Activities before and after an Election

Last Updated:   11/9/25  22:29

The following describes some of what we Precinct Officials do to support an election in Precinct 19-24. This mainly covers things done before Election Day and things done after the polls close on Election Day. It does not cover the standard tasks to open the polls, handle voters during Election Day, and close the polls, all of which are covered in detail in the BOE documents. This is written from my perspective as the current 19-24 Chief Judge to help future 19-24 Chief Judges.

Establishing Contact with All Parties   (usually about two months before the election)

When I get the initial list of prospective 19-24 Precinct Officials in the Chief Judge Starter Kit, I send each Official an introductory email. In it I tell them to notify both me and the BOE if they become unavailable for the election, remind them about signing up for classes, ask if they have any task preferences or constraints about what they can do, warn they should monitor their email spam/junk folders for messages from the BOE and Chief Judge, propose a Monday Setup time, and note anything unique about the upcoming election. This email has links to reference material on my website, e.g., things to know about Hope Lutheran Church (HLC), our polling place. I list multiple ways to contact me later if they ever have questions; I note caveats and preferences for the various contacting methods.

This introductory email also tests whether emailing works in both directions between me and the Officials. Sometimes it does not; that problem has to be detected and corrected ASAP. In the email I ask for a quick response. Often I have to make follow-up phone calls days later to reach the non-responders and then determine why they had not responded, e.g., did the email go into an unchecked spam/junk folder?

I update the Chief Judge Portal as each Precinct Official responds. After everyone has been contacted (one way or another) and if there are no objections to the proposed Monday Setup time, I post the time on the BOE website.

While waiting for responses from the Precinct Officials, I email my contact at HLC to be sure everything will be as expected at the Church on Monday Setup and Election Day for the specified times. As soon as a Coordinator is assigned to our precinct, I send the Coordinator the introductory email I had sent to the Precinct Officials.

If an assigned Official later drops out, a frequent occurrence, I make sure the BOE Staffing Team is aware of the change. When new Officials are added, I send them the introductory email I had sent to the initial set of Officials.

Making Assignments and Doing Final Preparations   (usually a few days before the election)

Sometime in the week before the election I visit the polling place to take pictures of the current environment, meet with facility personnel, and get the key to the building.

Hopefully by the Friday or Saturday before the election, the list of Precinct Officials has stabilized. I then send the current set of Precinct Officials an email with details about proposed assignments. I make the assignments based on their training, past experience, preferences/constraints they have noted, and my attempt to balance the workload. The assignments email covers their Monday Setup assignments, their initial (and potential later) Election Day assignments, and the areas they will handle when we pack up after the election.

The initial assignments for Election Day are specified so people know what material they should definitely reread before Election Day to be ready to start with no hiccups when the polls open. Of course later in the day, we will be moving people around to broaden their experience. By then it is easier to go to a different position because they will have seen how others have been doing the work there.

The assignments email also describes any important changes that might have occurred after the introductory email. It notes the "kitchen" facilities we will have available at HLC and lists any weather concerns.

Around this time, I finish preparing material for the election, e.g., printing signs and other files, putting together folders with material for several stations, and packing miscellaneous items, e.g., my coffee maker and its supplies, masking tape, red painter's tape, office supplies, tools, and LED lights for curbside signs and the doorbell stand that can be hard to see when it gets dark in fall elections (that part of the Church grounds is not well lit).

The Chief Judge must do a lot of hauling in his/her car. There are many items that are not delivered by the BOE movers. Some must be picked up by the Chief Judge the weekend before the election; others, just before Monday Setup. In addition I have many items to bring, e.g., my coffee maker, cups, tools, medical supplies, notebooks, and signs. What goes where and when is partly controlled by security requirements. Some items stay at my house until Tuesday morning while others go to HLC for Monday Setup and stay there overnight. Others go to HLC for setup and come back home Monday night. Then those and the remainder go to HLC Tuesday morning. I have a "Bring" list to help keep this straight for all the items. Then after the election, things go somewhat in reverse, as described in Packing Up after the Election.

Some Challenges with Our Polling Place

It appears Hope Lutheran Church (HLC) will be a good polling place, but it presents some challenges, as most polling places do. The most significant are summarized in this section and our current solutions are given in the following sections.

HLC has a preschool. At certain times of Election Day there can be competition for parking spaces between voters and parents who are dropping off or picking up their children. With the car and foot traffic in the parking lots, voters must be very careful. The Church is considering having teacher workdays on Election Days to help with all this, but for now we are using this parking diagram to designate restrictions.

