Mark R. Madler
With the city's first all-mail ballot primary behind her, City Clerk
Margarita Campos is hoping the second go at the system on Tuesday
will go smoother.
Voters will select two City Council members from a field of two
incumbents and two challengers and two new school board members from
a field of four.
For the general election Tuesday, Campos has doubled the number of
workers who verify ballots with a signature comparison, sort the
ballots by precinct and inspect them for damage so they can be
scanned properly.
As of Friday, 8,000 ballots had already been received, and with a
jump on the verification process, Campos hopes to have preliminary
results by 8:30 p.m. on Tuesday, she said.
Results from the Feb. 22 primary were not posted until nearly
midnight, a problem city officials attributed to a federal holiday
with no mail delivery preceding election day and heavy rains that
slowed mail-delivery trucks.
"We won't have to contend with those two things this time," Campos
said.
The primary was the city's first municipal election using an all
mail-in ballot.
And while there are no polls, voters fearful of dropping their
ballot in the mail do have an option. Voters can return their ballots
to five locations around the city from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday and
from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Tuesday: City Hall, 275 E. Olive Ave.;
McCambridge Park, 1515 Glenoaks Blvd.; Buena Vista branch library,
300 N. Buena Vista St.; Tuttle Center, 1731 N. Ontario St. and Joslyn
Center, 1301 W. Olive Ave.
The city switched to the all-mail ballot as a way to increase
voter participation. In the primary, voters returned 10,376 ballots.
And while that number was up from the primary in 2003, when 9,059
residents voted, it is not quite the boon city officials were hoping
for.
Councilwoman Stacey Murphy is ready to revisit the idea of all
mail-in ballots if a jump in participation isn't seen in this
election. She doesn't think the method is achieving a higher voter
turnout.
"I have some issues with a lack of privacy," Murphy said. "Not
when the ballots are being opened [and counted, but] when they are
cast. In certain situations there may be more pressure and less
privacy."
If the council does take a look at the all-mail ballot, they will
have to figure out if a voter-turnout increase is due to the
convenience or the outreach to the public by the clerk's office, City
Manager Mary Alvord said.
"The clerk is a strong advocate of the mail-in ballot," Alvord
said. "It is the right tool to make sure the person voting is the
person signing the envelope."
Campos wants to at least best the 17% turnout in the 2003 general
election Tuesday night, she said.
With voters having gone through the all-mail ballot process once
before, she is finding that they are adapting to the new method, and
so she has not experienced the problems of the primary, such as
voters forgetting to sign the envelope the ballot is mailed back in,
Campos said.
Richard Maher, a spokesman for the U.S. Postal Service, met with
Campos on Wednesday to better coordinate when the city picks up
ballots at the main post office on Hollywood Way.
