With all the tweets president Trump has made about the integrity of the 2020 elections, I'd like to take a moment to give people insight into the processes involved at a polling location. I was a chief election judge for a polling location in Annapolis during the 2008 elections.
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In order to be an election judge, you take mandatory classes on all the processes involved, including how to set up the machines and lock them up at the end of the election day. When you are chose to be an election judge, you get training on how to handle basically any type of
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situation that can arise during election day. From the time the machines are first set up until the time the machines are transported to the election board, the entire day runs around 14 hours (at least for me). During the process of setting up, no one judge is ever left alone
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with a machine. Likewise, at the end of the day, no one judge is ever left alone with a machine when closing it up. Throughout the day, if there is a problem that involves a voter and the machine, two judges are present when helping that person.
There is a stringent
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"chain of custody" at all times when transporting machines, setting them up and tearing them down. Once the votes are delivered to the election board, there are even more stringent regulations and oversight to ensure that no one person is ever left alone with any votes.
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The entire process from the beginning of the day until the machines leave the custody of election judges, there are always multiple people from both parties involved and working together as a team. It is near impossible for any malfeasance to be introduced into the system. The
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most common issues involve voters with disabilities that need assistance from election judges. Even then, multiple judges assist that person. There is never a situation where one judge is alone with a person while helping them (at least, that was my job -- to ensure those rules
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were followed and to observe the polling location itself to make sure there weren't people outside within X feet of the building campaigning. What I got from being an election judge is that the entire system is extremely secure and that the rules and regulations that are in place
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make it virtually impossible for any type of malfeasance from any one election judge.
I just wanted to share that with people because Trump's accusations are insulting not just to me but to all the amazing people from the governor down to the election clerks who work long hours
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to ensure that the election is as accurate, secure and transparent as possible (transparent in the sense that all the rules and regulations are made readily available to anyone who is interested in learning about the process).