Great care taken by County voting judges

About 3 years ago I answered a call to become a new Anne Arundel County voting judge. A 3-hour class awaited me along with a couple (2-hour) practice sessions learning how to use the poll books. Then I received “THE ELECTION JUDGE’S MANUAL,” an 8” X 11” manual

thick. The manual contained the needed information to work as a judge at an election. To say that I was floored as to how much information I needed to remember was an understatement. I was so nervous working my first election until I realized that the manual was a guide to election integrity. Everyone was working together to help the voters along with helping me guide the voters through the voting process. When a problem arose the first thing the chief judge did was bring out “The Election Judges Manual” PERIOD. (Yes it’s updated each election).

When we started classes we were first told there was to be NO discussion about the elections. Period. When we started learning how to set up the machines NEVER was one person to set up the “poll books, Scanning Unit, Ballot Marking Device or any machine,” there was always a minimum of two people, one Democrat and one Republican or independent. AND we were required to initial each step in setting up the machine and the ballots, reading safety tags on the locked machines or actually setting up almost anything. There were always two sets of eyes on every step of the process. This was “Standard Operating Procedure.”

My first election I was blown away by the way everyone helped and did everything possible to help the voters and each other. Just so you know, we were asked and showed up at 4:30 p.m. the day before the election and we finished up all we could do, (Machines were NOT SET UP), but tables, chairs, taped floors and general set up was accomplished by 9 p.m. As we were leaving, the chief judge said see you all at 5:30 Tuesday morning yes that was a.m., AND we finished up at 9 p.m. Tuesday, (15 hours), We were busy and the day went relatively smoothly.

In closing the previous election, I found out how important the training was as one of the machines started having a problem. The chief judge came over, made sure there were more the two people present and opened the “Election Judges Manual,” turned to the section on how to operate the machine and after a little cajoling had the it up and running. One other thing I might mention. When Larry was asked how safe are the elections his response blew me away “AFTER 246 YEARS I THINK WE HAVE THE BASES COVERED,” just so you know after each election the board has a discussion on what we can do to improve anything to do with the next election.

— William Gumula, Annapolis