I worked two early voting assignments and I will work election day. As election inspectors, we are trained by the Board of Elections to run the voting check-in, the vote casting machines, and the voting sites. We are admonished to work with calm disregard for the politics contained there within, swirling around us like dust from a stone saw. Our job is to get every registered voter who wishes to vote a clear clean passageway to express their preferences in secret and in security.

 

I won’t sugarcoat it. It is complicated. There are a lot of steps involved in running an election -- setting up the voting center, clearing a person to vote, activating, running and closing the vote casting machines. We have to focus our attention. We can’t remember everything. There are long checklists. It takes an hour to set up of the polls in the morning. We arrive before 5 am. We introduce ourselves. We sign in on the pay sheet. (We do get paid.) We plug in the ballot printer, load the long sheets of white, empty paper. We plug in the registration booklet, set out the special pens. We put the no canvasing signs 100 feet from the front door. We put out the “Vote Here” sign and take our first voter at exactly 6 am.

 

Early voting is a little different. The poll’s tables and equipment were set up by the crews the first day and remain, and the hours of voting are staggered to allow people with unconventional work schedules an opportunity to find the time appropriate to their needs. 

 

While I was putting up the “No Canvassing Beyond This Point” notices, I couldn’t help but regard a big white sign promoting the re-election of the coounty’s sheriff. The sign was on private property directly across from the entrance to the voting site. Perfectly legal. I took some comfort in realizing the campaign sign would be most visible to voters on their way out, AFTER the voters voted, rather than before. 

 

What was disturbing happened during the middle of the afternoon. A deputy sheriff came into the polls and walked down the line of election inspectors as if he was in control of something. His boss is on the ballot. The deputy was not there to vote. No one called him. In violation of election law, he was armed. No guns allowed in a place of voting. I was picking up privacy sleeves from the machine operators when I looked up and the officer was in front of me and, seeing my skeptical look, he proclaimed, “Just here checking up,” as if he knew his actions were somehow out of line. 

 

But his unsolicited conduct is not surprising given that his boss, Sheriff Arteta, is part of a lawsuit against the State of New York. The lawsuit seeks to allow his officers to assist Custom Enforcement (ICE) agents. It seems, if the sheriff had his way, Federal Agents would be in the voting stations and his jail would be full of asylum seekers. As of November 25, by order of the state, the sheriff will no longer be getting federal dollars for ICE detainees in his jail. Extreme policing actions are great revenue streams for someone. I have owned a fair amount of stocks over the years, but I would never own stocks in a private, or public, company that gets its profits from administering prison systems. Prisons for profit want one thing – prisoners.  Do I want our county jail being run for a stream of revenue? No. If ICE restricted their actions to chasing illegal immigrants with criminal records and dangerous histories, that would be one thing, but they don’t. If they could, they would go out into the black dirt of Orange County, with the sheriff standing by, to pull workers out by the backs of their shirts, throw them into the county jail, or a converted warehouse, the same way ICE agents chase strawberry pickers across the fields of California. Get that revenue, enlarge the castle! I do not want the sheriff assisting an armed, secret police force utterly unaccountable to the public by proclamation of the Secretary of Homeland Security. 

 

As New York State election inspectors, we need you to do four things before we can issue you a ballot to vote. One, give us your name. We type it in. We see if you are registered by the country Board of Elections to vote. Next, give us your address. We confirm it with our database. Third, reveal your birthday. (What if there are three people with the same name at he same address? Sr, Jr, the 3rd?). Fourth, you must sign the book so we can match your signature to the one on file. We cannot show you your signature so you can try to match it. We cannot tell you your address. We cannot give you your birthday. These are the safeguards to a clean election. If you see that these rules are not being adhered to by the poll inspectors in front of you, notify the chairperson running the polling site.

 

If your name is not in the book, you may be able to vote by affidavit ballot. After direct conversation with the Board of Elections to try and clarify the discrepancy, this ballot will be reviewed for legitimacy later by the Board. Each sign-in is conducted simultaneously by two inspectors, one from each major party. Both must agree. The Board of Elections is also run by both major political parties. There is a Republican Commissioner and a Democratic Commissioner. 

 

There is a lot of talk about voter ID cards. In New York, we are not allowed to look at your driver’s license. Can’t read it anyway; the writing is so small. Democrats believe the push for voter ID cards is an attempt to disenfranchise tens of thousands of voters who do not have the means to get the new cards. Do you know how hard it is to get a new birth certificate? If enough time were allocated and assistance set aside for every registered voter on record to be reregistered without penalty to the voter, I could see voter ID cards in the future. There would be a Board of Election card to scan, but, in all fairness, the 4-step sign-in must still remain. You will still have to match your signature.  

 

Let me point out that the number of illegal aliens attempting to vote during the two days of early voting that I worked was astounding. Zero.

 

I don’t like the idea of people voting in a mosque. Do you agree? Oh, a lot of you! I don’t like the idea of people voting in a synagogue. Do you? Oh, ok, fewer. And you know what? I don’t think people should be required to go to churches to cast their vote in sectarian government elections. Do you agree? Almost no-one? So, you are ok with going to a mosque vote? If not a mosque, then not a church. I say, make the separation of church and state real. 

 

At the close of the polls, I whispered another blasphemy, “Let’s take half of these national holidays, wrap them into one day – take President’s Day, Veterans Day, Flag Day -- and make them all one day, one national holiday – Election Day! A national holiday, everyone off work except the farmers and the poll workers. Then, to each registered voter successfully casting a ballot, send them a thousand-dollar check before Thanksgiving! Financed, in part, by a 20% tax on every donation over $50 to a Political Action Committee (PAC).”

 

Applause! 

 

Peace, brother.