bless his heart.
 
Mid day I received a text message from the temp agency asking if I was available to help the Board of Elections staff with post election audit tasks. After discussing pros and cons with Greg I responded “yes” and asked when they needed me to come in. She said Thursday morning so I continued enjoying my day off. I typed up some blog notes and called son Reid to check in before taking a nap. Later Greg and I ate dinner together and watched a little tv, then went to bed early.
 
If you might be wondering why it takes so long for states to count ballots and certify results, I recommend you sit down with a hot cup of tea or coffee as you read the following…
 
Thursday morning I arrived at the BOE office to see a few other temps summoned to help close out election season. Each of us had been early voting leads and/or election day judges so we had enough knowledge and experience to be helpful with a variety of projects. Our first job was to pre-process roughly 1,500 provisional ballots by entering pertinent information into a database. Some of the ballot envelopes had been filled out incompletely with a cornucopia of small mistakes and missing information which complicated what should have been a straightforward task. To be clear, most of the judges had done everything right; there were only a few that could have been a wee bit better, neater, and easier to read. 
 
A few others worked on different projects along with BOE staffers. IT techs had their own close out checklists to complete. By Friday afternoon it looked like we were slightly ahead of schedule so the director gave some of the temps the weekend off.
 
Saturday Greg and I stopped by Myers Greenhouse to pick up a replacement rosemary plant for our herb garden. (The Salem variety I had planted in the spring did not live through the summer so I picked a healthy looking Arp this time.) Afterward we went grocery shopping together. Later in the day I typed up some blog notes between naps. Sunday I called to check in with my brother Randy, typed a few more notes, and napped a bit more. 
 
Monday morning I helped process write-in votes until it was discovered that some provisional ballots had not been pre-processed as previously thought. Several of us set about to double and triple check envelopes to be sure all were accounted for and entered into the database. Some of us worked late on that project while others worked even later on other tasks.
 
Tuesday I helped with a hand-to-eye ballot count audit for the purpose of verifying the accuracy of our DS200 voting machine tabulators. The State Board of Elections randomly selected 2 locations in Forsyth County (1 early voting site and 1 election day precinct) so there were 18 boxes of ballots for us to count by hand. 16 workers were divided into 4 groups of 4 sitting at tables with plexi dividers between us as a COVID precaution while everyone wore masks and gloves. Deputy director explained the process to us. Sealed boxes were carefully opened one at a time. IT tech oversaw web cameras and microphones so interested citizens could observe from home. Thankfully our only task was to count the number of votes for each presidential candidate; none of the down ballot races. As 1 person in each group called out the votes (Biden, Trump, etc.) another person in the group observed while 2 others kept tallies of the votes for each candidate. When any candidate received 5 votes, “tally” was called out so observers and tallyers could stay in sync more easily. With 4 groups in 1 room counting out loud simultaneously, it was a bit challenging to concentrate on a single count without being distracted by the other 3, though we managed alright. I can only imagine how we looked and sounded to observers watching and listening online. We began counting at 9am and finished by 10:30am, much faster than anticipated. Unfortunately our hand counts differed from the electronic counts by 6 votes so we took a quick break and regrouped to count again. This time we counted more slowly and paid closer attention to how neatly ovals were filled in by voters. If a voter was exceptionally sloppy or used check marks or an X to mark their ballot we flagged it with a post-it note for closer inspection. The second count was better, off by only 4 votes. It was determined that only 3 specific boxes needed to be counted a third time. After my group finished counting our box of ballots we took a late lunch break before resuming processing write-in votes. We learned later in the afternoon that the hand-to-eye count audit was a success with final hand counts matching electronic counts. Huzzah!
 
