 Okay, there we go. Okay, so that has started. So let me just share my slides. Share my screen. There we go. Can everybody see that? Yes. Oh, awesome. All right. Okay. I'm not a little, you know, I'm a little techno on savvy sometimes. And let me just do one more thing to the minute I did that. It bumped me out of my big screen. Now I can't see who's waiting. Let me see. I think it's over here. Here we go. Here we go. All right. Okay. So we have, so this is pretty much exactly the same as the last time. And I hope I don't bore you all, but, you know, this will be great to ask questions that maybe thought of from the last time, but. So we've just had a special election in May. And this is another town election coming up in November. And so it's going to be the same as far as, you know, the balloting goes. You're going to be dealing with precincts. You're going to have to make sure you're handing out the proper ballot to the proper, I mean, well, let me backtrack. Let me backtrack. Let's just start at the beginning here. I'm jumping in the middle. Okay. The objective, of course, is to give everybody the information that you need to ensure the voters who come to your polling place receive the most efficient and courteous service possible. Just a listing of all the different polling places in their precinct numbers and their district numbers. We do provide parking placards for those who work at the bank center, which is precinct five a. In fact, so polls open at seven in the morning and they close at seven in the morning. We ask that those are working the morning shift arrive at six a.m. at your polling place. A console will meet you there to open up the doors. And if you're working in afternoon shift, just, you know, five or 10 minutes before your shift starts would be adequate for arriving so that you can get any information that the person before you has that needs to be passed on. Breaks and meals throughout the day. Please plan on bringing your own food. And you can take a break as needed anytime you need to. Okay, you just have to let your warden know that you're needing to take a break for whatever reason. And name tags will be provided, which you should wear so that the worker or everybody knows who's who's there and who's in charge, who's working. And also so that the voters know who's to contact if they have any questions. Talking politics have to mention that, you know, under no circumstances should you be talking politics while you're working. If you have something to say, you can say it on your break outside of the polling place, you know, that kind of thing, but keep inside when you're working. Strictly business, basically. We're there to facilitate facilitate the elections. And of course, this really shouldn't be said, but going to say it anyway, all voters should be treated with respect courtesy in the same level of service that, you know, everyone treats gets treated equally. So what's on the ballot. So this is our by any old town election. So we're electing the counselors at large. There's three of those. All of our district one through five counselors is two per district. So that's 13 counselors. And then the school committee, the Jones library trustees, the housing authority, and the Oliver Smith will elect her. So you'll see candidates on the ballot for all of these offices, except for the Oliver Smith will elect her. Nobody took out papers for that position. So it's going to be strictly right ends. And I'm just going to pause for a quick second, because I see two more people in the waiting room. Okay. All right. Okay. So again, a little reminder of who does what at the polling place. So you've got your wardens, your clerks, your election workers, all of you guys, almost all of you guys and the constable. So the warden is the chief election official at the polling location. They're in charge. They supervise the happenings of what's going on. They are also in charge of handling any inactive, challenged or provisional voters. They maintain the order and they also handle any kind of violations of election law. And the clerk is the official record keeper for all facts relating to the election. As required by law. They're going to record any unusual happenings. So things like, um, power flicked off and on, um, or, you know, somebody came in and caused a disturbance. So things like that, besides the usual things like, you know, ballots arrived, we received this many ballots. Um, I was going to say, if you guys could mute because I hear some background noise, do you mind? Okay. Okay. Yeah. Give you a second. Can everybody mute? Yeah. I can mute you all as well. Okay. All right. It's bad enough. I have all this construction on in the back of me here. I don't know if you can hear it on my end, but, uh, yeah. Um, so back to the clerk. They keep the election record and they may work on that with the warden at the end of the night. Um, and they read and record the ballot box registered before and after the election. So that means they say, you know, zero votes on the tape. Um, and they're like, I don't know, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. But at the end of the night, they can say how many votes. There were for that precinct. At the close of polls. Election workers. So. Basically we staff for two people at the check-in table and we staff for one person at the ballot box. And, um, duties would be, you know, it depends on your polling place and your warden, but, um, sometimes people get shuffled around. And I think that's really important, especially for the warden, because if you, um, Feel you're particularly good at doing one thing, you can speak to the warden, so I'd love to do this task for the whole time. Or okay, I'd love to try another task. Could I stand at the ballot box instead of sitting at the check-in table? But, you know, discuss that with your