If your recent voting experience was less than satisfactory, here are some things you can do.
If your complaint was about the physical setup — for example: no parking at the site, very crowded and cramped area, too cold or too hot, incompetent poll workers — there are three things you can do.
1. Send your complaint to Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk, PO Box 54197, Los Angeles CA 90054, or call (562) 466-1323 or go online to www.lavote.net/contact us.
2. Offer your living room or garage for a polling place. Work as a poll worker.
3. Vote by mail-in ballot (absentee).
If your complaint was about your name, address, wrong party listed or any discrepancy with your information, then please secure from any post office or any library the voter registration form and register again with the correct information, and do it now. These forms are free with free postage. If you do it now, it should be corrected by the next election.
If your complaint was about being in the wrong polling place even though you “voted here for the last 10 years,” read the lower left corner of your sample ballot, where it states the place where you are to vote in the current election. They do change, depending on the projected turnout and the number of voting places they can secure. If you are unsure where to vote, go online or call, but the phones are usually busy.
If you did not get a sample ballot and it is two weeks before the election, again I ask you to call or go online and ask for one and the correct polling place. This last election, the sample ballots were mailed out one month in advance.
Two things to remember about your next voting experience:
1. Everybody votes. If your name is not in the book, for whatever reason, you can vote provisionally. This just means that it goes in a separate envelope, and before they open it they check to make sure you have not voted in more than one place and that you are a registered voter.
Your vote does count. Voting provisionally is just as safe and secure as a regular vote.
2. One signature, one vote. You can sign in at only one place for a vote — either the regular book, on the back of a mail in envelope or on the provisional ballot envelope.
If you decide to vote by mail next time, fill in and send the form on the back of the voter guide booklet as soon as you get it. When you receive your ballot, it is wise to vote and mail it in early. If you forget, you can bring it into any polling place and drop it off on the day of the election. Make sure to read all the back of the envelope and fill in appropriate areas if you are bringing it in for someone else.
There is another election coming this year, and if you can do these few things, your next voting experience should be most rewarding.
?GLORIA O’DONOHOE is a Burbank resident.
