D.C. Early Voting Attracts Thousands

Early voting in person for the 2016 presidential election opened Saturday, Oct. 22, at one site: the 4th Street NW government building which also houses the DC Board of Elections. Many Metro riders exiting the Judiciary Square station directly in front of the building gasped as they came onto the broad sidewalk entrance. Hundreds of people stood in a line that stretched halfway around the building.

A live band played. Dozens of colorful campaign signs on stakes “decorated” the five large entrance planters. Candidates walked along the line introducing themselves. DC Statehood advocates gave out brochures and urged everyone to vote for the advisory proposition on the ballot — even though it has been changed two times by the District Council since it was published in late April.

By noon, it took about half an hour to get in, although seniors of a certain age (they didn’t ask for proof, just offered) got to go to the front of the line. Once their identity was checked, voters would wait their turn on new voter sign-in computers manned by dozens of volunteers. The system automatically checked if voters had cast an absentee ballot in D.C., Maryland or Virginia or, as early voting has begun in other sites, had voted elsewhere.

“This saves hours of inefficient hand-checking after the voting polls are closed on election night,” said Dorothy Brizill, a decades-long election poll watcher and monitor and the founder of DC Watch, a nonprofit government watchdog group. Intently surveying all the brand new registering, sign-in and express voting computer equipment that voters will be using in this election, she declared them “possibly time saving and safer.”

Once signed in, voters either are given a paper ballot or can ask to vote by touch screen. All ballots are bilingual (English or Spanish) and are completed by the voter alone in a a voting booth. There are spaces for candidate write-ins as well. Once the ballot is completed to the voter’s satisfaction, it is cast digitally. A paper ballot is taken to an express ballot computer Like a bank deposit machine, they insert the ballot and wait for the acceptance signal. Volunteers including bilinguals on request, are there to help. Then, the voter is given an “I voted” sticker and departs.

The hard copy ballots remain in the computer’s locked deposit box until the end of the Nov. 8 voting day. They are collected by the precinct captain and given to a D.C. Elections Board official who also collects the voting tabulation tape from the computer that has counted all the votes, the number of ballots cast and how many have write-ins. All this is stored in sealed envelopes in an Elections Board safe until after the polls close on Nov. 8.

“It is almost impossible to hack into the system,” said Board of Elections Support Services engineer Arlin Budoo. Everything is counted and counter-checked. It’s all wireless and the individual chips from each computer are taken, stored and sealed in the ballot envelopes until they are opened on election tally night. But because the results are computer tabulated, we’ll know them within minutes after the polls close Nov. 8.

Any voter can cast his or her vote at the Judiciary Square site all day every day until Nov. 8. On Oct. 28, a number of other designated early-voting centers will open around the city, including the Georgetown Public Library. On Election Day, voters may only vote at their designated neighborhood precincts, where they also can register under certain conditions.