Thread by @emykat03

What I witnessed yesterday as an election worker in the Los Angeles County was a crime. The election center was close between UCLA & Beverly Hills. Almost 90% of the college age students that showed up to vote were given provisional ballots. It was over a 3 hour wait.

Most young voters couldn’t find their voter info on the new system. They showed up with the affidavit printed out but yet their record was no where to be found. Everyone who prepared a poll pass, when scanned was rejected at registration .

A lot of voters who had mail in ballots didn’t receive them in the mail, if they were registered as non partisan voter,the cross over ballot didn’t arrive after requesting it before the deadline.

The new system allowed us to give them a crossover ballot but not everyone was able to wait for 3 hours in line during lunch hour. The minute it was lunch time , the lines started growing and the new system crashed because of the overwhelming numbers of voters county wide

LA County used a new electronic system, many older voters are not confortable with technology, some of them were walking out with the ballot thinking that was their reciept. We had to chase them down and ask them to scan it back into the machine were it was collected

After casting ballots , the voter had to scan the paper back in the machine where it was collected in a sealed container that was attached to the machine.But people were confused and they would walk over to the check in table with their ballot after voting

We had to instruct voters to go back to the same machine and scan the ballot back in,but by then some machines were occupied by other voters. So they inserted their ballot in the black box.But many people walked out not knowing what to do even though we explained the full process

At lunch rush hour all tablets used to check people in were slowing down, the system kept syncing which caused every ballot to be posted as provisional, we tried switching between tablets that were not syncing, sometimes it worked but 90% of the time it didn’t

After lunch hour the lines got bigger it went into an hour and a half wait time to 3 hours by 2pm. At that pointing the tablets couldn’t find people in the system, even when they brought in their information ballots, the scanner couldn’t read their registered personal info.

We had to register people as new voters even though they lived at the same address for years, even if they voted in 2018, we couldn’t pull up their info because the system was crashing. It also wouldn’t allow us to print out ballots for any NEW registered VOTERS

A lot of people that we couldn’t find in the system were mostly on the same street which happens to be a dorm

We ran out of voter info booklet in English VERY QUICKLY, most young students were able to find a sample ballot online but older voters were overwhelmed with the technology. We were trying to help them as much as we can but there was only 4 of us.

We started setting up at 6:00 am, opened at 7, we were told to close at 8pm during training, At 8 pm we pointed out who was the last person in line and after that everyone got turned away, we were never informed by officials that we had to keep polls open till 10pm

There was only 4 of us, one lead and 3 volunteers. I am 49 years old, our lead looked like she was 19-21 years old, the other volunteer was a high school student and the 4th guy was special needs who kept freaking out. So we basically had TWO functioning workers

We had no breaks, all 4 of us have never done this before, the lead person kept calling the “help line” but no response. People were getting impatient waiting in line for 3 hours so they wrote-in their candidates on these ballots that had NO serial numbers or envelopes.

They were tossing these write-in ballots at us without waiting for us to give them instructions of how to properly place in the box, many ballots were randomly found at the table or on the floor. We quickly ran out of English wrote-in ballots

People were very frustrated and yelled at us but there was nothing we can do, the check/in machines was automatically giving out provisional ballots because the system was lagging. 90% of voters got provisional ballots after the lunch rush all through the night till 10:20 pm

The system kept notifying us that the voter is receiving a provisional ballot because the tablet was syncing and failed to sync all day long . People were VERY ANGRY because they were not happy to get a provisional ballot. There information was correct and their was no need

It was very concerning, our lead was stretched out between helping the elder and answering angry voters questions why all of them were rescuing UNNECESSARY provisional ballots because of the failed syncing program. The printers froze and we couldn’t print out ballots

At that point we were forced to use write-in ballots in foreign languages to people who didn’t know the language because we ran out of English forms. People kept yelling at us and we had no answers. We were trying to accommodate hundreds of voters but we didn’t have the resources

*recieving not rescuing

*their information was correct and there was no need for a provisional ballot but it was the default setting for the tablet because it kept syncing

The look on their faces 💔💔all college students who were voting for the first time , they did everything right but yet the system automatically gave no option but provisional ballots.
How do you expect young people to show up to vote again. Why was that dorm a target ?

Many of those voters were young people of color, cafeteria workers on their lunch break, a chef, UCLA nurses .Some had to go back to their shift and abandoned the line.Some people were still waiting in line till midnight. Around SANTA Monica college was reported FIVE hour wait

I have not stopped crying , still traumatized and drove home at 10:30 pm shaking , wether it was people yelling at us or the non stop stress or lack of food /no break . I did this because I didn’t want a repeat of 2016. ... but here we are

When I registered to become an election worker , I was given minimum information. I tried to look up everything online, I was told everything would be mailed to me but a week before election and no one answered my calls or messages. I registered online for training

I was able to look up training in person,I showed up but my info wasn’t on file even though I had log in and ID assigned.
I only received info in the mail for training but no address of where to show up, finally the lead at my station called to ask why I didn’t show up 2 days ago

3 of us were comfortable with technology but the special needs election worker didn’t explain much to voters, he didn’t notify voters that their ballot was provisional. He put whatever paperwork people throw at him in the black box. He screamed every time the printer froze, A LOT

The volunteer high school student kept disappearing, probably hid in his car away from the chaos

Most priviional ballots processed by other poll workers were not completed properly, only voters section was filled out on pink envelopes but election worker explanation was left blank because we were overwhelmed

I had 3 young poll workers with me , my concern is how did other election centers handle this new system? We figured out alternating between check-in tablets helped release tension from the system, other stations are operated by boomers, what did they do? How did they deal?

And don’t get me started on the VOID ballots that were being stepped on all over the floor. Or the protest voters who didn’t want their provisional ballot and left all paper work at check-in table after marching off, we had to cancel their ballots because they didn’t vote

Voters were sharing wrong info with other people , telling them to use write-in ballots, by the time they got to the check-In table, some had a written ballot inside the pink envelope while I was printing their provisional ballot, so I had to ask them to throw out the written one

The black box was so full that we couldn’t insert more envelopes but we had no back up box,so the high school student volunteer opened the top , anyone could reach in and touch any ballot , it was a nightmare keeping people away from the box, some were just dropping off mail ins

Some people didn’t want to wait , instead of surrendering their mail-in ballot, they filled it out after giving up on the crossover ballot. They were all non partisan voters (independents, no party preference)