The poll workers you meet when you cast your vote, as quiet and unassuming as they may appear, have an immense responsibility to safeguard the voting process.

Poll workers are charged with making sure the election is honest and fair, and that all voters, regardless of age or handicap, have a chance to cast their vote privately.

The polling location is required by law to have no campaign-related signs or activities within 150 feet of it. Voters that wear political badges or T-shirts are asked to remove them, and even conversations about candidates or issues are not allowed.

The county clerk must appoint at least three poll workers per precinct where votes are counted. Two must come from the party that received the most votes in that precinct in the last statewide election. One must come from the party that received the next largest amount of votes. This insures that no one political party has a monopoly on watching the ballot box.

The workers must verify that the voter is indeed registered by checking registration records. In Utah, voters do not need any form of identification to vote, but Tooele County Clerk Marilyn Gillette recommends voters carry an ID to verify name and address in case there is question, such as a misspelled name.

If the poll workers can not find a voter on the list of registered voters, that voter will be given a provisional ballot. The provisional ballot has information similar to an application to register to vote printed on the outside with a printed ballot placed inside the envelope. If it is later determined that the person who cast the ballot is a registered voter in the state of Utah, then the ballot envelope will be opened and counted.

Gillette said that in more than 20 years of watching voting she can only remember one incident of somebody trying to use a provisional ballot to vote twice. That case was referred to the county attorney for prosecution as voting fraud.

Tim Gillie: tgillie@tooeletranscript.com