When the polls officially closed on election day, reports were run on each DS200 ballot tabulator which included a print out of all write-in votes cast that day. Election judges then transferred names to separate forms and tallied all the write-in votes to include with our end of day paperwork. However, this process did not capture write-in votes cast during the 17 day early voting period so we utilized a different process to record those votes. During early voting, every ballot containing a write-in was scanned and images were sorted by precinct. There are 101 precincts in Forsyth County so there were 101 PDFs to scroll through. Audit teams must include a mix of party affiliation (democrat, republican, unaffiliated, etc.) so workers were organized into teams of 3. My team was assigned 25 precincts which took 4 partial days to complete; 4 days of our lives we will never get back. I grumbled a bit while pre-processing provisional ballots though my frustration with low information voters and a few absent minded judges was minimal compared to the disdain I felt toward voters who wasted their votes with joke write-ins. I had no qualms counting legitimate write-in votes for potentially viable candidates in down ballot races. And I didn’t much mind counting conscientious objector votes for long shot presidential candidates like Mitt Romney and Bernie Sanders. Sure I wished more people in NC had voted for Biden than Trump, and wished the third party and write in votes had gone to Biden, but I understood and accepted that not everyone wanted simply to choose between Biden or Trump. However, the voters who wrote in Batman, Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck, Mark Cuban, Ric Flair (Woo!), John Wayne, John Doe, Jeff Bridges aka "The Dude", anyone else, friends or family members wasted their votes. They also wasted valuable time and tax dollars as paid workers were forced to record their ridiculous votes. Like failed stand-up comics, these a-holes were not at all funny. Complicating the task further, PDFs included absentee mail in votes which needed to be processed separately, though we didn’t realize that until after we had tallied several precincts. We carefully corrected those tally sheets before proceeding. Thursday morning when we thought we were finally done, we were then asked to highlight and index votes for specific candidates in competitive races, which we did, no problem.
 
Processing write-in votes was like peeling a rotten onion with each rancid layer revealing yet another underneath. It was definitely my least favorite task by far compared to all others. Still, I felt guilty for complaining because a different team had the unenviable task of processing payroll for 900+ election day workers. Large binders were filled with color coded forms. Pertinent information had to be entered into complicated spreadsheets. Some forms were missing which created delays. Processing instructions changed, complicating matters further. Eventually the deputy director took charge of the project and sorted out issues so the team could finally finish.
 
Another Thursday morning task involved provisional ballots cast by confused voters in incorrect precincts. Votes had to be transferred to proper ballots (163 different ballot styles in Forsyth County) so again we worked in teams of 3 to triple check ourselves for accuracy. The last provisional ballot was processed around noon so we were given a long lunch break before the 2pm board meeting began.
 
My team felt like three amigos working together on several projects. It truly was a pleasure working with them and others in the BOE office, despite long hours and pressure to meet deadlines. After lunch most of the temps went home though a few lingered in case we could be helpful during the board meeting. Initially we weren’t needed so some of us took a quick tour of the basement to see the old brick foundation of the original building. There was standing water in some areas due to heavy rains though boxes of documents were stored on higher shelves, dry and safe. Next project was a curbside voter audit, making sure all curbside voters were correctly noted in the database. Midway through this project we were interrupted and asked to return to the board room.
 
In an adjacent room, the deputy director ran mail in ballot envelopes through a machine to slice them open. It reminded me of a deli meat slicer except louder and faster. Inside the board room, a team of 3 removed ballots from envelopes and flattened them for scanning into a DS200 tabulator. White paper dust from the envelopes collected on the table and also on my clothes, making me look like a sloppy lab tech in a cocaine packaging facility. (No I've never seen cocaine up close; it's just the image that came to mind due to watching too many crime shows and movies.) There weren't a lot of ballots postmarked by November 3 and received by November 12, just a few hundred, so it didn't take long to complete that task. 
 
Back in the office we finished up the curbside project, as much of it as we could do, leaving a few for the director to research. 

After finishing all assigned tasks, I walked to my car with mixed emotions, glad to be done but also sad to be leaving. I would have liked to have continued working in the office longer if they needed me, indefinitely perhaps.