����vlog

As you go to cast your vote next Tuesday, you may notice some people at your precinct who are not poll workers.While each precinct will be staffed with poll workers, many locations will also have poll watchers, KCRG reports.“They’re there to observe and just make sure that everything is happening as it should,” said Whitney Hein, Jones County Auditor.These poll watchers are not picked by or paid by county auditors. They are volunteers chosen by a party or a nonpartisan candidate to oversee voting locations.”It helps keep honesty in the process, helps it keep a public process so they can go out and report to the public what’s going on in that polling place,” said Hein.Hein said poll watchers can challenge voters if they think that person shouldn’t be voting.For example, if a watcher knows a person is trying to vote in a county they’re not registered in, they can bring it to a poll worker’s attention.”The voter would still have the ability to vote that day. But they would have to vote a provisional ballot and then whatever reason they were challenged for, they’d have to bring documents into my office by noon the Tuesday following the election to prove otherwise,” she said.Poll watchers may not interfere with the election process.”They don’t have the right to handle ballots, handle any of the equipment or anything like that. So, people that are going in to vote should not be fearful of poll watchers. They’re not going to be watching over your shoulder as you’re voting in your voting booth,” said Hein.Hein said watchers are also not allowed to try to sway or impact voters’ decisions.Hein said not everyone can just walk into a polling location and become a poll watcher, there are certain parameters that need to be met.If you’re interested in becoming a poll watcher you can click here.Jones County does not have ballot boxes, but Hein said there are ways to check on your absentee ballot if you’re concerned it hasn’t been received.“You can go to the Secretary of State’s website and there is a track my ballot link and you can type in your name and birth date and it will pull up to see if you mailed it to us, the day that we received it and you can make sure that it made it back here,” said Hein.To track your ballot, click here.