If you are looking for a psychologist for assessment and treatment, you may have noticed that some are board-certified and others are not. What does this mean? And is it important to you as a consumer? To answer these questions, one must first differentiate between licensure and board certification.
Board-certified psychologists are vetted through a challenging process.
Source: Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
In the U.S. and Canada, the minimum standard to practice psychology is a license issued by a state, district, or territory; psychologists may not practice without an active license. The license is based on educational requirements, documented supervised practice, and a test of general knowledge. While the written test (the Examination for Professional Practice in Psychology) is standard for all psychologists, other requirements vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction (e.g., number of supervised clinical hours, number and type of continuing education hours to maintain the license).
Board certification, on the other hand, is not mandatory for psychologists in healthcare. It is a higher standard for the practice of psychology in specialty areas, such as clinical psychology or rehabilitation psychology. Many people take for granted that their doctors are board-certified, because almost all physicians are, yet most psychologists are not.
However, as the science of psychology has become more sophisticated, as evidence-based assessment and treatment research has honed the field, and roles and specialty areas of psychologists have expanded significantly, board certification has taken on greater significance. There are currently 16 specialty areas of psychology practice. The need for a mechanism to ensure competence in these areas is a matter of public concern.
Consequently, there are 3 primary reasons it may be important for you as a consumer to look for a board-certified psychologist.
1. Proven Expertise
Board certification is a higher standard of competence than a general license to practice psychology. The licensing process provides little to no assessment of actual skills and competence as the test is a written test that primarily tests for knowledge. Unfortunately, knowledge doesn’t always translate to competence. (We can all think of someone who knows a lot but is unable to apply that knowledge in real situations.) Board certification indicates competence through the review of work samples and an oral examination of both foundational and functional competencies.
2. Consumer Protection
Board certification is a mechanism for the public to know that specific psychologists have met rigorous standards in academic knowledge, experience, and skill demonstration in their specialty. Additionally, board certification indicates that the psychologist maintains the currency of their specialty skills through documented continuing education and practice improvement, further demonstrating their commitment to providing high-quality and effective services.
3. Tool for the Identification of Specialty Providers
Board certification is a public credential that provides evidence that your psychologist has been vetted and deemed highly skilled. If you are seeking care for a specific issue, finding a clinician who has been board-certified in that area may be especially valuable.
Just as with the practice of specialty medicine, the importance and value of the board certification credential for psychologists has been recognized. The process of board certification provides the public with greater assurances than licensure alone, that their psychologist has the knowledge, skills, and abilities to assist them.
TOPEKA, Kansas — The test to become a licensed social worker is hard. It takes years of schooling, test prep — and depending on the test — hundreds of hours of working in the field.
April Diaz, a fourth-year Ph.D. candidate at the University of Kansas, took the test in September and remembers some questions tripping her up, but not because she wasn’t prepared.
“There are questions that I thought if I could sit down with the person who wrote the questions, I could explain to them why I was right, and they were wrong,” she said
Diaz is no slouch, she won national academic scholarships and passed the test by a comfortable margin.
She isn’t alone in her criticisms. The Association of Social Work Boards test faces calls from across the country to pause the one test all social workers in the U.S. take to become licensed. It’s been called flat-out racist and a barrier to getting people in social work who look more like many of their clients.
Older test takers and Kansans of color fail the test more often than white applicants. In Kansas, the test comes in three different forms for bachelor’s, master’s and clinical certification. In most cases, white test takers passed 20% more often on their first try when compared to people of color or older Kansans.
Bachelors level first time pass rates from 2011-2021:
White – 78.5%
Black – 55.3%
Hispanic/Latino – 46.7%
50 and older – 59.6%
Non-English speakers – 30.9%
Masters level first time pass rates from 2011-2021:
White – 88.9%
Black – 59.1%
Hispanic/Latino 70.4%
50 and older – 77.7%
Non-English speakers – 55.2%
Clinical level first time pass rates from 2011-2021:
White – 88%
Black – 56.1%
Hispanic/Latino – 75.6%
50 and older – 72.6%
Non-English speakers – 47.1%
The test can leave even people who’ve been studying, training and watching pros in the field in action intimidated.