warden. But basically two people to check in one at the ballot box. If you're at the check-in, you're going to be handing out ballots. You're going to be assisting voters. like people that need special assistance that may be ADA handicapped, you're going to recommend that we have a auto mark voter assist terminal that they can use if they don't wish to vote the ballot in the booth, different things like that. And the constable, last but not least, he's our presence to, he's maintaining order. He will be there if anything should happen. He is your link to the police department basically. So, yeah, that's pretty much it for him. All right. And Susan? Yes, who's that? Nancy, Eddie, can I just ask you a question? It seems to me in the May election, we did not have an election worker at the ballot box. Is that a new policy or maybe you were just short staffed and didn't have someone that time? I'm thinking that. I'm thinking that might have happened, but we do schedule for that. So, they should have been at the ballot box. Yeah, yeah. But you know what happens? I mean, we've got everybody all scheduled a month out, two months out in this case, for this coming election. And as you get closer and closer, you know, I mean, we had a couple of people had COVID and they called out that sort of thing. So, it's not always easy to find a replacement. But this is what we aim for, two people at the check-in and one at the ballot box. So, your equipment, again, it's all going to be delivered by the constable in the morning. They come here around 5.15, 5.30 in the morning and they pick up the tabulator, they pick up the election supply trunk, they pick up the warden's box and they pick up the unvoted ballots. And so, the tabulator we're using, again, the image cast tabulator. The warden and the clerk are responsible for setting it up. Okay. You can assist and watch and all that, but it's up to the warden and the clerk to, they're going to have the key fob that's needed to start the machine up. So, they'll be responsible for all that. But the voters, again, they're going to be placing their ballots through this tabulator. It's pretty much the same as the old tabulators on the ballot can go into the tabulator in any orientation. And this machine, though, tells the voter that the ballot was counted. I think it gives them a big green check mark. And so, you can, you know, whoever's working the ballot box, you can tell the voter that, you know, once they put the ballot through, tell them, just hold on a second and we'll look for that green check mark that says your ballot has been cast. That's a nice confirmation that it's been counted. And if there's any errors, this particular tabulator will tell the voter. Now, this is where the voter, you know, if there's a problem and the ballot gets spit back out again, actually the ballot doesn't get spit, I'm sorry, I'm thinking of the old machines. I used to work with those for so long that they're ingrained in my head. This machine won't spit the ballot out. But if they don't get that green check mark, it's going to explain why. So there's going to be a message on the LCD screen that the voter should look at and see what's going on. It's going to give the voter an option. So depending on what the error is, the voter can, the machine will either spit it back out or it can get voted as is depending on what the error is. There's a couple of different kinds of errors. So always be looking at that LCD screen or tell the voter to be checking the LCD screen when they, when they put their ballot through the tabulator. And that tabulator sits on a ballot box. So that's that big black thing that the ballots, you know, get dropped into. It separates the ballots by write-ins and by non-write-ins, which makes it nice and easy for the end of the night. You can pull those two groups of ballots out in separate bundles. And it also contains an auxiliary compartment. So if for whatever reason, the ballot won't be read by the tabulator, no matter what you do. Or if the tabulator should go down and we're, we're, we're on our way over with a new tabulator and you, you know, you've got a line of voters, the voter can put their ballot into the auxiliary bin for hand counting at the close of polls. And then we have, of course, that automark, which is the voter assist terminal for anyone who should need it. It has a set of headphones and it's got Braille on it. So depending on what their handicap is, they can use that machine to mark their ballot, which then gets spit out. And then they would have to take it over to the tabulator to put into the tabulator. All right. All right. So opening procedures. So again, the warden will guide you on this, but basically we physically, you're there at six o'clock and you start physically setting up the polling place. Things should be already there. Sometimes we have to rearrange furniture a little bit. We try our best with our DPW crew to give them maps and diagrams and how to set the place up. But there'll be a check-in table. You're going to make a guardrail like usually we just put tape on the floor that, you know, the warden will direct you, but the voting booths, all the voting equipment, everything will be there. And then you post information. So there's three specimen ballots to get posted on the walls. There's a trifold poster, which includes the instructions, penalties, and the voters' bill of rights. Three of those get posted on the walls. One set of the specimen ballots must be no higher than 48 inches from the ground to be ADA compliant. And then around 6.30, the doors should be unlocked for the public so that they can watch the, you know, the process and that you can open the ballot box door to demonstrate that that ballot box is empty, that there aren't any pre-voted ballots in there. And that's the purpose of the zero report from the tabulator