Letter to the Editor-
Last week I served with eight other Genesee Valley school district residents as an election inspector for the annual school budget and board vote. Over the past few years, I have worked during machine-voted elections in Birdsall, Angelica, and Caneadea. This was my first mail-in ballot election and, frankly, I was eager to see how it would be conducted. I hope by sharing my experience here, other voters in Allegany County and beyond will be even more confident that their privacy and right to vote is fully protected when they vote by mail.
Procedure: There were nine inspectors and three school administration staff on duty. The inspectors sat at long tables (socially distanced) working as teams on the ballot count. Working in this way, our work was completed in two hours.
Step One: Confirm voter eligibility
Inspectors are provided a list of registered voters who reside in Angelica and Belmont. To vote in a school election, one need only be a district resident and 18 years old, so we had that list of unregistered voters as well. The voter’s name is on the outside, stamped envelope and we search the lists to confirm eligibility and highlight the name. This prevents casting more than one vote under this name.
Step Two: Confirm voter identity
Inspectors then open the outside, stamped envelope to extract the sealed ballot envelope. The ballot envelope, if completed correctly, has the voter’s name and address hand-written on one side, and the voter’s signature on the reverse. If the ballot is not inserted in the inside ballot envelope, it is not counted. If the ballot envelope has no signature, the ballot is not counted.
Step Three: Extract ballots
One inspector gathered the unopened ballot envelopes from the confirmation teams and opened these envelopes, extracting the folded ballots and dropping them – still folded -- into a lockbox. This one-sided ballot could be folded by the voter with the markings “inside” and therefore not visible to the inspector during extraction.
Step Four: Unfold ballots
One inspector periodically carried the lockbox to another table, emptied it and unfolded the ballots. Ballots that were defaced, overvoted, ballots with comments or a signature written on them were invalidated and not counted.
Step Five: Tally votes
A different inspector picked up each ballot in turn and called out the responses to each question and any write-in votes for school board. These responses are recorded by another person on a tally sheet. The persons calling out and recording the votes did not touch any ballot envelopes during this process and therefore have no knowledge of whose ballot they are calling out.
Step Six: Count and verify votes
With all ballots recorded, the inspectors begin counting the tally sheets. Tally sheet totals are documented on a master sheet which, when counted and verified, represents the results of the election.
Election inspectors receive mandatory training each year, regardless of how many years of experience they have. Election inspectors sign an oath of office to “support the constitution of the United States, and the constitution of the State of New York, and to faithfully discharge the duties of the office…” Election inspectors help one another, working as a team to conduct a fair election. The County Board of Elections staff is on call to answer any questions that may arise.
In 2019, 330 persons voted on the GVCS budget. In 2020, 612 persons voted -- an increase of 85% over prior year.
After taking part in this election, I have the utmost confidence that voting by mail not only improves access to voting and “turnout” but protects the privacy and integrity of your vote.
Genesee Valley Budget Proposal Votes:
June, 2020 436-176 (612)
May, 2019 254-76 (330)
May, 2018 206-64 (270)
Karen Ash
Angelica NY
- Allegany County Elections Inspector
- Founding Member, League of Women Voters of Cattaraugus and Allegany Counties
- Vice Chair, Allegany County Democratic Committee
- Allegany County Representative to the NYS Democratic Committee
- Member, Democratic Rural Conference