“For people who are trying to pass the exam, I would just tell them don't think about the what-ifs,” Diaz said.
Test takers aren’t allowed to share questions from the exam. Doing so would give other people an unfair advantage. But Diaz said some questions might ask what a social worker should do first. In reality, the answers were all things that should be done anyway, making the correct answer debatable.
The questions are multiple-choice, but she says some are better suited for short-answer responses.
The Kansas News Service spoke with multiple social work students, teachers, national and local advocacy groups. They were all puzzled by the disparities. Even though they agreed it produced problematic results — a better test would show little correlation between race, for instance, and test scores — but even the critics had a hard time identifying what would make them racist.
Humans are unique, so cultural upbringings could change how each person might answer a question. Students of color usually perform worse on standardized testing, so those issues could be manifesting here. Around 47% of students say their university didn’t even tell them about the licensing exam, so maybe their university didn’t properly prepare them.
Kortney Carr, a doctoral student and associate professor of practice at the University of Kansas, has her own theory. She has seen, anecdotally, that Black people delay taking the test, opting to start working in the field first.
The lessons learned on the job don’t square up with the answers to the test.
“It doesn’t look like the textbook,” she said. “They’ve developed their practice skill set. … And then they take the test, the test is rooted very much in the textbook and how we teach. It just looks different at that time.”
The tests can be expensive, which could make some head into the workforce first. For the clinical exam, someone can only take the test after two years of supervision. That means paying a social worker thousands of dollars to observe them until they are eligible to test, Carr said, adding another barrier to getting licensed. The longer it takes to save money to take the test, the further removed those people are from the classwork that would prepare them.
But those are all theories and the true solution, or solutions, is still unknown. That’s why Darla Coffey, president and CEO of the Council on Social Work Education, wants every state to stop using the test until more can be learned.
Hundreds of colleges and universities have social work students, yet not every university is seeing the same issues.
At the University of Texas-Austin, for example, Hispanic/Latino and white students pass rates for the master’s test are both above 94%. At Indiana University, multiracial students pass the master's test more often than their white counterparts. Both schools have disparities in other areas though.
Coffey said she doesn’t want to see students continue to fail a problematic test until the issues are addressed. She wants states to look into the data, and look at schools without disparities in pass rates, to begin finding solutions.
“We’re not opposed to licensure,” she said, which can better assure capable social workers.
“We need to understand exactly what’s going on before we can move forward,” she said. “It’s very problematic to say, ‘Well, there’s just something wrong with the takers here. You know, they should just pass the test.’ No, there’s something wrong with the test.”
Stacey Hardy-Chandler, president of the Association of Social Work Boards, said the group is looking to root out anything discriminatory.
The group is offering programs to better prepare teachers, publishes a free guidebook that includes demo questions and is working to get feedback from the community about suggested changes. That includes launching the social work census, which will survey hundreds of thousands of social workers to see what they do to gauge how well the exams reflect that.
Hardy-Chandler said questions on the test now are thoroughly vetted.
The questions are not written by ASWB. Item writers do it. Those writers then propose questions that are then reviewed by a separate team. If rejected, the question is workshopped for possible use later. If that question is approved, it will be put onto the test as a non-graded question.
Each test has 20 ungraded questions. Test takers will answer those questions, and after enough data is gathered, ASWB will see if that ungraded question has any bias. For example, if Black women are getting the question disproportionally wrong, the question is flagged and can be deleted or reworked. If it isn’t flagged, then the question gets added to the test.
“We can stand by this test for the technical reasons,” Hardy-Chandler told some members of the Kansas licensing board in October. “But we can also stand by this test because of the work that our subject matter experts do.”