shows that you're starting the day with no ballots. Okay. And then at some point, the automark should be set up, tested, and then vote a ballot, right spoiled across the ballot. And then that would be put into the spoiled ballot envelope. Okay. That way we make sure it's working. Okay. So the day started, seven o'clock, polls are open. Here come the voters. So there's two types. There's those that are unimpeded and there's those that are impeded by some reasoning. So the unimpeded means they're an active voter. They're on the active check-in list, which you have at the check-in table. You find them right away, offer them a secrecy sleeve, and they go off to vote. Simple. Then we have the impeded people. So they're not on your list, or they have some kind of code next to the name which requires further action. Okay. So I've already gone through this. Basically, so let's go back to the unimpeded. You know, the usual, you ask them for their street name, street number, and their voter name. They give it to you. You repeat it back so that any observers can hear and you offer them a secrecy sleeve. You place a red check mark in the box next to their name to show that they checked into vote, and then they go off to vote. And they can ask for assistance if they feel they need it. They can ask you to help. They can ask anyone of their choice that they brought with them. And they can use the auto mark machine. I was saying earlier about if you see somebody arrive with like a guide dog or a cane, offer that up just right away. Just let them know that it's there for their use. Okay. And we've already talked, I'm jumping ahead of the game. Okay. Okay. So now onto the impeded. So this is where, somebody, you're looking at the voter list, and I'm going to show you in a minute what that looks like. There may be an ID next to their name in bold, or let's see what else could there be. Or you just didn't find them. Okay. So a couple of things. So if they're on your list and they have an ID next to the name, they need to show ID, you're going to make a note that they did, and then they'll be allowed to vote. If they're not on your list at all, never turn them away, send them immediately over to the warden. The warden is going to have a townwide voter list electronically. They can look them up by name and see if they're number one in the right precinct. Lots of things. Maybe they're not even registered to vote in this town. Lots of different things. But if you don't find them on your list, just hand them off to the warden, and then you're all set with that voter. And so as I was saying about the ID, so this comes under the Help America Vote Act. And there are certain people, depending on when they registered to vote, that they did not provide identification, and they've never voted. So they do need to provide identification. So they're active voters. They just didn't fulfill the Help America Vote Act requirement to show ID. So you just ask for ID. Make sure that ID shows that they are living at the address where they are registered to vote, and then they are fine. If there's an issue, if say they're registered at number one ball lane, but their ID shows they're living at Greenleaf's Drive, you'll have to send them over to the warden so that we can figure out what's going on and what other IDs that they could possibly come back with. And so different kinds of ID. Anything that's got their name on it with their address doesn't have to have a picture. Name an address. And the address must be the address that they are registered to vote at. So this brings up an interesting point. So if they're actually, no, no, never mind. So different things, driver's license, ID card, utility bill, rent receipt, lease, copy of the voter registration affidavit, paycheck, anything that's got their name and address. And here's a sample of the voter list. So there's that ID required next to Mrs. Test's name there. And it's bolded. Okay. So that person will need to show ID. Also now, so let's talk about the X's in that box next to the vote in the voted column. Okay. So what that is reflecting is we received a ballot back from them. So they applied for a mailed ballot, whether it's absentee, whether it's early, and they returned it, we accepted it. They're done voting. So if you see next to somebody's name, they show up in person, they cannot vote on election day. They've already voted by mail. Okay. So that's the bottom one for Susan's sample. So the very top one for one person, they've got an AV next to their box to the right of their box. So that means they applied for a ballot, but they never returned it. So they can vote on election day. All right, they changed their mind about voting at home for whatever reason, they thought they come out and vote in person on election day, they are allowed to vote because there's no X in the box. Do you have any questions on that while we're talking about that? No? Okay. And all those early ballots for this upcoming election, they're going to be delivered on election day just like they were in May because we don't have an overwhelming amount. I mean, 2000 divided by 10 precincts isn't that bad. For the presidential election next November 2024, we're going to do a central tabulation facility because we expect probably in the range of 8,000 ballots like the last time, and that's just too many to give to you guys. All right, let's see. Okay, so we talked about this a little already. So the person who's standing at the ballot box, so the ballot can be put into the tabulator in any orientation. If there's no error code, but the ballot, the tabulator does not accept the ballot. So let me see now. So yeah, no error code, but the tabulator does not accept the ballot. It must be placed in the auxiliary bin. What I would say to that is that try more than one time putting that ballot through the