Author: Kim Strach, Executive Director
Polling Site Preparedness
As county directors, you are well aware that proper use and preparation of a voting site is an essential part of ensuring a fair and efficient voting process. With 21 days before the first day of in-person voting, we have to be ready for any issue that could affect the voting process. As you finalize your plans for both one-stop early voting and Election Day, please keep the following issues in mind.
Avoiding Long Lines: Resource Management
Having the right combination of staffing and equipment in a voting site is key to addressing voting traffic. Our data team will soon be sending you an email with instructions for response that will enable us to use your historical knowledge of traffic patterns and other factors affecting the movement of people in and out of your voting sites. We will use that data to run predictive analytics as to how resources might be most efficiently allocated. We will provide you a report of those findings, which we hope will be useful to you as a tool for managing voter traffic.
Polling Site Arrangement
Effective polling site arrangement can alleviate potential problems at a voting site. Each site must have the ability to accommodate as many as nine appointed election observers at any one time (two precinct-specific observers and one at-large observer from each of the three parties). The plan to accommodate these observers must afford the observer the ability to hear the voter at the check-in station, yet not place the observer in a position to impede or interfere in the voting process.
The polling site must be arranged in a manner that would make it difficult if not impossible for a provisional voter to insert a provisional ballot in a tabulator. Precinct officials should be applying a mark on provisional ballots in the event that they have to be retrieved from the tabulator. Data from previous elections shows that some Election Day precinct sites have been unable to retrieve some provisional ballots inserted into the tabulator because the marking had not been applied. Your best practice will be to create a traffic flow that would not allow provisional voters access to the tabulator.
Electronic Devices in Polling Sites
As we discussed at statewide training, phones and electronic devices will be allowed inside the voting enclosure as long as the devices are not interfering with or distracting the voting process. Voters are also allowed to have phones or electronic devices while voting as long as those devices are not being used to photograph a ballot or to communicate with anyone via voice communication, text, email or any other method. Voters, especially younger or first-time voters, may not know that it is a violation of law to photograph their ballot or that they are not permitted to communicate with an electronic device while in the act of voting.
Most voters will comply with requirements and restrictions if they understand what the rules are. We must convey the prohibition clearly, particularly given the current popularity of “selfies.” Polling site officials can refer to the prohibitions in their instructions to the voter during the check-in process, but another effective way to convey the message is through prominent placement of appropriately worded signs. Prominent signage gives notice to the voter and may even deter voters who might otherwise disregard or misunderstand or fail to hear oral instruction. This memo includes signage language for your use.
Observers
Your polling site preparations must include structured plans to accommodate appointed election observers. Election officials and observers should have the same expectations regarding conduct and access to information in and around the polling site. In an effort to provide the state political parties with uniform instructions for training appointed observers, we have created a two-page information sheet and a short video for prospective observers. A copy of the information sheet is attached to this memo, and a video is posted here: Video: Tips for Monitoring or Observing the Election at Polling Site | NCSBE on Vimeo.
Electronic devices in the possession of observers may not be used to film or take pictures inside the voting enclosure. An observer who wishes to record the image of a specific voter shall obtain the consent of both the voter and the chief judge or one-stop site manager. An observer who wishes to record the image of a candidate in the voting enclosure need only obtain the consent of the candidate.
Runners may be appointed by the county political parties, though those individuals shall only enter the voting enclosure at 10 a.m., 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. for the express purpose of obtaining a list of voters who have voted. If the polling site is not equipped with the means to print out this list and if no observer is present to create it, the runner may compile the list from the ATV forms at the ballot table within the voting site. However, if an observer is present in the voting enclosure at a site that cannot generate a print-out of the list, the observer shall compile the list to give to the runner at the appointed times.
Each county must have a plan at every voting site to ensure that only authorized observers and the authorized number of observers are allowed within the voting enclosure at any time throughout the voting day. In the last presidential election, we did not have at-large observers, so please note that there may be more observers present at voting sites during this election.
Turnout and Wait Time Monitoring
Turnout and wait time data is an invaluable tool for assessing resource needs for future elections and is of great interest to the public. We understand the many responsibilities and demands that election officials have at voting sites, as well as the constraints on their time. In the past few elections, workers at each Election Day precinct have been required to use a paper form provided by our office to manually document turnout and wait times at various points throughout the day. Given the importance of this data for review of one-stop early voting sites, we are asking workers to record such data beginning Oct. 20. We are putting together a simple method of data collection that will not only be easy to use but will require very little data input. The plan is to collect data via email or SMS (texting). More specific information will be forthcoming.
Curbside Voters Preparations
Curbside voting has expanded significantly across the state in recent years, posing logistical challenges for elections administrators working to apply critical elections processes to a curbside context. State law requires that county boards of election, where practical, establish a buffer zone at 50’ from the door to the entrance of the voting place, and no less than 25’ from the door. G.S. § 163-166.4(a). State Board members have repeatedly stressed the need for comparable protections for curbside voters. We understand that certain voting locations may not logistically accommodate a curbside buffer as described in G.S. § 163-166.4(a). The county’s effort should be to effectuate the legislature’s intent to protect voters from intimidation and campaign activity during the check-in and voting process.
Past guidance that had permitted electioneering up until the point at which the curbside voter received a ballot has presented logistical and enforcement problems. In order to preserve the voter’s statutory right of privacy, we will no longer permit electioneering to take place in the area where curbside voting occurs. Please mark the curbside voting area with proper and easily visible signage. Your county may also find it helpful to post signage that prohibits electioneering in that area. If a voting location cannot accommodate the 50’ or 25’ buffer, a reasonable boundary should be established to ensure the curbside area remains free of electioneering.
A number of counties have requested guidance regarding the rights and responsibilities of appointed observers with respect to vans or buses that use curbside voting. Observers have a legitimate interest in hearing whether elections officials ask voters to state their names and addresses and seeing whether the curbside affidavit is submitted as required under 08 NCAC 10B.0108. Observers may also be interested in ensuring that unrequested voter assistance is not occurring.
However, observers are not entitled to watch voters mark their ballots; election administrators must make every effort to preserve the privacy of curbside voters to a degree comparable to that enjoyed by voters within the regular voting place. An observer cannot be permitted to hover around the window of a vehicle close enough to see the ballot, but may be permitted to stand at a reasonable distance to observe activity within the vehicle to ensure the voter is not improperly assisted. Buses and large vehicles pose particular challenges for observers. In navigating the varied scenarios that may arise, officials should work to allow observers as much access as is feasible. However, because voters within a large vehicle may be in various stages of the voting process — some marking ballots while others are checking in—an observer may not compromise the privacy due the voter by boarding a bus or vehicle. Election officials should also bear in mind that curbside vehicles are not the property of the county board. No election official is in a position to authorize an observer to board someone else’s property. Please note that voting curbside does not suspend the usual rules governing voter assistance described in Voter Assistance: Numbered Memo 2016-16; voters must still communicate their request for assistance and the individual providing assistance must be qualified to do so.*
*Some counties have expressed concern over assistance to curbside voters provided by care facility staff, which is prohibited in the mail-in absentee context. G.S. 163-226.3(a)(4). Such assistance is not prohibited on Election Day or at one-stop early voting locations, so long as the assistance is otherwise requested and approved. See G.S. § 163-227.2(e) (“A voter at a one-stop site shall be entitled to the same assistance as a voter at a voting place on Election Day under G.S. § 163-166.8.”)
[Download the PDF below to access an election observer infosheet and signage regarding the use of electronic devices.]