Blaise Mesa
/
Kansas News Servivce
The Kansas Behavioral Science Regulatory Board has almost zero options on how it can move forward.
State law requires Kansas social workers be licensed with a nationally syndicated test, and the ASWB’s test is the only player in this game. Pausing the use of the test would mean leaving more social workers unlicensed, or breaking state law by not having a testing requirement.
But calls for change persist.
Becky Fast, executive director of the Kansas chapter of the National Association of Social Workers, said the state could have more social workers if it didn’t have the current guidelines.
She says Kansas doesn’t need its three levels of tests.
She said the disparities in pass results chase away qualified candidates. Students have already graduated with a degree. She argues that’s proof enough of their competence.
“It's not like you haven’t been passing tests for four years,” Fast said.
Despite concerns, the number of social workers is growing in Kansas. The total number of people jumped with an additional 500 social workers licensed since July 2018. Kansas has just over 8,000 licensed social workers.
Social workers don’t need a license to get a job, but the more desirable jobs usually require a license. Without some licenses, someone could hop over the state’s western border to Colorado, which requires social workers to pass fewer licensing exams for some levels of certification.
In total, 37 states and territories have bachelor’s, master’s and clinical licenses like Kansas. Eight states have just a clinical and master’s license. Two states have a license for just the highest level of expertise.
Carr, the doctoral student at the University of Kansas, said the tests need top-to-bottom changes. Questions could be reworked and surveys of the field could be taken, but problems will arise again if the group rewriting and reviewing questions lack diversity.
“We have to pass this test,” Carr said, “but it’s not necessarily an indication of your practice skill.”
Blaise Mesa reports on criminal justice and social services for the Kansas News Service in Topeka. You can follow him on Twitter @Blaise_Mesa or email him at blaise@kcur.org.
The Kansas News Service is a collaboration of KCUR, Kansas Public Radio, KMUW and High Plains Public Radio focused on health, the social determinants of health and their connection to public policy.
Kansas News Service stories and photos may be republished by news media at no cost with proper attribution and a link to ksnewsservice.org.
A Boston College School of Social Work initiative launching this fall will address the mental health and well-being of millions of people affected by violence and upheaval in Colombia and neighboring Venezuela.
Supported by a $1.5 million grant from the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, BCSSW researchers will culturally adapt and pilot-test two trauma-informed, evidence-based interventions—practices or programs that been proven effective through outcome evaluations. These will help serve the needs of some of the more than 8.1 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) officially recognized as victims of the five-decade conflict in Colombia, as well as the approximately 1.8 million Venezuelans who fled to Colombia to escape their country’s economic devastation, violence, and political repression.
“Both populations suffer from many layers of trauma related to forced migration, family separation, and exposure to violence,” according to a project summary authored by Assistant Professor Maria Piñeros-Leaño and Alethea Desrosiers, who has since left the University after working at BCSSW for five years. “These life disruptions have limited their access to education, health care, and employment opportunities.”
“This is an example of the global dimension of social work, and its role in resolving societal problems on a major scale,” says Maria Piñeros-Leaño (above) of the BC School of Social Work project, which will adapt and pilot two programs designed to aid people affected by violence and upheaval in Colombia and Venezuela. (Caitlin Cunningham)
The Family Strengthening Intervention for Early Childhood Development will focus on Venezuelan migrant families with children under three years of age, while the Youth Readiness Intervention will be tailored to Colombian IDPs and Venezuelan migrant youth between the ages of 18 and 30. Both were developed by BCSSW Salem Professor in Global Practice Theresa Betancourt, director of the school’s Research Program on Children and Adversity, while she was at Harvard University. Betancourt is renowned for her work with war-affected youth in Rwanda, Uganda, Ethiopia, and Sierra Leone, and with refugees in Boston and around the world; she and BCSSW Assistant Professor of the Practice Indrani Saran will be co-investigators for the project in Colombia.
