VIDEO: The Duties And Responsibilities Of Being A Poll Watcher

OKTIBBEHA COUNTY, Miss. (WCBI)-In less than two months, voters will cast ballots in the primary election for municipal races.

While candidates are gearing up for the big day, so are poll watchers.

They help ensure transparency at the polls.

“If you have a poll watcher, then they can watch what’s going on and make sure that your vote gets counted appropriately,” said Lydia Quarels, an attorney with Mozingo and Quarels, PLLC.

A poll watcher is designated by a political party or candidate to watch and keep an eye out for any suspicious and fraudulent activity taking place at the polls.

Their duties is different from that of a poll worker.

“Poll workers may not be adequately trained, and when they are not adequately trained, they’re disparities, election disparities that occur,” Quarels explained.

Quarles said she’s witnessed first hand some of the questionable activities that can take place at the polls.

At the last city election in Starkville, there were alleged disparities that took place at the polls.

“I represented  two Aldermen in our four year ago election, that had to sue because there were election irregularities,” she recalled.

So in an effort to prevent things like that from happening this year, the Greater Starkville Development Partnership hosted on a workshop, teaching Oktibbeha County residents about the duties of being a poll watcher.

“We’re going to teach them about the idiosyncrasies of the voting machines that we have in Oktibbeha county,” said Quarles. “We are going to teach them about provisional ballot, which is also called an affidavit ballot, and how they must be completed in order to be counted.”

“Poll watchers to understand they’re not there to enforce the law, they’re not there to interrupt the proceedings,” said Pam Johnson, who was an instructor during the workshop. “They have a special role to play and it really helps us, and has helped us over the past three election cycles to be able to clean up some of the errors but I’ve been made in the past.”

Organizers tell WCBI they hope other cities and counties will host similar workshops.

Primary elections are set for May 2nd, 2017.