The staff at the Dutchess County Board of Elections is completing the painstaking process of counting every vote. The arduous task is a consequence of the fact that a write-in vote cannot be deciphered by a machine. Ballots containing these votes are shunted by the ballot machine into a distinct bundle, and human beings at the D.C. Board of Elections read the hand written names.
In Pine Plains, on Nov. 8, a large number of write-in votes, nearly 500, resulted in time-consuming maintenance of the ballot machines. Each ballot with a written name would be mechanically sent down a separate chute from the other ballots. When the pile grew so high that it jammed the machine, it required two poll workers, a Democrat and a Republican, to open the machine and place the accumulated ballots in an envelope. Only then would the machine accept more ballots. Kathy Bartles, a longtime poll worker, said they had to do this at least six times during the day.
Aside from the time required for the care of the machine, the unanticipated need for multiple envelopes necessitated a trip into the center of town to restock at Clifford Thorpe Office Supplies.
There were two occurrences in Pine Plains of voters refusing to use the pens supplied in the voting booths. The reason they gave was that they believed the pens contained invisible ink. The poll workers advised them that the provided pens ensured that the machine could read the votes. The two voters presumably used the booth pens.
The day for poll workers is long. In some counties, there are two eight-hour shifts, but in Dutchess County each worker is asked to fill the entire sixteen-hour day. The two political parties, Democrats and Republicans, need to be equally represented at the polls. Any registered voter who wishes to be an election worker should visit elections.dutchessny.gov/election-inspector-information.
As observed by Kathy Bartles, this election and those in the last two years drew more younger voters than in previous years, an encouraging trend similarly noted across the country. Verifiable voter information by age is not available at this time.
In Pine Plains it is assumed by many, but will not be verified until the final certification of votes, that the write-in votes for Superintendent of Highways were all, or almost all, for Carl Baden. It is also possible that due to confusion by voters regarding the procedure for writing in a vote his name was entered in the space for other offices. In the results published previously there are several instances of a single write-in vote for Governor and other offices.
We will report the final vote totals once they are confirmed by the D.C. Board of Elections though the final tallies may not be certified until the end of the month.