HLC has two roads that can be used for entry/exit: Rogers Road and Trentini Avenue. Normally Trentini Avenue is blocked by the Church using cones and bars, but it is left unblocked on Election Day. The Rogers Road entry/exit is always open. However making a left turn on exit to Rogers Road can be difficult. There is more on this at Special considerations for the 19-24 polling place.

The HLC Voting Enclosure is long and narrow. It is even narrower in the area used for the Registration Table waiting lines. It can be cramped when three RT lines are used. Fortunately there is little if any furniture for us to move at Monday Setup and then restore before we leave Tuesday night.

The BOE supplies tables and chairs. A problem is that we have to pack all the tables during closeout, so none are available to act as our two Packing Up collection tables. Instead we must use the "kitchen" counter which has some space constraints.

HLC does not have any restrooms that can be reached without going thru the Voting Enclosure. This means non-voters, mainly campaign workers, have to be told, "Sorry, but that's not allowed." when they ask to use the restrooms. The must be told to drive to some grocery store, fast food place, etc., to use their facilities.

Directing Voters to and around HLC

In part to address "Where is the 19-24 polling place?" and "How can I avoid the HLC preschool traffic?", we have the Information Mainly for Precinct 19-24 Voters web page. I post a link to it on the Nextdoor social media network website a couple of months before Election Day and then again a few days before Election Day. These posts are for 15 local "Nextdoor neighborhoods" and should cover most of the 5000+ registered voters in 19-24, at least those who use Nextdoor. In addition to general election information, this page has warning notes about the HLC preschool times, as well as various maps and diagrams to help drivers.

On the Monday morning before Election Day, I set up a number of signs around the HLC area. Some of these are BOE signs; I have created some additional signs for outside and inside the building. The outside signs and outside signs diagrams help Officials set up and take down signs.

A number of the bulky signs used for curbside are unique to our polling place. The BOE lets me store them in my garage between elections. This is much more efficient than having them stored at the Operations Center, then picked up by me at Supply Pickup, then returned Tuesday night.

Packing Up after the Election

Packing up after the election is complicated and hectic. There are very many BOE and JGK items that must be gathered from the Voting Enclosure and from the parking lots. It all must be properly organized so everything will eventually end up where it should, either to stay at HLC for the BOE movers, or to be put into the right place in my car for either delivery to the BOE dropoff site or to my home. It is important to keep the dropoff items together in the car so they can be accessed easily at the dropoff site. All this sorting and packing has to be done quickly to get everything done in time to meet the dropoff site's deadline. I ask one of our most experienced Officials to coordinate the packup while I and the two Judges are tied up doing the post-election administrative work with the Tabulator, ballots, forms, etc. We have a detailed packing up checklist for this process.

The location where the BOE movers store election items, such as the voting booths and gray bin, is a closet outside the Voting Enclosure. Its door is open to the weather. The closet gets packed full of all the items. Repacking them there after poll closing is not easy.

In the Days after the Election

Wednesday morning I go to HLC to pick up anything that might not have fit in my car Tuesday night. I make sure everything has been properly restored in the Voting Enclosure. I also return the HLC key to the receptionist.

Right after the election I start work on the postmortem report. This includes creating a Google Photos album, which mainly contains photos I took after Monday Setup to record the latest polling place configuration. I add explanatory text for each photo. A complete postmortem draft is usually finished within two or three days after the election. I then send the draft to all the Precinct Officials and our Coordinator for corrections and additions. By early the week after the election, the postmortem is finalized. I then upload it to my website and notify the BOE that it is available for them.

The postmortem report not only documents what happened in the current election, but also makes suggestions about changes the BOE Staff and Precinct Officials might make to improve things in the next election. The BOE Staff does review the postmortem report, but often does not provide feedback as quickly as I would like.

From right after the election and thru canvass, I update files on my website with various election statistics as they become available.

Archived Material

All the above files and much more about recent/current and past elections are in the BOE section of my website. For example, there are my preparation task list, postmortem reports, comments on BOE documents, photos of the voting enclosure and the curbside area, election statistics, and portfolios of my signs and BOE signs.

I have found it very helpful to use online lists, diagrams, photos, etc., to organize the Chief Judge work and to make information available to the Precinct Officials, our Coordinator, the BOE Staff, Church personnel, and the Precinct 19-24 voters. Having these files also makes it easier to recall how past elections were handled when preparing for the next one.