A Form Should Be Completed For Each Candidate And Submitted: Fill & Download for Free

Because we don’t want to.Speed is effectively irrelevant - if it takes 3 days to get it right, who cares? Better to get it right in 3 than wrong in 2!To get it very close to perfect would be very expensive, but not very hard. Here’s how you do it:Increase the number of precinctsPay poll workers more (they don’t make much - some are volunteers).Count twice - once by hand and once with a machine.Standardize ballot formats across the countryUse reliable, uniform, un-networked machines to count them along with the hand count.Hire numerous monitors from both parties (plus additional people) for each precinct and make sure they both concur with the count and sign off on the count before submitting it up the chain.Be completely transparent about the tabulating of the votes and have multiple checkpoints along the way. Share the data.Require candidates to participate in the process of the counting in such a way as to ensure that they are aware of the checkpoints and the tabulation.Recount all votes by machine after the official votes have been tabulated.Use this data to test the quality of the machine counting and use it to educate the public about the way error and our tolerance for it should work.Require mandatory hand recounts for precincts with very close results (within the margin of error of the machine).We know how to do this. We know how to double and triple check. We could even include networked counting machines that could allow for another level of checking.But it would be expensive and would require states to coordinate and work together. So we don’t.

It wasn’t a single person, nor an interview, but ten plus years after my experience I’m still absolutely flabbergasted at the incompetency I experienced.In between permanent jobs, I was offered three months temp work administering pre-qualification exams in the Human Resources department of a manufacturing plant. I was to schedule “classes” of job candidates and basically make sure nobody was cheating while they took skills tests, and grade the tests. Those who passed the exams got phone calls inviting them to interviews, those who didn’t got mailed form rejection letters.I had stacks and stacks of resumes submitted in application for jobs on the factory floor operating heavy machinery. These were labor-intensive jobs in an insanely uncomfortable environment, as the factory was not climate-controlled in any way; neither air-conditioning nor heat. In summertime, workers received daily salt tablets and bottled water. The overnight 11pm-7am “night shift” was coveted and went to those workers with seniority first. These were not especially well-paid jobs, but neither were they minimum wage jobs; they were union jobs with benefits. They were also jobs operating heavy machinery; mistakes could be costly and/or deadly.I did not screen the resumes in any way; my phoning a candidate to offer a spot in a “class” was completely random, and I even emphasized that in my introduction at the beginning of the class: being invited to take the pre-qualification tests was absolutely no reflection of your skills or lack thereof. I also made no secret of the fact that my job was to screen out hundreds of candidates so the select few were offered interviews.I also made no secret of the fact that the exams were minimally-basic skills exams, and should be simple to pass. A thirty-question multiple choice math test and a thirty-question multiple choice word test that included word associations, spelling and vocabulary, and grammar.After all, a factory floor worker operating heavy machinery needed to know enough math to make measurements and adjustments to cut metal to 30” versus 25”. A factory floor worker operating heavy machinery needed to be able to understand written instructions and safety manuals.That thirty-question multiple choice math assessment was the first test I administered every day. A timed test, candidates had twenty minutes to choose one answer out of four for each of thirty questions. I always emphasized that the questions got progressively harder as one made his way down the list and to not let the clock get away getting stuck on any one question. I advised that if they didn’t know the answer, it was okay to guess.I also explained that a passing grade for that thirty question math assessment was 5.Yes, you read that right: the passing grade on a math assessment for heavy-machinery operators was five correct multiple choice answers out of thirty.The first question, i.e., the exam’s easiest question, required applicants to convert a fraction to a decimal.1/4 is equal to:A. 1.4B. .25C. 25D. 2.5I screened out fully 40% of every class on the math assessment alone. Four people out of ten could not answer even 5 questions correctly.Fully 20% of the applicants got that first question wrong. One out of five could not correctly convert 1/4 to .25.It still astounds me. How much the American education system has failed. All of my applicants held high-school diplomas. I honestly wondered how some of these people lived day-to-day, when it was obvious that for some of these people paying bills would be a challenge and balancing a checkbook would be nearly impossible. A mortgage or a contract must feel like Chinese. I have some doubts as to how many of them were actually literate.The results of those exams showed me that for many people, a high school diploma means they can sign their names.It was really sad.Edit:Alright, I’m getting enough comments to edit my answer to address it as best as I can:Random chance guessing statistically means we should be answering 7.5 math questions out of 30 correctly.Yep, you’re right. I agree. I even said as much to my supervisor when she was explaining the job to me. But the 40% failure rate was pretty consistent, every class, every day, for the whole time I was there. I can’t explain it.The fact that almost half of these applicants couldn’t even beat random chance to pass the test makes it even more sad.

Thanks for A2A. I think a standardized History & Physical (H&P) form should be filled out by their regular physicians-use John Hopkins form for example—and submit that comprehensive, several pages long form along with recently-done complete labs, to the Internal Med Dept Chair at the Cleveland Clinic for an IME (independent medical evaluation.)That would standardize the release of medical information for both of these candidates, and set a realistic standard for all presidential candidates going forward.