The interventions are intended to bridge gaps in the policies and outreach efforts Colombia has implemented to aid IDPs and Venezuelan migrants, said Piñeros-Leaño and Desrosiers, but first they must go through a rigorous cultural adaptation to be effective. The BCSSW team will use an eight-step model to culturally adapt the FSI-ECD and YRI without changing their core elements or theoretical underpinnings. A vital component of the adaptation, the researchers note, is engagement with the communities being served: A feasibility study involving 40 Venezuelan migrant families with at least one child three years old or younger will be conducted as part of the FSI-ECD program, with an emphasis on assessing parental mental health, parent-child interactions, parenting practices, and household violence.
“This is an example of the global dimension of social work, and its role in resolving societal problems on a major scale. With crisis situations such as those in Colombia, there is often a tendency for the public or the media to focus on the most immediate concerns, like housing, medical, and food-related issues. But gauging the impact and extent of trauma on individuals and families, and their longer-term needs, is equally critical.”
BC School of Social Work Assistant Professor Maria Piñeros-Leaño
The YRI adaptation for Colombian IDPs was completed during a prior pilot study in collaboration with the Bogota Mayor’s Office and Foundation Compaz, a Colombian NGO. The BCSSW team will now conduct a larger trial of the culturally adapted YRI, integrated within entrepreneurship training programs for Colombian IDP and Venezuelan migrant youth, which will assess effects on emotion regulation, self-efficacy, depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress, and interpersonal violence.
“This is an example of the global dimension of social work, and its role in resolving societal problems on a major scale,” said Piñeros-Leaño. “With crisis situations such as those in Colombia, there is often a tendency for the public or the media to focus on the most immediate concerns, like housing, medical, and food-related issues. But gauging the impact and extent of trauma on individuals and families, and their longer-term needs, is equally critical.”
Desrosiers added, “One of the key aspects of these interventions is that they can be implemented by community health workers or others without an advanced level of professional certification. So, the FSI-ECD and YRI can become part of the resources that Colombian human and social services provide.”
The adaptability of interventions makes them potentially scalable in other settings, said Piñeros-Leaño and Desrosiers, noting that they and BCSSW colleagues have held initial discussions about the possibility of introducing such initiatives in Mexico, El Salvador, and Guatemala, countries that also have experienced severe conflict.
The project in Colombia will draw logistical support from BCSSW’s Center for Social Intervention, said Piñeros-Leaño and Desrosiers, who added that they hope to provide opportunities for BC undergraduates—such as those enrolled in the interdisciplinary Global Public Health program or pursuing an independent major—to serve as research assistants.
Sean Smith | University Communications | October 2022
How well do genetic ancestry testing kits work? Massachusetts expert weighs in
Updated: 12:06 PM EST Dec 3, 2022
