All the ballots are handled and marked "if needed" ........
What does that mean?
The ballots are all mailed in/dropped off. The envelopes are opened the ballots are each handled by an election worker. If the penciled circle is not completely filled out, or it looks like they marked one thing but meant another, the worker "enhances" it. This all requires more man hours than poll voting did. There is no stub for having voted, there is no ID required to register. It's a mess. Jackson Cty. Oregon was the last county in the nation to get it's count in...Florida beat them. Look, all you have to do to invalidate a vote is have two circles filled in say, for president...no one gets the vote. I raised cain in the primary of 2000 when this was looking bad because there is only one worker observing these ballots at a time, anyone could fill in dots. After each ballot is handled by "someone" it is fed into the counter. I was told I could not work at their elections again when I told the county clerk this was not going to work for the general election. Each worker in that primary worked 22-23 hours straight, most of them old....that's a bunch of little circles to read......correctly? Doubtful.
It's a mess in Oregon. I can only hope it's improved since I left.