It's Just Like Deja Vu! It's Just Like Deja Vu!

Below is a submission from my predecessor, Connie Schmidt.

As I've typed, much of what I have experienced over the last 9 1/2 years felt like a redux of Connie's experiences.  She says as much below.

In fact, in reading her accounts, I never realized how good I have it today!

When I went to my first election industry meeting after becoming Election Commissioner, in 2005, I noticed the significant number of retirements taking place nationwide.  The fallout of the 2000 presidential election, new legislation, and a growing group of election activists who climbed over the backs and good names of some election integrity advocates forced many changes that for many industry veterans simply wasn't worth the stress.


Here is the Johnson County view from then, in Connie's words:

RETURN TO “Groundhog Day” BUDGET PROCESS

I read Brian Newby’s blog on a regular basis, and grin from time to time because he is actually putting down in writing some of the inside stories that have never been told (because I was afraid to tell them). 

Lately his blog posts have focused on the particular issue of budget needs for his office (and I might add for election offices nationwide).  That said, it is a known problem, one that has plagued the Johnson County election office for many, many years. 

I asked Brian if I could join the conversation on his blog, to share some war stories that have never been told, and to reinforce that some things never change – the budget process for the election office!  Brian and those staff members that remain from my tenure know that during my 9+ years as Election Commissioner, there are so many war stories that were never told….many led to my early retirement from a job that I loved and a team of staff that were, and still are, the best in the nation.

One budget war story began in spring 1998, during the preparation of the 1999 budget.  I want to step back for a moment to provide a brief history of where we were at in 1998.  In September 1995, I inherited what we referred to as the” Model A” first generation DRE machines (that is truly what they was called).  We were the first county nationwide to use them.  We had 700 Model A machines, and 160 of the newer model, which were added after the 1992 election because our County had very, very long lines in polling places. 

The actual voting machine, along with the tabulation software (from what I was told) was basically designed in our office.  There were no federal voting certification processes in place during the mid 1980’s.  So the system was what it was.  We had no choice but to use it and make it work – no matter how outdated and utterly ridiculous it was to prepare for each election. 

For example, we had to data enter by hand all election information into an old DOS system, type the same data separately in Word Perfect to print long ballot strips that were hung with tape between the buttons on the face of equipment (Hats off to former Asst. Election Commissioner Karen Browning who was the house expert at this job and she did it perfectly every time).  Imagine the wrong strips with candidates and/or issues being placed on machines on Election Day.   

This was not a system that was connected in any way.  Obviously, this required lots of duplicate proofing.  Then along came the need to develop a paper ballot system that would integrate with the DRE tabulation software.  I am told this happened in 1994.  

To tabulate the paper ballots, a new software was developed and something referred to as a “bridge” brought the paper ballots votes into the DOS tabulation software where all votes were tabulated – paper and DRE.   I might add that the actual paper ballots were developed using a different system, making a total of three separate systems created with the same information that must tabulate into one place on election night.  We held our breath every election night – no one knew anything about this process except the staff of the election office.

Back to the budget process in 1998.  We worked very hard to convince the BOCC of the need to replace this voting system, which was archaic, inefficient and over 12 years old.  With much delight we made it through that process, and money was allocated in the Capital Improvement Fund to purchase new equipment in 1999, in time to implement prior to the Presidential 2000.  Thank goodness! 

However, shortly before the final budget was adopted, our funding for new equipment was pulled!  Now, we knew that we would have to conduct the 2000 Presidential election using this same archaic equipment.  In Kansas, no excuse early voting was implemented for the first time in the 1996 Presidential election, followed by a new state law that approved the use of satellite early voting locations for the 2000 Presidential.  In our county that required the use of over 1,000 unique paper ballots distributed to 3 early voting locations – voters could choose any of these locations to vote – we never knew how many of which ballots to distribute to each location.  Just remembering this caused me to take a deep breath.

The 2000 Presidential was a near disaster in Johnson County!  Funny, we had no idea what was happening in Florida…..we were handling our own “mess”.  Again, no one knew about this horror story, except those internal staff who experienced extreme stress. 

In fact, even writing this down makes me nervous and it’s been over 13 years.  First of all, we issued the largest number of paper early voting ballots to date in Johnson County.  We were using outdated school-type test scoring scanners that were set up to store paper ballot votes on cassette tapes. 

I can’t remember the exact number of tapes that we ended up with, but I do remember that it took us over 8 hours to load these cassette tapes individually into the old DOS tabulation software during the afternoon of Election Day, November 2000.  Beginning in 1996, we started the policy of releasing the early votes as soon as possible after the polls closed at 7:00 p.m. 

