by Janice Stewart
A few weeks ago, Bacon’s Rebellion writer Jim Sherlock recounted his positive experience with drive-up voting in Virginia Beach. Good deal, I thought. Jim and his wife had an easier voting experience, and he gave the election officials who assisted them high marks. What’s not to like?
Yesterday, I served as an election observer in a Richmond-area early voting location. In preparation, I completed a course in voting procedure. As I read the course material, I began to see ways in which drive-up voting did not conform with some basic precepts and safeguards of voting process.
Let’s look first at what happens when a voter enters a polling place and requests assistance in voting.
The request triggers the filling out of a two-part form. The voter states the assistance needed in the first part, and the person who provides the assistance (an official from the registrar’s office) fills out the second part, so that the person providing the assistance is known in the event of any discrepancy. There are strict rules about what the assisting person can/cannot do, and one of the forbidden things is to “handle the ballot” unless the person requiring assistance is physically unable to do it. Voters must perform as much of the process as they are able, including the feeding of the ballot into the ballot box/machine. The principle that once your ballot is handed to you, only you may handle it and see it until the vote is cast pervades every aspect of voting practice. Continue reading
