The Poll Pad for Precinct 4 in Fairhaven is ready to get started checking in voters for the 9/3/24 Primary Election. Photo by Beth David.
By Beth David, Editor
If you voted in the primary this year, or if you voted early in the general election, you undoubtedly noticed that the big books with the red pens are gone. Poll workers checked you in and out with tablets. The new Poll Pads are being used for the first time this year in Fairhaven, and are, hopefully, streamlining and speeding up the process.
Some voters have voiced some concern that their votes can be compromised with the new-fangled gadgets.
The Poll Pads, however, are not connected to any outside system. The precincts are not even connected to each other.
Each precinct has two Poll Pads, and those two are connected to each other. But there is no cross-precinct connection. The connection is “sandboxed,” which means it is a closed system.
The basic procedure is pretty much the same: Voters give their name and address (instead of starting with the address), the poll workers find them in the system, check them in, and hand them a ballot. Then the voter fills out the ballot, goes to the next table to check out, and enters his or her ballot into the machine that counts the votes.
The Poll Pads print out a sort of “receipt” when a voter checks in, serving as a paper record of the voter coming in to vote. Receipts are stapled together in batches of 25.
In the case of early voting, that receipt is attached to the envelope that contains the ballot.
The envelope is then placed in the bin for the precinct and stored in the vault until election day.
The new Poll Pads first used in Fairhaven in the Primary Election on 9/3/24, create a receipt for each voter who is checked in, serving as a paper record instead of the big books that poll workers used to have for crossing out names with a red pen. Photo by Beth David.
The Poll Pads do not record votes, they only check voters in and out.
In Mass. votes get counted on voting day, not before.
So, on voting day, a police officer collects all six bins, one for each precinct, and takes them to the Recreation Center, where all precincts vote in Fairhaven. Each bin is taken to the table for its corresponding precinct.
At the Rec Ctr, the warden and the clerk of each precinct and one other person will process the envelopes.
One will read the name on the envelope, cross check it with the paper list and enter it into the poll pad. Then, after all that has been cross checked and entered into the Poll Pad, the envelopes go to the table near the ballot machine.
One will open the envelope, one will take it out of the envelope and place it face down on the table, and the third person will put it into the tabulator (ballot machine).
According to Acting Town Clerk Elisabeth Horan, the process has checks and cross-checks to make sure every ballot is counted.
At the end of the night, the printed receipts and the tabulator should equal the same number. If not, the poll workers will have to go back and match up, counting the receipts until they find the discrepancy.
The process for voters should be much faster for checking in and out.
And, hopefully, will be faster for tabulating the final count.
Election Day is 11/5
Early voting in Mass. ends on November 1.
Mail-in ballots can be counted up until November 15, so if a municipality is waiting for the return of a lot of mail-in ballots, it could delay the results.
Deadlines for mail in ballots in Mass. are: if returned by person or drop-box, 8 p.m. 11/5 (voting day); if returned by domestic mail, 5 p.m. on 11/8 (must be postmarked by 11/5); if returned by mail from outside the US, 5 p.m. on 11/18 (must be postmarked by 11/5)
In Acushnet, all precincts vote at the Acushnet Elementary School, 800 Middle Road, Acushnet, on 11/5. For more information contact the Town Clerk’s Office at 508-998-0215
In Fairhaven, all precincts vote at the Recreation Center, 227 Huttleston Avenue, Fairhaven on 11/5. For more information, call the Town Clerk’s Office at 508-979-4023, Ext. 106.
New Bedford residents can call 508-979-1420, email (Elections@NewBedford-Ma.gov), or visit the Elections Office at City Hall (Room 114) to check voter status, find their polling location, etc.
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