A Case Study in Resilience: Newby on Johnson County 2012

[Image courtesy of pioneerpathway]

Yesterday, I wrote about Seth Godin’s observations about accuracy, resilience and denial and their impact on elections. As promised, I want to continue that thought today by looking at the most recent ElectionDiary (“Two Lines Are Better Than One“) by my friend and colleague Brian Newby. As part of that post, he describes what happened in Johnson County, KS on Election Day 2012:

In Johnson County, on November 6, we had two polling places that had excessive lines during the rush of the morning.

The phrase “excessive lines,” or even the term “line” has received considerable scrutiny since the Commission was formed. As an election administrator, I’ve sidestepped–copped out, maybe–from defining what I consider “an acceptable line.” I think our goal should be no lines, even if that isn’t possible …

Could this line have been prevented? Absolutely.

The root cause? Our supervising judge was looking for some key opening materials, in her suitcase, but she couldn’t find them.

As instructed, she immediately called our office at the first sign of trouble.

The call went unanswered. All calls, in fact, to our office until 20 minutes after the polls opened, 6:20, that morning went unanswered.

That’s because all of the calls to our office had been routed to the Appraiser’s Office …

While we started noticing our phones were silent, many of our supervising judges were panicking unnecessarily because they couldn’t get through.

These were simple questions usually. Often, they just wanted to express that they thought we needed more “I Voted” stickers or make sure they had the proper envelopes for provisional ballots. Had we talked with the supervising judge at this location … we could have quickly prevented the freefall. Instead, she wasn’t ready at 6 a.m. and it wasn’t her fault.

In general, if you are making $125 for a 14-hour day, it’s just overwhelming when calling in what seems like the middle of the night, over and over and over, not getting a response, and knowing that in about an hour you will begin seeing hundreds of voters.

What I like best about the piece is what happened next:

As this unfolded, we blitzed text messages to the cellphones we sent to the polls (hoping they were unpacked) to let workers know we weren’t able to receive phone calls. The text instructed workers to call a specific cell phone number that I had set up for phone emergencies …

By the time phones were working, well after the polls opened, it didn’t take long to get several complaints from voters at this location. The image, from the photos [here and here] I took when I arrived, is so unnerving because it could have been staved off.

Did Johnson County solve its problem immediately? No. But what they did do was use the resources at their disposal to adapt and overcome the obstacle presented as quickly as they could. That’s the type of resilience that’s necessary in our field.

Brian closes with a short self-criticism that I think is too harsh given the situation but still a helpful reminder for all of us:

My mistake here? Being too tolerant of the letdown. In later discussions with the county manager, it’s as though this never happened. That’s my fault, and without pressing on the issue (and many others like this), we’re destined to have similar issues again. I can’t be quiet in The Year Of The Voter.

In Brian’s view, resilience is as much about sticking up for voters after problems occur as it is for addressing them when they occur. That’s an important view to take – especially since so much of the resources necessary on Election Day are controlled by people and agencies outside of elections.

Thanks, as always, to Brian for pulling back the curtain – and here’s to resilience in the field of election administration.