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Since I'd driven all the way down to Norwalk, I decided to stick around for the training and tour, out of curiosity. The facility and employees for processing and counting votes was extremely impressive. They have multiple mechanisms to count and verify votes, ensure their Scantrons are reading votes accurately, etc. Everyone working there seemed serious, dedicated, and competent, insofar as a non-expert could tell. If there were any shenanigans going on, I don't think they were going on there.
The standing rule turned out to not be an actual rule (and was never mentioned by anyone at the registrar - it was told to me by the person from the campaign I was working on). The actual issue is that the area we were supposed to be observing was crowded and busy, and if we wanted to be close enough to see the screens of the people working, we had to be in the aisle behind them. Putting a chair in the middle of the aisle would block it, while a standing person could just step aside. As it turned out, so many people had showed up that we were verging on blocking the aisles anyway, so the supervisors limited us to six per aisle. Which meant I couldn't get into the aisle anyway. (That's also why people couldn't move around much - it was at maximum capacity).
So I just sat down in a chair beside the aisle, and nobody said a thing. However, I wasn't doing anything particularly useful there, so I eventually took off and suggested to the campaign guy that he put me on ballot chasing instead. He took down my number, but I have heard nothing and after the snippy message I sent as soon as I arrived and discovered the situation, I don't expect to.
So, I actually don't think there were any shenanigans, and if I'd told any of the people actually working there about my situation, I'm sure they would have found a place where I could sit and generally observe, or showed me areas where it was fine to walk around. But I don't think they were obliged to accommodate specific requests by specific campaigns that conflicted with existing rules like not blocking the aisles. I lay this completely on the campaign, which should have notified us of the physical requirements so if we had a problem with it, we could've done something else. I'm also baffled by why they had so many people put on observation that it was literally maxed out, when presumably they had an unlimited number of ballots to be chased.
That was not how I'd have chosen to spend my day, but I did leave with a new respect for how Los Angeles runs voting and vote counting. Also glad I chose to work with the Katie Hill campaign rather than the Gil Cisneros campaign.
The standing rule turned out to not be an actual rule (and was never mentioned by anyone at the registrar - it was told to me by the person from the campaign I was working on). The actual issue is that the area we were supposed to be observing was crowded and busy, and if we wanted to be close enough to see the screens of the people working, we had to be in the aisle behind them. Putting a chair in the middle of the aisle would block it, while a standing person could just step aside. As it turned out, so many people had showed up that we were verging on blocking the aisles anyway, so the supervisors limited us to six per aisle. Which meant I couldn't get into the aisle anyway. (That's also why people couldn't move around much - it was at maximum capacity).
So I just sat down in a chair beside the aisle, and nobody said a thing. However, I wasn't doing anything particularly useful there, so I eventually took off and suggested to the campaign guy that he put me on ballot chasing instead. He took down my number, but I have heard nothing and after the snippy message I sent as soon as I arrived and discovered the situation, I don't expect to.
So, I actually don't think there were any shenanigans, and if I'd told any of the people actually working there about my situation, I'm sure they would have found a place where I could sit and generally observe, or showed me areas where it was fine to walk around. But I don't think they were obliged to accommodate specific requests by specific campaigns that conflicted with existing rules like not blocking the aisles. I lay this completely on the campaign, which should have notified us of the physical requirements so if we had a problem with it, we could've done something else. I'm also baffled by why they had so many people put on observation that it was literally maxed out, when presumably they had an unlimited number of ballots to be chased.
That was not how I'd have chosen to spend my day, but I did leave with a new respect for how Los Angeles runs voting and vote counting. Also glad I chose to work with the Katie Hill campaign rather than the Gil Cisneros campaign.
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From your earlier message, it was not clear that some campaign staffer had issued the standing-up rule, rather than a registrar's staffer.
Ballot chasing should be a high priority in a tight race. Sounds like the crowding may be causing problems. Young Kim's campaign has been accusing Cisneros observers of ballot tampering, while some Kim campaign staffers have been removed from the building for handling ballots and interfering with county staff.
Good that you went to see how it's done!
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I heard about the touching ballots and interfering with staff thing. I don't think there's any way outsiders could tamper with the ballots. Everyone's watching everyone at all times.
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