tabulator. I'm sure you already all do this, but if it doesn't seem to be an error code, sometimes the ballot is read better like upside down or the other way, head first, foot first, you know, so you try different things. If you've tried it multiple different ways, like every single orientation in your tabulator won't accept that ballot, it has to go in the auxiliary bin. So here are the different things. So the tabulator rejects a ballot due to an overvote. So somebody was supposed to only vote for one candidate in a race, but they voted for two. That would be an overvote. It's going to say it on the LCD screen. So you're not going to be looking at the ballot. The ballot's going to stay inside the tabulator anyway, but just ask the voter to read what it's, you know, telling them and have the voter make a choice. It's up to them what they want to do, so they can either receive a new ballot or they can vote that ballot as marked. So if they do vote that ballot as marked, what that means is that that race, because it's overvoted, will not count, but it will count all the other races on the ballot that they voted. All right. And if they decide now I'm going to fix that, I want to vote a new ballot, then they would make that choice. Okay, reject the ballot. The ballot's going to come back out. You're going to, well, you're going to bring the warden over to help you with this, but the ballot's going to be spoiled and placed in the spoiled ballot envelope, and then they're going to be given a second ballot. They have to, they have three tries, or three, three, um, that's the word I'm trying to think. They have, it's like three shots and you're out. They can do this three times and then they, they can't do it anymore. So, which means they have to vote their third ballot in case they make a mistake on the first and second ballots. All right. And the overvotes again, I had already, a lot of this is just, I, I talk so much on, on the one slide. I'm already going into two and three other slides. So, overvote again is, you know, there are, it's a race for four and they vote for five or it's a race for two and they vote for three, that kind of thing. So here again, so if they get the new ballot, the warden spoils the first ballot, gives them a second ballot, and they get three tries. So this says basically the voter may cast the overvoted ballot. And again, they're going to follow the prompts on the tabulator. All right. Okay. So, situation that we were talking about earlier, what to do. So a voter appears at the polling place, wants to vote in person, but they were marked on the voter list as having applied for the early ballot or the absentee ballot. So again, as long as there's no X in the box, they can vote in person. They do not have to complete any kind of form. They're just allowed to vote. Okay. And again, if there's an X in the box, they're not allowed to vote. That means that we received that ballot and it's been, it's got delivered to your polling place to be counted already. And there's a list showing that again, just a reflection. They're going to have to change this, this training a little bit because it seems to be a lot of redundancies. Question. All right. Yes. Yeah, this is Marta Alvarez. Regarding the ID, they have to show the ID. Do we have to record somewhere what type of ID it is and to confirm that we're very far just by looking at it? Yeah. No, if you could write it down. In fact, you can, so that would be something to give to the clerk. And the clerk can write it in the clerk book. ID shown for blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. They'll write down the voter's name. Call the clerk over. Okay. There's not too many people that need to do that. So it won't be a huge burden, basically. But thank, that's a good question. Thank you. Yep. Yep. All right. So in the morning, we're going to be delivering or they'll be delivered with your election supplies, all of the absentee and vote by mail ballots, like they were in May, for those of you who worked in May. And the warden's going to be in charge of this. And basically they're going to be processed. I think probably some of you might have been part of this. They get opened, they get checked off the voter list, just like it's the voter standing in front of you, but it's their ballot representing them. And the name gets read out loud. The same process is like it's a real person. And then they get put through the tabulator. But that gets done in between the voters voting, you know, as time allows. And so, but they do need to get done before the polls close at eight o'clock. And just reminders about, I guess this happened quite a lot with the last election, you're pulling down signs from some polling places, quite often. But basically, Mass General Law states that campaign, any kind of campaigning cannot be done within 150 feet of a polling location to that door. And the warden has in their warden's manual, a map of where that boundary is, so that you know exactly where the lines fall. Okay. And you know, if somebody walks into the polling place, let's say, and they've got campaign materials on their sweatshirt buttons, any kind of things that show anything for this election, it's only for the election in front of you that we're dealing with that day, not for anything in the future or in the past, those don't matter. So if they've got like, you know, one of the candidate's names for Town Councilor Large, let's say on their sweatshirt, you, they cannot go any further when you see it, they have to either take it off, turn it inside out, remove it, whatever, but they cannot be influencing the voter in any way. And wearing campaign material or buttons or stickers or clothing, that's influencing the voter, which is not allowed. Signage, if there's signs outside that are unattended and they're within 150 feet, go out, take them