Notices by Jonathan Kamens (jik@federate.social), page 5

The good: At this point nothing Trump, Vance, or Musk is saying is going to appeal to anyone who hasn't already drunk the koolaid.
The bad: Despite that, there are, astonishingly, enough Trump fans that it isn't a given that the Democrats will win the election.
The ugly: Therefore, even if the Democrats win, we're going to be fighting off American fascism for the rest of our lives. *sigh*
#politics #USPol

Needless to say we also have a bunch of people who haven't muted themselves despite being asked to multiple times having private conversations on mic.
#pollWorkerTraining

If you are getting the impression, from my earlier posts in this thread, that generally speaking poll-workers are not a population that is exceedingly familiar and comfortable with technology, that impression would be correct.
OK, here we go, 15 minutes past the scheduled start time and we're finally starting the training.
#pollWorkerTraining

Well, this could be incredibly boring or perhaps interesting to a few people. I'm about to do my online Boston poll-worker training for the November election, and I'm going to live-post throughout the training. Follow along if you're curious.
#pollWorker #pollWorkerTraining #voting #elections #politics #USPol #MAPoli

Bad things that happened in the last election:
* Police being sent back to City Hall without the tabulator.
* Voters being given the wrong paperwork or being given paperwork they shouldn't have been given at all, because the poll-workers didn't call City Hall to find out what to do.
* More of these should-not-have-happeneds will come up throughout the training.
(The trainer sounds a bit salty today.)
#pollWorkerTraining

We are now going through the start-of-meeting exercise of a bunch of people who don't understand technology trying to figure out how to operate Google Meet.
This includes one of the hosts asking all the people calling in what their names are (since all he can see is a phone number) so they can get credit for attending the training.
#pollWorkerTraining

I am trying to figure out how it can be, after all these years of #Zoom eating their lunch, that #GoogleMeet still doesn't have a way (or at least not any that I can find) to page through the tiles for everyone attending a meeting.
#pollWorkerTraining

This is a mixed class: inspectors, clerks, and wardens all in the same training. That means they're going to cover some stuff that's only relevant to the clerks and wardens.
#pollWorkerTraining

Roles: each precinct has a warden (chief election officer), clerk (record keeper), and four or more inspectors (worker bees).
Some precincts also have interpreters in person. Those that don't can use the elections department interpreter line if a voter needs an interpreter.
Each precinct also has a police officer. They maintain order, courier the ballot box and tabulator to City Hall, staff the check-out table.
#pollWorkerTraining

The police officer also couriers the box containing the blank ballots and other sensitive items from the local police station to the precinct at the start of the day.
#pollWorkerTraining

Pep talk slide: Thank you for your service, here's why what you're doing is important, "Democracy is only as strong as its poll workers!"
#pollWorkerTraining

If you don't fill out the payroll page you don't get paid for working the polls.
(Yes, poll-workers in Massachusetts are paid. I think poll-workers get paid in most states. It's minimum wage or a bit higher for the clerks and wardens.)
#pollWorkerTraining

MA voter registration deadline: October 26
There will be in-person early voting, poll-workers will soon be invited to sign up to work it.
MA vote by mail applications must be received by October 29.
Don't forget to turn on the tabulator before the polls open.
Don't forget to plug in and power on the cell phone the elections department will use to communicate with you. Answer the phone if it rings!
Remember to log how many people are in line in the clerk's book every hours.
#pollWorkerTraining

Next slide: we just took the poll-worker's oath specified in Massachusetts law (MGL. Ch. 54 Sec. 20).
#pollWorkerTraining

Arrive at your polling location by 6am.
Be professional, respectful and polite.
Don't use your cell phone except for emergencies and breaks.
No wearing any political stuff.
Be tolerant of diversity.
#pollWorkerTraining

Poll-workers are responsible for ensuring accessibility. That means accessible entrances, all paths at least 36 inches wide, one set of signs low enough that it can be read easily by people in wheelchairs.
If the accessible entrance needs to be locked for security reasons then it needs to be staffed by a poll-worker.
#pollWorkerTraining

The "standard" ballot is English and Spanish. Some precincts also receive Chinese and/or Vietnamese ballots.
I believe our precinct gets a few Chinese ballots but no Vietnamese. They end up not being used for most elections, but I suspect some of them will be used in the November election, given how many people are expected to show up.
#pollWorkerTraining

Polls open at 7am. If your polling location is unlocked too late (e.g., the custodian shows up late) to do all the prep before 7am (doesn't happen often), your highest priority should be making sure you are ready to accept ballots at 7am. If the tabulator isn't ready to scan ballots by 7am, they go in the hand-count slot and then removed from there and fed into the machine when it is ready.
#pollWorkerTraining

An aside, not actually part of the training...
Provisional ballots are a pain in the ass to do. If you forgot to register to vote or your ballot is legitimately not going to be counted, then please, I'm begging you, don't waste the poll-workers' time by demanding to cast a provisional ballot.
#pollWorkerTraining

The ballot in Boston for this election is two sheets of paper because of all the ballot questions (depending on precinct, there are 5 or 6 questions). We need to remember to give every voter both sheets.
The voter can feed the sheets into the tabulator in any order and direction; it's smart enough to figure it out.
#pollWorkerTraining