Proposition 1, hand counting ballots, is a citizen-initiated proposition with little education provided to the voters so they can make an informed decision. Those who signed the petition to get this on our Borough ballot may have only been asked a simple question “do you trust the machines or do you trust hand counting ballots?” Distrust in the tabulators is abundantly misguided. A better question is “do you trust humans who are prone to error and emotions to count and discern your votes, or do you trust a basic calculator?”

I have been an election worker since 2020. We are required to go through training each election year.

The state has been using some type of tabulator for 23 years. The tabulator is just a calculator that reads and records the filled in ovals. Like an old dot-matrix machine. It has a modem and two discs to store the data. There is NO internet connection, there is no hard drive. So, you have the modem in the tabulator, two discs with the data stored which are placed in two separate sealed envelopes at the end of the day, and you have the paper ballots to compare it all to. This is not a system that can be messed with, unlike hand counters who are human and prone to human error, especially after a 16 hour day.

When people who vote at the polls run their ballot through a tabulator, the paper ballot drops into the box to be gathered at the end of the day and accounted for. They are also kept for a certain amount of years per Borough code in the event an election is challenged.

If you made an error on your ballot, say you filled in three candidate ovals when you were only supposed to choose two, the tabulator kicks it back and asks if you want to correct it. If you choose to correct it, the election worker will spoil the ballot and issue the voter a new one. The voter can witness the ballot being torn in half or can do that themselves, all these spoiled ballots go into a sealed envelope at the end of the day and are all accounted for. Voters can spoil and be issued a new ballot up to three times. Hand counting ballots will not provide this service. You have to ask – will the hand counter use their own discretion to determine the voter’s intent? What happens to the rest of the races on that ballot if there is one error? What is the percentage of spoiled ballots in hand counting that will not get counted – voters will never know if they made an error and that their vote was not counted.

At the end of the night after the polls close, election workers balance the reports with the number of ballots received and the number cast according to the precinct register voter signatures and the ballots themselves. The tabulator is set to calculate totals and tapes are run of those totals. Then, and only then, is the tabulator connected to a secure phone line to submit the results to the Borough elections office. There is nothing nefarious going on there. If there is any question or challenge a hand count is conducted.

The way the new ordinance is written in the Voter Pamphlet, the ballots will be counted at the end of the day by the poll workers who have already worked 16 hour days. It will be a one-count-and-done procedure. Does that mean it can’t be challenged?

Handcount ballots will have to be printed at almost double the cost of what they are currently printed at. That is because they have to be specially marked so they cannot be duplicated in a copier. Picture a voter walking in with a stack of copied ballots hidden in their coat, gets issued a ballot after signing the precinct register and then drops multiple ballots in the ballot box. Currently you cannot do that because the ballot has to go through the tabulator one at a time to get into the ballot box.

Can there be ballot counting poll watchers? Can the counters be trusted? Will they be trained for the procedure? People may think what’s the big deal, you’re just counting. Do you use a calculator to balance your checkbook? Humans make mistakes and often use questionable judgements. Tabulators do not have emotions and pre-conceived agendas.

Proposition 1 on the ballot is a yes or no vote. It will have no explanation for what this change will mean and how voters can be assured of a hand counter’s integrity. Please read the current code, especially 4.60 on Election Integrity and Security. It’s the Borough’s law on elections: www.kpb.us/local-governance-and-permitting/borough-information/reference-library/code-statutes-regulations.

Therese Lewandowski is a Homer resident.