Tips for Registrars

BE PREPARED

IF A DISTRICT IN YOUR TOWN IS SELECTED

IF A DISTRICT IN YOUR TOWN IS SELECTED… cont.

• Security of ballots and verification of seals• Do you have ALL your machine-counted ballots?• Swear in workers.• Set-up your audit site—adequate space, light.• Use 4-person teams, balanced by party affiliation

or with unaffiliated workers—1 reader, 1 observer, 2 hash-markers.

• Brief your workers on their jobs. Answer questions

• Security of ballots and verification of seals• Do you have ALL your machine-counted ballots?• Swear in workers.• Set-up your audit site—adequate space, light.• Use 4-person teams, balanced by party affiliation

or with unaffiliated workers—1 reader, 1 observer, 2 hash-markers.

• Brief your workers on their jobs. Answer questions

Audit Day…cont.

• Transfer each team’s totals, by candidate, onto master worksheet.

• Registrars add other teams’ results and compare with the tabulator tape.

• Registrars record & describe any candidate votes that are “questionable” on the SOTS Audit Report in Column E.

Handling DiscrepanciesGeneral concepts

Re-check most recent tabulation.•Math errors• Hashmark totals• Questionable votes

Recount if necessary.• Switch readers• Use fresh worksheets.

Questionable Ballots

• Machine reads many votes correctly if bubble partially filled, circled, or X’ed.

• When in doubt, add to Column E and describe. These votes may explain your discrepancies.

• Count 1 vote—Party Unknown—for Cross-endorsed candidates if both ovals filled.

• True overvotes are not counted by machine.

Use “blind counting” when you count or recount any race.

Smaller batches of ballots are easier to count and reconcile.

Do not make any marks on the ballot.Don’t move on to next step in tabulating

totals until previous calculations are reconciled.

Your role is to supervise and solve problems, not to count.

Wethersfield Procedures• Registrars pick up the ballots for selected

District(s) . Make sure you have all the ballots that went through the machine. Keep ballots under supervision at all times.

• Compare seal numbers on the ballot bag to the Moderators return—should be in ballot bag.

• Teams of three: one reader, one hash marker, and one to check on both.

Wethersfield cont.• The ballots are viewed one by one and placed in

two piles: one that the machine could read and second that the machine maybe didn’t read.

• Count and batch ballots into piles of 25.• Verify total against the tape from election night.• Then the hand count of each pile begins. Sticky

note on each pile for number 1 etc. and the breakdown is placed on top of each pile secured with a paper clip.

 

Wethersfield cont. • Each table does its count. If there are any

discrepancies, a different table does the second count. Continue until all ballots are accounted for against the tape.

• Complete the SOTS form totally and attach a duplicate tape from election night. If it does not balance with the protocol, you count again until there is a correct count. If you cannot explain differences you must report to SOTS.

Wethersfield cont. • All ballots are resealed into the containers

and returned to the locked storage, by both registrars.

• Reminder: Observers are allowed and encouraged to see the whole process but not to interfere.

Party Line Ballots• Many medium size to large cities

will have voters that tend to vote party lines

• 2 people working together

• Put all ballots in same direction –

• look at each ballot to see if it is a straight line voting ballot & able to be counted by the Tabulator

Put top line straight voted ballots in one pile (Republicans)

Put next line straight voted ballots in one pile (Democrats)

Put all other ballots that do not fit any straight line voting in the last pile

Take each pile and count ballots in groups of “10“

crises crossing ballots in each pile

Record number on sticky on top of ballot piles

Verify number of ballots

Record numbers for each candidate on the Republican line from the sticky on that pile

Record number for each candidate on the Democratic line from the sticky on that pile

Now the two of you must do the third pile together

One reads – one records

By counting by the 10’s we find it easier to find one’s counting errors

By separating the ballots by voting lines - you save time in

reading each ballot

Many counters eyes get very tired & errors occur when counting large numbers of ballots

If you can use observers to watch the process – they sometimes will see errors that counters or recorders make when getting tired

Try not to go over 4 hours – the adult learning ability is at it’s maximum at 4 hours

If you are doing multiple counting groups in the same room – it is nice when everyone is doing the same procedure.

But remember that not all people can do every

procedure they may have a style

themselves & they should try it.