Thankfully I’ve never had to deal with that. Usually some very junior lieutenant is given the additional duty of being the election officer to help troops get their ballots. Now that everything is online it’s probably a lot easier.
If anyone I work with in state government had done anything like that, for example saying that Democrats help union folks more than Republicans (which is actually true) then they’d get in a shit ton of trouble. At least if they did so to coworkers in the office.
If this was during a union meeting well… Actually they say that all the time in union meetings honestly. 
But you’re there as a union member on your own time, not as a state employee acting in your capacity as a state employee.
Do you mean “enters it” as “casts the vote for them” ?
What’s stopping an unscrupulous worker from entering the wrong votes?
I entered the physical ballot into the machine that counts them. I suppose i could have attempted to put extra marks on the ballot to invalidate it for a race, but i think someone would have noticed. I was never alone with the ballots, i was always within view of other poll workers.
(and usually in view of random voters, for that matter.)
In Maryland, two-person teams, one Democrat, one Republican, review ballots for cleanliness (boxes filled in completely, no superfluous markings, etc.) before the ballot goes to the workers feeding them into the scanners.
Our process seems to be the reverse of puzzlegal’s. If you request a mail ballot here, you are flagged in the system. If you show up at the voting site in person (it happens) you are only allowed to cast a provisional ballot, which is henceforth checked against mail in ballots received.
In at least this part of NY, if you show up in person you put your own ballot into the machine. There’s a poll worker standing by to tell you what to do if you have problems.
Many of our local elections are non-partisan, and many registered voters are not enrolled in any party. So it wouldn’t make sense to require someone from the two largest parties.
In fact, to save money, our nonpartisan town election was held on the same day as the state primaries. So most voters took two ballots, one for the local election and the other for one of the primaries. There was a poll worker standing by the counting machines to make sure the voters put their color-coded ballots in the right machine.
(And i suppose to make sure i didn’t mess with the ballots, as well.)
In our municipal elections, the city uses a « fill-in-the-bubble »
ballot.
- The poll worker gives it to the voter in a folder.
- The voter marks it and puts it back in the folder, then goes to the scanning machine.
- With a different poll worker watching, the voter feeds the ballot into the scanner, which pulls it out of the folder.
- The ballot is scanned and automatically goes into a sealed bin.
- The voter hands the empty folder to the poll worker, to be re-used.
Ballot secrecy is preserved and the ballots are available in case of recounts.
This sounds like Michigan. And I just had election inspector training this morning. There are many checks and balances that virtually eliminate any shenanigans on the part of voters or poll workers.
We have 9 days of early voting where registered voters go in person, fill out a ballot and it’s entered into the tabulator. The completed ballots are not recorded until Election Day when the polls officially close. Absentee ballots are sent by mail. Those voters can return them by mail, drop them off or carry their ballot and vote in person. The city clerks keep track of absentee ballots sent and returned. Verifying signatures and addresses. Those ballots are opened and tabulated on Election Day. The voter poll book lists all registered voters and their voting status in the current election.
They require one D and one R to witness opening and tabulating of verified absentee ballots. Whenever the tabulator is open to fix jams or whatever a D and a R must witness it. We document any oddities or such in the remarks section of the poll book.
At the end of the day the poll book and the tabulator must match, the results are downloadeded and shared electronically and on paper, really every step of the process hs a check and balance, things are officially documented and sealed and delivered to received boards.
Since I’m working early voting in August for the primary I’ll vote early.
That’s how ours work these days, whether municipal or not. Town/county, school district, state, national: all done that way. And yes, the paper ballots are preserved – I think for two years.
I usually vote early in person for major elections, now that that’s possible here. Gives me some leeway in case I come down sick on the day, while assuring me that my ballot actually made it to the machine (though they may have some way of confirming that to the voter, I’m not sure.)
Our municipal ballot is actually the most complicated one, so I’m not surprised they’ve gone to bubbles.
Our provincial and federal elections are held at different times from the municipal ones, and from each other, and are just a « pick one » option. So they’re all paper, with an X. Easy to count by hand.
Our state and federal are held at the same time (for the general, not necessarily the primaries); municipal at another time; school budget and board at a third time. But none of them are as simple as a one-line ballot. Even the school district has at least 1) budget 2) candidates for the board (there may or may not be more candidates than openings) and 3, 4, 5 or more) propositions, separately, for funding for the public library and for buying buses, and often for something else.
This is how our elections work, too. But not for ballots voted by mail, where the voter isn’t present to feed their ballot into the machine. Those are the ones i voted when i was a poll worker.
Overseas voter, so mail.
Just double-checked that we’re both registered, but I was already fairly certain of that since we received ballots for the primaries.
The Board of Elections sends the ballot (PDF file) via email. I print it out, fill it out, sign it, and then scan it. I sent the scan back via email. I send the completed ballot by mail on or before the election day.
I can check the status of my ballot online. As long as I am an overseas voter, I have permanent vote-by-mail.