THANK YOU. FIVE ON YOUR HEALTH. THE GROWING POPULARITY OF THOSE DNA TEST KITS MEANS MORE PEOPLE MAY FIND THEIR FAMILY TREE UNDER THE CHRISTMAS TREE THIS YEAR. HERE WITH SOME ADVICE ABOUT GIVING AND GETTING THIS GIFT IS JANETTE LAWRENCE, SENIOR GENETIC COUNSELOR AT THE MGH CENTER FOR CANCER RISK ASSESSMENT. GOOD MORNING TO YOU. JANETTE: GOOD MORNING. RHONDELLA: YOU HAVE SEEN SOME OF THOSE SAME ADS THAT WE HAVE. USING A KIT TO DISCOVER YOUR GENETIC ANCESTRY LOOKS LIKE FUN. DOES IT REALLY WORK? JANETTE: THAT IS A GREAT QUESTION. THEY DO LOOK LIKE FUN. IF YOU ARE DOING TESTING FOR ANCESTRY PURPOSES, IT COULD BE A GOOD STARTING POINT AS TO HOW OPSWARE YOUR FAMILY EMIGRATED FROM BEFORE COMING TO THE UNITED STATES. FOR SOME PEOPLE, IT COULD CONFIRM WHAT THEY ALREADY KNEW OR COULD JUST BE EDUCATIONAL AND FUN. RHONDELLA: AS YOU KNOW, OTHER AT-HOME TESTS OFFER TO ASSESS A PERSON’S GENETIC RISK FOR CERTAIN DISEASES AND CONDITIONS. WHAT CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT THOSE RESULTS? THAT CAN BE SCARY. JANETTE: THIS IS WHERE BUYERS NEED TO BE AWARE OF THE RISKS OF THESE TESTS. PEOPLE ARE OFTEN thinking ABOUT THEIR RISK FOR HEREDITARY CANCER, AND THEY MAY DO A TEST THAT IS EVEN FDA APPROVED TO give YOU INFORMATION ABOUT THESE RISKS. UNFORTUNATELY, A LOT OF THE TESTS ONLY ARE LOOKING AT PARTICULAR VARIANTS, PARTICULAR GENES, SO THEY MAY NOT BE SPECIFIC ENOUGH. WHEN PEOPLE ARE DOING THESE TESTS AND IT COMES BACK NORMAL, THEY MAY STILL HAVE A VARIATION IN A DIFFERENT GENE OR WITHIN THAT SAME GENE BUT NOT ONE THAT IS APPROVED FOR THAT COMPANY TO give YOU INFORMATION ON. AND IF YOU HAVE A POSITIVE TEST REPORT, IT STILL NEEDS TO BE CONFIRMED IN A CLINICAL GRADE LABORATORY. THERE ARE A LOT OF LIMITATIONS FOR DOING GENETIC TESTING FOR THE PURPOSES OF A MEDICAL RISK OR THE PURPOSES OF USING IT FOR MEDICAL ADVICE. RHONDELLA: JUST A FOLLOW-UP ON THAT QUICKLY, THAT IS STRESSFUL TO TAKE THE TEST FOR THOSE REASONS. YOU EVEN ADVISED THAT? AND DEFINITELY YOU ARE SAYING SEE YOUR DOCTOR. JANETTE: BOTTOM LINE IS, ALTHOUGH THEY ARE MARKETED AS TESTS TO UNDERSTAND YOUR HEALTH OR WELL-BEING, ALL RESULTS FROM DIRECT TO CONSUMER COMPANIES NEED TO BE CONFIRMED IN A CLINICAL, MEDICAL GRADE LABORATORY. GENETIC TESTING IS COMPLEX, BUT IT SHOULD NOT BE SCARY IF IT IS DONE RIGHT FROM THE START. SO SEEK THE ADVICE OF A BOARD-CERTIFIED GENETICIST OR GENETIC COUNSELOR IF YOU ARE CONCERNED ABOUT ANY ETHICAL CONDITION THAT MAY BE RUNNING IN YOUR FAMILY -- ANY GENETIC CONDITION THAT MAY BE RUNNING IN YOUR FAM
How well do genetic ancestry testing kits work? Massachusetts expert weighs in
Updated: 12:06 PM EST Dec 3, 2022
The growing popularity of DNA test kits means more people may find a link to their family tree under the Christmas tree this year.
The growing popularity of DNA test kits means more people may find a link to their family tree under the Christmas tree this year.
Newly certified test tools help address the latest connected and autonomous vehicle challenges
CALABASAS, Calif., October 25, 2022--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Spirent Communications plc (LSE:SPT), the leading provider of test and assurance solutions for next-generation devices and networks, today announced that the Spirent TTsuite-WAVE-LTEV testing solution has earned OmniAir Qualified Test Equipment (OQTE) for C-V2X (cellular vehicle-to-everything) status. Through a joint effort with the OmniAir Consortium, DEKRA and key device manufacturers, Spirent’s C-V2X conformance testing solution successfully completed the stringent audits and assessments to achieve certification.