Obviously, the media and the candidates expected that to happen in November 2000.  Internally, the DOS software first had to sort all of the paper ballots by precinct before it could tabulate the vote totals per candidate.  When we did the command to sort the ballot images by precinct for tabulation, the DOS based computer software crashed back to the DOS prompt.  Nothing happened – the tabulation software crashed! 

We got the vendor on the phone, but there was no solution provided.  After a huge panic attack, we released this statement to the public…..funny that I can still remember the exact words today.  “Due to the large number of paper ballots cast it is taking us longer than normal to tabulate them so we will be releasing the voting machine votes first, followed by the early voting totals, accumulated into the final unofficial results.”  No one asked why – the explanation was the truth, which was my mantra, but it truly was not the entire story.  That statement bought us some time to try to get this old software to work.

Finally with no other choice available, using a totally different software outside of the tabulation computer software, we were able to finally sort the paper ballot images in precinct order.  Those votes were then returned to the tabulation DOS software and all votes – DRE equipment and paper ballots were reported to the public.  No one ever knew about this almost catastrophic situation except the staff and me, who suffered from the unbelievable stress of that moment in time.

Fortunately, our funding for new equipment was once again approved and remained in the 2001 budget.  That funding, however, was only for the equipment – only for the exact number that we already had - 860 (the same number of machines since 1994, by the way).  No funding for tabulation computers, training, disposal of the old machines, reconfiguration of the warehouse, or any PR efforts to educate the voters on how to use the new equipment.  

The staff worked miracles on several of these issues and we managed to request an old Med-Act van that was on the County’s disposal list, items that are first offered to county departments prior to auction.  We got the van for about $1.00 and we had it painted in a VOTE design with our web address on each side.   That was part of our PR solution.  ((((Editor's note--we STILL use that van, which does not run, as our JO-CO-PO-LO Billboard outside of our office.))))

Another moment frozen in my memory was a discussion with the then County Manager to request more funding for the Election Office.  The staff and I were working 7 days a week for months on end, sometimes 10-12 hour days.  We were managing 3 early voting locations, using paper ballots – totaling over 1,000 unique ballot styles in an August election; plus recruiting and training poll workers and preparing to open polling places on Election Day (all with the same number of full time staff and voting machines that were in place prior to early voting).  

That discussion with the County Manager ended with him telling me, “Connie, you do such a good job, it won’t be possible to convince the BOCC that you need additional funding.”  I got up and left realizing that to get our needed funding would require failing at our job of conducting elections – that was NOT an option, so we continued down our path of working non-stop….me and the dream team of election staff.

I think my final straw relating to budget stories was in late 2004 – we were denied our request for additional funding to conduct the 2004 Presidential election.  Once again, we received the largest number of early voting paper ballots (and this time it was a 2 page ballot) – it was non-stop early voters to the extreme that it was impossible for staff to leave our building due to traffic congestion. 

One day in the middle of October and in the midst of that onslaught of early voters, I received a phone call asking me to prepare a report and come to the Board of County Commissioners meeting to explain why our office had depleted it’s funding already.  I do believe that moment was the defining moment for me. 

My perfect number of years of service and age for early retirement occurred in early December 2004.  I took it – I realize now that I was exhausted, burned out, and tired of the stress of making everything perfect with few resources – and with the same number of full time staff and voting machines that were there when I started.  

That is the ending of a collection of budget horror stories - there were many others!  I have noticed nationally that when there is a huge election failure, it is a huge media event, the person in charge loses their job, and the election office finally receives the necessary funding to correct the problems and make the improvements that had been needed and requested for a very long time. 

This indeed is a very bad way to manage any business.  Johnson County voters deserve better!

Introducing, Soon, a Special Guest

Before coming to the Johnson County Election Office, I pondered greatly about what it would be like to replace someone I often now refer to as Miss Election USA.

Connie Schmidt, my predecessor, was recognized nationally as a leader in the election administration community.  There are plenty of books about leading a turnaround but few analyze taking the baton from someone well-regarded and keeping the momentum, particularly if you didn't know the person handing you the baton.

As an elected city council member in Shawnee in April 2002, I didn't know anything about Connie's national reputation.  But, I knew about her locally and saw her operation first-hand when running for office.

I toured the election office shortly after filing for office.   I met her two assistant election commissioners--both very impressive.  I handed them my candidate web bio and it was live on the jocoelection site before my brief tour was over.

Part of the tour included an introduction to a little runt of a computer that was proudly introduced to me as our soon-to-come "new" voting machines. 

Wow.  This was 2001, but these looked like the 286 computer issued to me in 1990 at Sprint. 

Moreover, there was genuine giddiness in the office about these devices.

