In this Maricopa County video, the voter inserts his ballot into the tabulation machine. The poll worker instructs the voter there is a problem with his ballot. She explains one or more races have not been marked properly. The voter admits he made a mistake with the felt pen when marking the ballot. She influences him to accept the ballot in its current condition. He just needs to hit the green “Cast” button and his ballot will be accepted. Because there is a mistake on his ballot, the voter has no idea it will now go to adjudication. This often takes days.
This voter did have the option to complete a new ballot. But this was not explained properly. He needed to hit the red button to “Reject” the ballot. The tabulating machine would then spit out his ballot. The polling place spoils this ballot and issues the voter a new one. Because he was not properly informed, his ballot will go to adjudication. Every vote on his ballot will now be subject to change by a worker in the MCTEC (Maricopa) tabulation center.
The ballot was printed at this polling place using the “Sentio Ballot Printing System” by Runbeck Election Services. This includes software, laptops, and HP printers. The voter is handed the ballot and completes it at one of the many voter pods seen below. When the voter has completed their ballot., they walk it to the tabulation machines. They personally insert the ballot into the machine themselves. If the ballot has no issues, it is accepted and tabulated. The voter is done. No buttons need to be pushed and no conversations with poll workers are needed. They are handed a “I Voted” sticker and they leave.
“We need to point out that poll workers are typically trained for their specific task, not the entire election process. It’s more than likely the worker operating that tabulation machine has no idea what happens to ballots with mistakes when they are manually “Cast”. She was very nice and polite with all voters.”