"The impact of C-V2X in improving road traffic safety and efficiency with connected and highly-automated vehicles is tremendous," said Aniket Khosla, Vice President of Cloud and IP Product Management at Spirent. "Interoperability will be a critical aspect for the successful deployment of connected and autonomous vehicle technology and OmniAir certification recognizes the vital role that testing plays. Spirent is proud to contribute to this effort and we will continue to support device vendors in getting their products certified."
Spirent TTsuite-WAVE-LTEV is a solution for testing C-V2X protocol over the LTE-V PC5 (sidelink) interface that contains a set of interoperable scripts for Wireless Access in Vehicular Environments (WAVE) standards for validating compliance. It helps ensure cross-vendor interoperability of On-Board Units (OBU) and Road-Side Units (RSU) supporting these standards.
"Spirent is a leader in C-V2X protocols conformance testing," said Thomas Jaeger, Senior Vice President at DEKRA Service Division Product Testing. "The TTsuite-WAVE-LTEV met all the requirements we expect from a test tool, and we successfully validated the test solution by using the latest C-V2X devices. Conformance testing is an important part of OBU and RSU testing, alongside interoperability, performance, and application testing. Spirent’s solution enables DEKRA labs to offer a comprehensive service for OBU and RSU vendors to achieve their C-V2X OmniAir certifications as soon as possible."
"The OQTE status earned by Spirent for the TTsuite-WAVE-LTEV will allow OmniAir Authorized Test Laboratories to conduct automated testing of the full stack for C-V2X devices," said Jason Conley, Executive Director, OmniAir Consortium. "Automated testing provides a high level of confidence and repeatability and will speed up the time needed to conduct certification testing of C-V2X devices compared to manual testing."
TTsuite-WAVE-LTEV ensures the conformance of an implementation, or a system based on USDOT/OmniAir test specifications. It provides fast and simple test execution, analysis, and repeatability, and full support of test automation. The solution is platform independent and can be quickly integrated into existing test environments.
For more information visit www.spirent.com/products/test-connected-vehicles-v2x-and-cv2x.
About DEKRA
DEKRA has been active in the field of safety for almost 100 years. Founded in 1925 in Berlin as Deutscher Kraftfahrzeug-Überwachungs-Verein e.V., it is today one of the world’s leading expert organizations. DEKRA SE is a subsidiary of DEKRA e.V. and manages the Group’s operating business. In 2021, DEKRA generated sales totaling more than EUR 3.5 billion. The company currently employs almost 48,000 people in approximately 60 countries on all continents. With qualified and independent expert services, they work for safety on the road, at work and at home. These services range from vehicle inspection and expert appraisals to claims services, industrial and building inspections, safety consultancy, testing and certification of products and systems, as well as training courses and temporary work. The vision for the company’s 100th birthday in 2025 is that DEKRA will be the global partner for a safe, secure, and sustainable world. With a platinum rating from EcoVadis, DEKRA is now in the top one percent of sustainable businesses ranked.
About OmniAir Consortium
OmniAir Consortium is the leading industry association promoting interoperability and certification for ITS, tolling and connected vehicles. OmniAir’s membership includes public agencies, private companies, research institutions and independent test laboratories. Learn more about OmniAir at www.omniair.org.
About Spirent
Spirent Communications plc. (LSE: SPT) is the leading global provider of automated test and assurance solutions for networks, cybersecurity, and positioning. The company provides innovative products, services and managed solutions that address the test, assurance, and automation challenges of a new generation of technologies, including 5G, SD-WAN, cloud, autonomous vehicles and beyond. From the lab to the real world, Spirent helps companies deliver on their promise to their customers of a new generation of connected devices and technologies. For more information, please visit www.spirent.com and follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20221025005031/en/
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Q. In March 2023, I will have 20 years working on the railroad. I will be 65. Does Social Security put in the money I paid into Social Security for 24 years in my Railroad Retirement benefit? How does it work?
