I know it’s “Polling” day, but I just noticed this while looking to see when polls close. On Hillary Clinton’s site:
http://www.hillaryclinton.com/hq/kentucky/voting101/
Voting requirements: In order to vote you will need to bring with you a driver’s license, a Social Security card, a credit card, or another form of ID containing both picture and signature.
But on Barack Obama’s site it says (emphasis mine):
http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/stateupdates/gGBTFg
All voters must bring an ID or be personally acquainted with the precinct officer. Acceptable forms of ID include a driver’s license, a Social Security card, a credit card, or any ID card with both the voter’s picture and signature.
What an odd, and interesting addition to the rules… so you don’t need an ID if you’re personally acquainted with the Precinct Officer? Also, in Kentucky what does the Precinct Officer do? Oh yeah… this:
- Attend training sessions.
- Your election day will begin at 5:30 AM when you report to your polling place.
- Arrange your polling place with all the necessary election materials and voting equipment.
- Open the precinct by 6 AM.
- Process voters and provide any assistance.
- Administer all election laws.
- Close the polling place after the last voter in line at 6 PM has voted.
- Complete all necessary paper work.
- Return all election materials to the County Clerk’s office.
So how does this work? Well, according to the state:
Each precinct is required to have four (4) precinct officers serving on the day of the election.
- You must be a qualified registered voter. If you will be eighteen (18) years old on or before the General election, you can serve as a precinct officer.
- You can not serve as a precinct election officer if you are a candidate or the spouse, parent, brother sister, or child of a candidate who is to be voted for at the election.
- You can not change your party affiliation for one (1) year prior to your appointment.
So, out of curiosity… if all you have to do is “be personally acquainted with the precinct officer,” and there is nothing saying that all four officers can’t support the same candidate, and they are the people who are in charge of pretty much everything when it comes to the votes…… what’s to stop any fraud from happening here?
Very peculiar, I must say….
UPDATE - I was just pointed to this site: http://www.electionjournal.org/ Check out some of the articles:
Street Politics - “Kentucky Style”
We were fortunate to conduct an interview with Clarence Yancey. Clarence has served as 43rd legislative district Democrat Chairman since 1982. Yancey described to us the responsibilities of being a district chair and his reputation as being a particularly good one….candidates he supports win 90% of the time (he says).
Clarence is responsible for taking care of his poll workers, volunteers and making sure his people are well informed when they enter the polling place. Clarence will tell you, his people are VERY well informed:
“nine out of ten people will vote the way I want them to”
Clarence also supplies a visual aid in the form of “Yancey’s Sample Ballot”, you can see the ballot in the interview. Obama tops the ticket in this primary election. The “sample ballot” is especially effective for one demographic:
“especially senior citizens they don’t like to be in a poll and don’t look like they know what their doing”
Here’s what his sample ballot looks like:
Wowsers. This is just the tip of the iceberg, folks.
UPDATE 2 - Here is a hard copy showing the “Personal Acquaintance” thing:
From here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/electionjournal/2507955983/