I learned these machines were state-of-the-art in the voting machine world, but they were essentially large Palm Pilots.  Our diagnostics today include using a stylus to touch the center of the screen and all four corners, for instance--when's the last time you did that setting up an iPhone?

Still, I saw the footprint of the old machines and how much more economical these were from a space perspective, and I saw why the staff was pleased to make the change.

On election night, I was happy to find I was victorious but later that week became aware of a need for a recount after tabulation concerns once results were modemed back on election night.  (This, by the way, is why results to this day are hand-delivered back to the election office and why this practice is emulated by others nationwide.  You're welcome.)

Anyway, I came in on a Saturday to watch the recount, and it was absolutely the most boring, yet extremely professional, thing I've ever observed.  The outcomes didn't change, but little did I know I'd be working here years later, and I learned so much about being an election commissioner just from watching that office during that week.

In fact, my path to the election office started in 2004, when I was checking the election office website a couple of days after the presidential election.  I was surprised to see an announcement on the site that Connie was retiring.

I applied for the position and eventually was offered the appointment by the Kansas Secretary of State.

Soon after being appointed as election commissioner and after meeting with Connie, I saw a pattern that I hoped would change.  Many of the administrative and budget issues I have documented here over the last few weeks are long-term things, part of the culture really, and things Connie fought for nine years as well.

It was almost on schedule--my year two-issues tended to be her year-two issues, for instance.  Now, I've been here longer than Connie and have lost that historical touchpoint.

Acknowledging these struggles, it's worth pointing out that I'm also not into being a victim. 

I'm a believer that in any large organization, many can make a case that they are the overlooked or under-appreciated department or individual.  I've been in departments at Sprint where we felt oppressed, only to hear others tell us how lucky we were.  Often, it's all about perspective.

But the lack of investment in the election office and our voters is pretty evident, right down to the team photos we've taken annually over the last 20 years, showing the same number of individuals in the same non-ADA accessible building, and standing or sitting in the same room with the same carpet.

On a personal level, though, it can't be denied that the election commissioner compensation has lagged department heads in the county's administration building.  While there are around 30 departments and agencies at the county, the election commissioner isn't among the top 100 paid county employees, perhaps a good point for tax hawks but bad for those in this position or election administration overall.  The commissioner position, in fact, isn't rated at the same level as most department heads.

By statute, the election commissioner is to have a monthly car allowance, and during my initial meeting with Connie she told me the fight she had to have to it raised from $125 to $300, where it has been for more than 10 years.  No department head eligible for a car allowance has one that low, but a few managers do, including a manger in the transit department. (So, yes, the car allowance is the same as it is for someone whose job it is to get persons to ride the bus.)

The compensation issues carry downstream where our staff positions have traditionally been rated lower than I believe they should be.  We've made a bit of progress on that this year, but we use part-time $8.75-an-hour employees throughout our operation regularly.  If you've called or visited our office, odds are one of these outstanding individuals has helped you.

Generally, Connie and I both have had great support from the Board of County Commissioners but out of respect for the process, we rarely have gone to them directly (this position is appointed by the Secretary of State but funded by the Board). 

Fair to say, though, that while we both respected the process, we each have felt that the process didn't always respect us.

Budget issues aside, there are many cool things about this position--it's the closest thing to running a small business I think one can get in government.  We get tremendous support from the community (likely, dear reader, you are such a supporter, so thank you).

Last night for instance, I spoke to the Gardner-Edgerton Republican Group, and it is very personally gratifying to hear influentials in our community speak well of our office.

Last night's speaking
tour stop was the new
Perkins in Gardner. 

I have learned a lot from my predecessors, even those I never met.  I've read their notes, listened to those who worked with them, and drew conclusions about what worked and didn't work well.

Much of what we do in our office started under Connie's leadership.  The biggest thing I learned in what it takes to replace a Star is that the Star carried values that must remain.

Connie left, but I truly think that the concept that the office and the voting process must be protected over individual interests is as strong or stronger now than it was in 2004.

Maybe, those values are what lead to our budget woes, actually.  If so, we have no choice but to live in the budget environment we have because the values can't change.

I have my own views of what led to Connie retiring from a job she loved and was very good at, but I think it's best if you read it from her.

Next week, I'll be posting the first-ever guest post on ElectionDiary, from Connie, to give a different perspective of the budget issues especially.  It's budget time, our meeting with the Board is next week, and we're making a push at trying to move the budgetary needle in favor of our voters.

In the meantime, posted below is a book Connie and her staff developed more than 10 years ago.  It's the roadmap we will leverage again if and when we get budgetary approval to replace those Palm Pilotish machines.