out of the ground and bring them into the polling place. Okay, our crew for, you know, pick up and drop off will take them the next day. And no signature collecting, nothing, so nothing within 150 feet. Now observers, I would expect, I haven't been told officially, but I'm going to expect that it's going to be quite a few observers for this election because there's some contested races, but they of course are welcome. They can observe the check-in process to gauge voter turnout. They have to stand behind the guardrail and that's that area that's determined by the warden just outside the check-in table. And they can keep notes, including voter lists. And this is the reason why when voter comes and stands in front of you and says their name, their street, that you repeat it loud and up so that the observer can hear because if they're keeping track of lists, you know, they're writing down names, they need to hear it obviously, it's write it down. Observers are not allowed to speak to voters and they should only communicate with the warden if they need something. And let's see, they can't be reviewing your rotor list that you're marking off. They can only be listening and writing things down. And I go over this with the wardens as well, but they shouldn't be plugging into any outlets if they can find any. And obviously they shouldn't be causing any kind of disorderly conduct or obstructing the voters. So this is a situation where if there is a problem, if you notice something, call the warden over. The warden will speak with the observer. If there's still a problem, we will call the constable over. And if there's still a problem, the constable calls the police. So the chain of command, basically. Luckily, we haven't had this happen, not in a very long time. And then it closed in the poll. So at eight o'clock, the constable is going to announce that the polls are officially closed. They will stand behind anybody in line waiting to vote so that they are the, you know, the end of the line. And once everybody has gone through and voted, the warden is going to direct everyone on what to do in closing things up, okay? Diving up all the responsibilities for counting the ballots, you know, tallying anything that needs to get done. And all election supplies get transported back to Town Hall by the constable. I had this question not too long ago by someone. I thought this is interesting. So that's why this slide is here. So after everything's packed up, what's left is the voting booths, the auto mark, tables and chairs and any signs that may have been pulled in from outside that were inside the 150 foot perimeter. You don't have to worry about those. Our team from DPW will be collecting all of that the next morning. So just go home, rest and celebrate a job well done, okay? And that's pretty much it. We thank you so much for your assistance. I mean, without you, without all of our workers in all of the polls, we could never do this, obviously. And you're part of the democratic process. You help people to vote and it's greatly appreciated. So any questions? At the high school, we have several precincts. Is there a constable for each of the precincts or only one constable? There are two. So two share two precincts. I mean, one shares two precincts. Yeah. Yeah. Sue, I just want to make sure I'm clear on these students who if any students come into vote. It seems like that's always been a confusing thing because they have different dorms and a new dorm and this and that. Yes. It has whatever they show has to show the address that we have listed. And if it doesn't, they would just send them to the warden. And it seems like that's always been confusing. So chances are, so it is confusing because they register. Well, this November being a no, I mean, this election being in November is actually helpful because they come in in September and they register to vote right away. So usually they're okay for a November election. It's the spring elections that are the problem because they might have moved halfway through the year or, you know, but yeah, basically if they're active. So if they're on the active voter list, which is what you'll have and you find them, they're probably going to be in the right spot. It's the inactives that the warden is going to have an inactive voter list check-in list. And so if you don't find them on your list, you're going to send them to the warden and then they're going to deal with them from that point on as to what the situation might be. Okay. All right. But if you do find them on your active list, then they're active. They don't need to show ID. They just vote? Okay. All right. And I'm hearing background noise. I don't know who that is. Someone's got some TV or something. There. Okay. All right. Does anybody else have anything at all? Non-election related? No. We just appreciate all your help, Susan. You always come through for us. Thank you, Nancy. Oh, I try. You know, I was telling somebody the other day, I said, the League of Women Voters, I said, you know, we're running on adrenaline for weeks and weeks and weeks, you know, getting everything together. I says, but inevitably when the election's over, we get sick because it's just your body just, you know, so I'm going to have to start taking my vitamin C and zinc and what have you beforehand because I don't want that to happen. You know it's coming. Yep. I know. I hope not. But yeah, probably. Yeah. But thank you. Thank you. Yeah. All right. Well, you know, any suggestions on the training, anything you want to see, I'd be happy, more than happy to incorporate it. Just email me. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Thank you, Susan. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. I appreciate it. You're welcome. All right. Okay. Bye-bye. Okay. See you. Thank you. Bye. Bye-bye. You're welcome. You go first.