It may not have been a cruise on the Mediterranean but it was very informative, and entertaining too. And, the Yavapai County Recorder’s office in Prescott has developed a great itinerary. I was fortunate to join several other Leaguers as we took this tour last month, so here is my travelogue.
The morning began meeting our guides – Michelle Burchill (Recorder), Laurin Custis (Director of Elections) and Matt Webber (Registrar). We first explored the lay of the land. Did you know that in Arizona the Recorder processes and maintains the Voter Registration database, and administers early voting? That includes mailing ballots, overseeing drop boxes, holding early voting and validating signatures on mail ballot envelopes. The Director of Elections hires poll workers and conducts Election Day Voting. They also work with the state and jurisdictions to create the ballots. Did you know that in Yavapai alone, there will be over 700 styles of ballot for all the unique local combination of races? The Director of Elections also does the important work of tabulating the ballots.
The most popular spot on the tour is definitely early balloting. 83% of voters in Yavapai voted early, either in person or by mail. Speaking of mail – if you’re tempted to use the mail for your ballot, along with your tour post cards – think about ballot boxes instead. These are very secure. Your ballot is never touched by anyone other than an election worker – and they saved the county $48,000 in return postage fees last election cycle.
So, on to voting! We each had a sealed mail ballot to open – carefully so we didn’t rip it. Our candidates for consideration as a favorite cookie – Oreo, Chocolate Chip or Peanut Butter (no spoilers here – wait until the end). We marked our ballots, then signed and sealed the envelope.
Next stop – the ballot box. We went to the one indoors at the Recorder’s office. Woosh – ballot deposited. From there we watched the entire process with multiple people and many checks and balances. Two collectors for the locked ballot box, with two keys. Ballots were placed and sealed in secure pouches; all documented every step of the way. On to counting the unopened ballots, placed in batches of 100 and again, sealed in boxes awaiting processing. Next – off came the tabs covering the signature and the envelopes were ready to signature verify. We were each called in separately to see our own signature validated. The worker pulled up the signature record and pointed out some very distinctive parts of my own signature. It was clearly me (if there are questions or concerns – they would go to a next level of validation).
From there on to the count in another secure room. We were only allowed in because the tours occur when no elections are live. Strictly controlled access, 24/7 live video feed when elections are ongoing and multiple windows for external viewing by interested voters. The envelopes were cut open, another count of ballots and envelopes was checked and then the envelope and ballot said goodbye. One to storage and one to the tabulator.
The tabulators were secure within the room – no external internet contact at all. The ballots were fed in, races tallied and images made of each ballot. Images of any uncertain ballots were noted for a process called adjudication. To keep our tour lively the staff had added some additional ballots with examples of these uncertainties such as double votes, strike outs and other unusual things a voter might do – adding ballots could not have been done in a live election – strict ballot counts are maintained every step of the way. For any uncertain ballots two workers, from different parties, each signed in with half a password to access images of the uncertain ballot. They had a list of examples on how to interpret a clear voter intent – for example if the voter scratched one vote out and wrote “this one” next to the second vote. The two workers had to agree or the ballot was not marked as tabulated. I had heard about adjudication before – but it was quite impressive to see how careful the effort was to determine voter intent.
After all of this, the final tally was logged on the secure server. No one saw the final tally, not the workers, not the Recorder, not the Director of Elections. While mail ballot processing may begin as ballots come in, no results are known or released until 7 pm on election day. These, of course, are largely mail ballots as ballots from polls need to be transported and then tallied.
The whole effort was quite impressive – conducted carefully, and securely by workers dedicated to fair results, controlled and validated all along the way. I already believed we have good election systems in Arizona, I am now even more convinced we have a great system in Yavapai and any voter can place full confidence in fair results.
Oh, and my candidate won – we were all given a peanut butter cookie at the end of the tour!
Tours are on hold right now as the real work of primary and local elections is now beginning. If breaks in the busy season allow, the county will run additional tours, possibly in the Fall or again next year. If you’d like to see this all for yourself, contact Courtney.Comstock@YavapaiAZ.gov to get on the list for future tours. |