11132018 - News Article - Porter County poll works voice their Election Day Anger: 'A disastrous debacle'

Porter County poll works voice their Election Day Anger: 'A disastrous debacle'
Chicago Tribune
Jerry Davich Column
November 13, 2018
https://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/post-tribune/opinion/ct-ptb-davich-porter-county-election-fiasco-st-1114-story.html

On Election Day, the first call I received from an angry Porter County poll worker came in at 5:54 a.m., immediately followed by a frantic Facebook message.

“We are at our polling place in Liberty Township. NO INSPECTOR, CHURCH LOCKED, ELECTION OFFICE CAN’T HELP. KAREN MARTIN NOWHERE TO BE FOUND! RIDICULOUS!”

I fell back asleep, thinking this incident would be only a rare blip in the county’s electoral process that historic day. As we now know, the poll worker’s message turned out to be a canary in the coalmine of a voting disaster that eventually made national news.

At 8:58 a.m. that day, that poll worker contacted me again: “We are finally up and running! We are running with two high school students and three volunteers. All first time workers!”

As the morning progressed, I heard from many other Porter County poll workers with similar complaints, angry comments, and regular updates about their experiences. Many of those poll workers were serving Uncle Sam in this way for the first time.

“With the shape that our country is in, I wanted to dip my foot into the electoral process instead of just complaining about it,” said Rich Petrie, of Valparaiso, who worked as a judge at a fire station in his city.

He arrived there at 5 a.m. that day, eager to be a part of the American democratic process. He returned home at 11:30 p.m., angry and dejected.

Late that night at the Porter County courthouse, he waited for hours with other disgruntled poll workers while ballots were being handled, or mishandled, depending on your take of the situation.

“It was a true (expletive) show,” Petrie said.

Frustratingly long delays, unanswered questions, absence of leadership, and scores of angry, disillusioned poll workers.

“I’m a patient guy, usually with a positive attitude, but this experience really challenged me,” Petrie said. “It was chaos. A disastrous debacle.”

At 11:36 a.m. that day, the Liberty Township poll worker checked in again with me: “Busy! I hope the counting goes correctly when polls close.”

Again, at that time I assumed things would eventually be corrected by 6 p.m., when polling places closed. Again, I was wrong. I heard from other poll workers whose polling place hours were extended due to delays earlier that morning.

“We have heard nothing from the clerk’s office. Just hearsay. Somebody needs to shake these people up. They are not even returning calls. I am livid,” a poll worker told me. “Plus, we have not seen our absentee ballots.”

As we now know, absentee ballots cast early were not processed on election night, adding to the overall confusion, and to delays reporting the results, which came three days later.

“I feel sorry for all the wide-eyed, open-minded younger poll workers who served on the worst Election Day in our county’s history,” Petrie said. “I bet that 90 percent of them will never volunteer again as poll workers.”

One of those younger poll workers told me she returned home that night after midnight.

“I will get $110 for working 18 maddening hours. Never again,” she told me the next day.

Petrie describes Election Day this way: “I remember it like it was yesterday. ALL of yesterday.”

I also heard from a military spouse who was born and raised in Valparaiso, and who voted an absentee ballot while stationed at a U.S. Air Force base in England.

“I asked for, and received via email, confirmation that my votes would be counted. However, faith in that being true is thin considering the way the election was handled,” he told me.

Because his wife is an active duty officer, he requested his name not be published to avoid any repercussions against her.

“Upon filling out my absentee ballot in mid-October, I took it to the on-base military voting adviser to be sure it was filled out properly,” he told me. “There was a question at the bottom that was so misleading it provoked the adviser to say Porter County's absentee ballot was one of the most confusing she'd seen throughout the country.”

“Even with professional guidance, we apparently ‘misunderstood’ the question, and subsequently I was asked to fill out a waiver two weeks later, allowing Porter County officials to open my ballot and transfer my votes to another ballot by hand,” he said.

He described himself as a registered Republican, but foremost a patriotic American.

“I vote by conscience and love of country, not exclusively party. Yet I felt firsthand all our voting rights were compromised,” he said. “One party appeared to be fighting to allow citizens to vote while the other was coordinating a fight to limit this right.”

It struck him as strategy, not incompetence.

“The strategy of limiting voter turnout that spiraled out of control,” he told me via email from England. “Incompetence would be the actions of one person (presumably the County Clerk), but the Republican party lawyers blocking an injunction to keep the polls open on Election Day, despite not opening polls properly, is coordination.”

“This is why we don't let the baseball pitcher also be the umpire,” he said.

On election night, at 10:11 p.m., I again heard from the Liberty Township poll worker who was still at the courthouse: “We were at the poll at 5 a.m., so 15 hours now. Heads need to roll over this.”

Will heads roll over this debacle?

On Monday, State Rep. Ed Soliday, R-Valparaiso, requested the Indiana secretary of state's office to investigate the Porter County election system.

On Tuesday, the Valparaiso Democratic Committee called instead for an investigation by Indiana State Police.

“We are concerned… that this should be investigated by Indiana Secretary of State Connie Lawson, who ran for this election and thus cannot be considered impartial,” said Drew Wenger, the committee’s chairperson. “The people deserve an independent and experienced investigation into this election and any potential criminal activity.”

I asked Petrie if he would ever again work the polls in Porter County.

“In a heartbeat,” he replied, surprising me. “If only to document whether things get better or get worse on the next Election Day.”

Could things get any worse than what happened Nov. 6, 2018?

“I don’t think so,” he said.