— Retiring soon
A. Congratulations on your pending retirement.
There are a few items to consider here.
First, it’s possible that you are eligible for dual benefits if you worked for the railroad and held a non-railroad job, said Jeanne Kane, a certified financial planner with JFL Total Wealth Management in Boonton.
For Social Security retirement benefits, eligibility is generally based on work history, she said. You would need 40 quarters or 10 years to qualify for benefits, which you can start to take at age 62.
“You would qualify because you worked and paid into Social Security for 24 years and you’re over 62,” Kane said.
She said Railroad Retirement benefits are also based on your work history.
You need to have more than 10 years, or 120 service months, of railroad industry work or at least five years of railroad work after 1995,” she said.
If you don’t qualify based on this, your railroad industry earnings would count towards your Social Security credits, she said, and if you do qualify, then those earnings don’t count towards Social Security eligible earnings.
Government doesn’t want you to double dip, she said. But dual benefits don’t equal double benefits.
“If you are eligible for dual benefits, then the Social Security Administration determines how much is based on Social Security earnings,” she said. “The railroad benefit is reduced by this amount and a combined benefit is paid.”
Kane said there are two tiers in the benefit calculation
Tier 1 uses total Railroad and Social Security earnings credits, she said, and it gives an estimate of what Social Security would pay if your earnings at the railroad were covered by Social Security.
Tier 2 is only based on your railroad earnings, she said, and it is not reduced because you are eligible for Social Security.
“This follows the same type of regulation where someone who is eligible to receive two Social Security benefits can only claim the higher of the two,” she said. “They can’t get both.”
For example, if you are married and are eligible for half your spouse’s benefit or your own benefit on your own earnings, you can get the higher of the two, not both.
Benefits coordination can get complicated, so you should speak to both the Railroad Retirement Board and Social Security to better understand what your benefits will be.
You can call the Railroad Retirement Board at (877) 772-5772 or visit a field office.
And to contact Social Security, you can go online ssa.gov and schedule an appointment to get more specific information on your benefits.
Email your questions to Ask@NJMoneyHelp.com.
Karin Price Mueller writes the Bamboozled column for NJ Advance Media and is the founder of NJMoneyHelp.com. Follow NJMoneyHelp on Twitter @NJMoneyHelp. Find NJMoneyHelp on Facebook. Sign up for NJMoneyHelp.com’s weekly e-newsletter.
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Missourians have been casting ballots for nearly two weeks, and election officials have been preparing for months, following intricate state laws associated with the election administration and certification process.
So what does happen to the votes of Missourians once they leave their polling places?
Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft, a Republican, has tried to respond to concerns about security by creating increased transparency in Missouri’s electoral process. Ashcroft has said the 2020 presidential election in Missouri was safe and secure, but he was still a strong advocate for a voting bill that the GOP-dominated legislature passed this year in the name of “election integrity.”
The new bill addressed issues that had been flagged as concerns, like ensuring that ballot tabulating machines cannot be connected to the internet. Also, the entire election process — from when you cast your ballot to when results are delivered to the secretary of state — is managed by a two-person team consisting of one Republican and one Democrat. When election equipment isn’t being utilized, it’s stored and locked away so it cannot be tampered with. After ballots are cast, they are stored and sealed for 22 months after the election.
The Beacon broke down the step-by-step process of how election certification works in Missouri.
Your ballot is cast as soon as you feed your responses into the tabulating machine. Tabulating machines are not connected to the internet. If your ballot is mismarked, such as casting two votes in one race, the tabulating machine will reject the ballot. Machines are tested at a public test two weeks before Election Day and are sealed afterwards to ensure security.
