I spent much of Election Day in the local Town Office doing a stint as a ballot clerk. It was a privilege to be asked to assist in this manner, and more so to be able to experience this from the other side of the table. When you have lived in the area for almost 50 years, and have been voting here for that long, inevitably you get to know people from that perspective: who usually checks you off the voting roll, who slides the top of the old wooden ballot box for you, who greets people by name. When one realizes that the place you are filling as a ballot clerk was once graced by the mother of childhood acquaintances, there is recognition of time passing.

These are the things that make the area what it is: a somewhat rural Maine community; comfortable, even if we disagree on some things; an amalgam of people from many walks of life, who coalesce once every four years to make their opinions formally known at the ballot box.

The two of us ballot clerks on this side of the room, one Democrat and one Republican, one veteran clerk, and one newbie (yours truly) experienced the parade of voters throughout the first half of the day. I believe the tally for our shift was about 700+. The flow was steady through the first few hours, brief lulls punctuated by workers with local contractors taking time out from coffee break or lunch to vote. It was explained during the training session that we’d probably see 1900 voters if the turnout was about average — though that might be down because there had been so many absentee ballots already.

The majority of voters appeared to be in good spirits. We noted a good handful of new registrants busy getting their paperwork done in order to vote in this town. Handing out the “I Voted” stickers was part of the job, and there were only a couple people who grumpily refused to take one—made up for by the young parents who wanted them for their little kids.

After about the first 30 voters, when one voter looked at the Federal/ State ballot and said aloud,”Oh, I didn’t fill out the back…I didn’t see those questions,” we realized this was an issue for some people. The format of the optically scanned federal/state ballot was not well known to many voters it seemed. The other clerk handling the automated balloting machine then began to ask people to make sure they’d done both sides. We were amazed at how many had not, (we guessed about 2-3 percent, not inconsiderable) — and they went back to the booth to complete their voting. This was noted to the incoming clerks for the afternoon/ evening shift, so presumably the number of missed questions was reduced as a result.

We noted the number of voters who looked with puzzlement, and some with distrust, at the automatic ballot tabulating machine, into which you fed the Federal/State ballot and the machine inhaled it, was noteworthy. Several voters asked,”How do I know it counted my vote the way I marked it?”, or “How do you know it even counted my vote?” To which the best we could reply was that the machine counter registered the total number of voters so far, and if you stood there for a few seconds after feeding the ballot in you’d see the number increase one. As to how it tabulates the marked sheets, when asked I’d have to say,”We don’t know, but it comes down to trusting the machines and the people who program them…” This clearly did not satisfy some voters, and news stories from other states may have provided some justification for that view.

Here is a thought — likely to cause howls of protest from some, so be it — why can’t these machines be redesigned to produce a small paper tape receipt for each voter, an accurate summary of their vote, at the exact time they submit their ballot? ATM’s can do it with check deposits, why not these supposedly more sophisticated machines?

Along with that, let’s have a national voter ID card, with both photo and biometric aspects. This would help eliminate possible duplicate voting, non-citizens voting, and make changing registration from state to state accurate and easier. Pretty soon you won’t be able to get on a plane in Portland Maine without a passport or military ID, why should we not take voting even more seriously?

Ballot questions, both statewide initiatives and the local questions, seemed a puzzle to many. My impression is that many people never seem to read anything substantial about the statewide issues. This heightens the effect that extremely wealthy people with interests /agendas outside the state can create with the media storm around these ballot questions that can influence the outcome. In my view, most voters on these questions responded emotionally, not with informed opinions. The marijuana legalization initiative alone was 38 pages long. If you are using that you’ll fall asleep before you are at page 10.

Hats off to the few voters who approached the wooden ballot box and said,”Gee…I don’t know anything about these local issues on these three, so I didn’t vote on them…” Bravo for honesty, and heads up to the town office, let’s figure out a way to get voters to read the background information before they get to the polling station. Having the warrants on the table as you come in does not belatedly inform these younger voters effectively.

It was a humbling experience to see the hundreds of people from town voting that day, and recognizing many of them after all these years. More than few people thanked us both that day, and I’d have to extend that many times over to the other clerks and warden/ assistant warden. Glad to have had the opportunity to participate.

Another View is written on a rotating basis by a member of a group of Midcoast citizens that meet to discuss issues they think are of public interest.