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State election official Loryn Wofford cringes every time she picks up the phone because it's usually someone saying he or she can't work at one of the 70 precincts for tomorrow's primary election.
By Craig T. Kojima, Star-Bulletin
Phones fill the election control center area
at the state Capitol. They will be manned
by 184 workers tomorrow.
Officials are deep in preparation for tomorrow's primary election, hoping it all goes smoothly
Turnout key in Honolulu mayoral race
By Treena Shapiro
Star-Bulletin"You feel like your job is never done because people are constantly, constantly dropping," said Wofford, precinct operations specialist. "It's discouraging."
Wofford guesses that some of the experienced precinct workers have decided not to return due to complications during the transition to the computerized system in the last election.
"They know the old system," she explained. "They don't know a lot about computers.
But chief election officer Dwayne Yoshina is "guardedly optimistic" that the election system will run more smoothly this time around, barring a few mistakes.
"We think we covered everything," he said, adding that the elections office has been able to handle all the "brush fires" that occur every year.
Election officials are hoping that voters will have an easier time with the computerized system after trying it last election, but they've taken a few precautions to make sure there won't be as many spoiled ballots.
Saturday evening, check in with Starbulletin.com for continuously updated election coverage, including: Online election
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Last election, ballots were rejected if voters picked candidates in more than one party, but ballots with over-votes still went through. This time, ballots will be rejected for both cross-party and over-voting. Voters will be given the option of deciding whether to void their ballots and vote again or just submit the spoiled ballots.
Ballpoint pens also will replace the felt-tip pens that bled through ballots last year.
Even tearing the stub off the ballots should be easier. Elections Systems & Software, which provides election services, has hired a high-school student for each precinct to remind people to remove their stubs. The company also sent 20 workers from the mainland and hired several people locally to make sure the equipment runs smoothly.
The real stress is in the organization and coordination of the election. Lori Tomzyk, ballot operations coordinator, said the election staff likely will be working 80-hour weeks until a week after the general election. Tomzyk, who was in charge of having 800,000 ballots printed for the primary, will have to prepare 1.6 million ballots for the general election once the field is narrowed tomorrow.
This is all done between taking phone calls from confused voters, many of whom call late into the night and on holidays with questions. "Even the post office assumes we're open," she said.
Scott Nago, counting center coordinator, will spend election day at the Capitol, where the House chamber has been transformed into the elections control center. Gone are the legislators' high-backed leather chairs, which have been replaced with plastic portables that pull up to cardboard-covered desks where some 184 telephone operators and 42 terminal operators will be connected to the precincts, troubleshooting and verifying where people are registered to vote and whether they've already voted absentee.
On the Senate side, counting machines are set up to tabulate the absentee ballots, which are expected to reach 33,000 on Oahu.Nago, who will be under pressure to count the ballots on schedule, said some of it is out of his control.
"If the precincts close 15 minutes later, delivery and collection comes in a half-hour later, and the reports are an hour later," he explained.
But Nago said his job isn't as stressful as the precinct workers'. "Anytime you have to deal with the public, it's a stressful job," he said.
Estelle Allen, voter services specialist, says the precinct workers are the real "heroes" of the election. These people work at the polling stations for a minimum of 12 hours, for $75 to $145 a shift, depending on the position and the size of the precinct.
One of the problems that occurs every election is that precinct workers cancel at the last minute. As of Wednesday, all of Oahu's 2,088 positions were filled with a pool of 50 extras, but every election day 300 to 400 volunteers typically cancel or are no-shows by the time polling stations open at 7 a.m.
"That's early in the morning and we already want to cry," Allen said.
Wofford said she tried to attract volunteers from the political parties, nonprofit organizations, schools, state workers and shopping centers. The office also put ads in the newspapers and on the Internet, and went on a local television news program to try to solicit volunteers.
In the past, when there has been a shortage of precinct workers, they've persuaded voters standing in line to stay on as workers. This year, they're asking precinct chairpersons to recruit their own workers to be stand-ins on election day.
Allen said a low voter turnout is expected this election. On Oahu, 439,934 residents are registered to vote, but 80,988 haven't voted in the past two elections. That should give the precinct workers a break, she said.
What it takes
to run an electionMANPOWER
Precinct Worker Stipends
(For 2 to 3 hours of training and one 5:30 a.m.-to-8 p.m.shift)
Election System
Ballots
Voters
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Grace Abatayo isn't a precinct chairwoman for love, and at $110 to $120 for a very long day, she sure isn't doing it for money. Abatayo does it out of a sense of civic responsibility. Precinct chairwoman
guided by civic dutyBy Treena Shapiro
Star-BulletinShe has worked at election precincts for more than 20 years, moving from poll official to voter's assistance official, and then to precinct chairwoman.
"It's giving to my community so we can continue to have free elections," the retired elementary schoolteacher explained. "If people don't do it, we might lose the convenience of voting in our own community and having free elections."
Other experienced precinct workers have not been willing to return this year, however. Loryn Wofford, precinct operations specialist, said many got jobs, but others were scared away after the election system became computerized.
Abatayo said the last primary had several complications.
"People weren't used to having everything on one paper (ballot) and having to choose only one color, one party," she said. And then there were the problems with the machines, which jammed when ballots were fed in crookedly. And like many machines last election, "my machine went down," she said. "I had to make sure the voters weren't aware that there might be problems. We continued on and eventually we went and straightened everything out."
Keeping the precinct running smoothly is Abatayo's primary responsibility.
"We have to keep the voters moving through so they vote," even if they're angry, she said.
At the last primary, with ballots jamming and being rejected because of cross-voting, "People were getting very frustrated," she said. "People were really upset about spoiled ballots."
But Abatayo, who voted absentee yesterday, said this year should be different.
"I felt that (this machine) was much quicker and much easier," she said.