If your ballot is rejected and you’re still in your polling place, your old ballot would be spoiled, or voided, and you would be able to cast a new one. If you left quickly after feeding your ballot into the machine and did not know it was rejected, a bipartisan team of election judges would redo your ballot and follow your intent. If you over voted in a race and the bipartisan officials cannot tell which candidate you intended to vote for, that race would simply be left blank. Both ballots are kept for record-keeping purposes.
Chris Hershey, an election commissioner in Platte County, said machines are programmed to notify of any abnormalities.
“Machines are really calibrated to pretty tight standards. So if there’s a rip or marks on the side, it’s not going to accept the ballot,” Hershey said. “Each one of those ballots is numbered, so it’ll be like ‘spoiled #24’ and then the new ballot is going to be ‘duplicate #24.’”
Once the polls close, the election workers shut the ballot tabulating machines down and produce a report of votes cast in each machine. The report contains information like how many ballots were rejected, how many were cast overall and for which candidate or ballot issue.
Election judges record the vote totals in a “statement of returns.” They also record the number of rejected or spoiled ballots and the number of identification certificates signed. The statement of returns is then secured in a box provided by the secretary of state’s office. The returns for each precinct are also put onto a USB drive.
A bipartisan team will take the USB drive with election results and deliver it to the county election authority, which will use the USB to begin uploading results online.
“There’s this huge push to get results out as soon as possible, like updates every 15 minutes, even though that’s not going to change what the final total is,” Hershey said. “But we do that so that it gives people a sense of where the voting is.”
These results aren’t official, though, as overseas and military voters have until noon the Friday after the election to get their ballots returned.
State law requires 5% of each county’s polling places to be recounted by hand to ensure that machines were operating correctly. A bipartisan team will randomly select polling sites to verify that tabulating machines were working properly.
As soon as possible after the election, each local election authority will gather a verification board to check the count and certify the results of the election. In Platte County, this usually happens in the early afternoon on the Friday after the election, once military and overseas voters get their ballots back by the noon deadline.
The verification board can be the board of election commissioners in counties where such a board exists. But some counties don’t have a full board. In those instances, the county clerk and a bipartisan team of two verification judges certify the election. Local political parties recommend the verification judges, and the county clerk must appoint them at least a week before the election.
The verification board checks the tally sheets and statements of returns and compares those records with the Election Day tallies from election judges. If there are discrepancies, the verification board corrects what was submitted on Election Day. Those numbers become the new record, but both records are kept on file.
If a verification board, bipartisan committee, election authority or secretary of state finds evidence of fraud, it is to be immediately reported to the proper authorities.
After a verification board has completed its work, it issues a statement announcing the results. The verification board has two weeks from Election Day to certify the returns.
The statement includes statistics such as the numbers of regular and absentee ballots cast in the election. After the statement is issued, the election authority mails or delivers to the secretary of state the report for their jurisdiction, broken down by polling place.
The election cannot be officially certified by local authorities and verification boards before noon on the Friday after Election Day.
The secretary of state’s office will convene the state’s board of canvassers, which consists of the secretary of state and a panel of judges, to total the results of each election. The official, certified results cannot be announced any later than the second Tuesday in December.
Up until 30 days after the official announcement of election results by the secretary of state’s office, any candidate can file a petition in the appropriate circuit court challenging the results. For ballot questions, proponents or opponents of the question may hire counsel to represent them in a contest. The candidate would need to define what parts of the election they’d like to contest, provide facts to support their contest and, in some cases, pay for the cost of the recount.
If the court or legislative body hearing the contest finds there is evidence showing irregularities, they can order a recount of all votes brought into question.
The authority handling the contest notifies other election authorities responsible for the count in that particular contest, and requests all of their records and materials required for the recount. The lead authority can then compare things like voter signatures, test tabulating equipment or recount ballots that were saved for records purposes.
This story was originally published by the Kansas City Beacon, a fellow member of the KC Media Collective.
