Last-minute challenges

New voting system, staff will be tested

By Jason Massad/Staff Writer

Local elections officials, like others up and down the state, are bracing for an Election Day that promises to be like no other.

Observers are predicting a record turnout at the polls, unprecedented scrutiny of elections operations, and razor-thin margins in many national and state contests.

In other words, a lot is riding on this election, and everyone knows it.

In Solano County, the ante is raised for two reasons.

? First, the county has changed its voting system for the second time in two elections.

? Secondly, a number of internal changes have occurred for the county's elections staff, including the naming of a new registrar and a top elections manager.

But if the pressure and scrutiny is making any of the local officials sweat, they aren't showing it.

"Well, there's a little bit of a learning curve for us," acknowledged Deborah Seiler, the new elections manager. Of the voting machines, she said, "We'll see how voters like it on Election Day."

A record number of voters will be trying out the county's new optical-scan voting machines on Tuesday based on statewide voter-turnout predictions. More than 195,000 of the county's residents have signed up to vote, nearly 25,000 more people than were registered last March, statistics show.

Secretary of State Kevin Shelley predicted this week that 73 percent of registered voters statewide will turn up at the polls Tuesday. If correct, that would bring the statewide total to 12 million voters casting ballots Tuesday, with 140,000 of them in Solano County.

But all of the interest in the election is also creating a crunch for the county's elections staff.

First, the 25,000 new voters who registered in Solano since the last election had to be entered and verified in the county's database. That demanded a lot of staff, many 12-hour days and ended - for the most part - this week, Seiler said.

Now that most voters have been registered, the county's elections officers have shifted their focus to tabulating the tens of thousands of absentee ballots that have been mailed in.

Approximately 56,000 voters are registered absentee, close to 30 percent of all voters in the county.

The registrar plans to scan all the absentees it has received in three days, starting Saturday.

"We have two of these big scanners," said Seiler. "We don't have a lot of experience with them, but its conceivable that we can do 30,000 or 40,000."

Tabulating all of the absentee ballots before the election begins on Tuesday is critical to having accurate election-night results.

If many of the absentee votes are not counted in the three days of scanning, they eventually will become a part of the official count, but will not be included in the election-night tally, say officials. That's also true of absentee ballots cast on Election Day and provisional ballots.

The mechanics of the vote counting could delay the results of several local contests.

Sen. Mike Machado, D-Solano, is battling Gary Podesto, a Republican and Stockton's mayor, in a tight race. And Measure A, the local transportation sales tax, also could come down to a few-vote margin.

While Solano County's situation is less than ideal, larger counties across the state are in much worse condition.

In Alameda, San Joaquin, and other counties, voters who registered recently are not being verified quickly enough to put them on the printed rolls.

That means they will have to cast a provisional ballot on Election Day, and their vote will not be included in the election-night tally.

Observers worry the flush of extra provisional voters could strain the supplies of paper ballots at polling places and delay the outcome of contests.

Elections officials blame the problem on a voter registration deadline that was a mere 15 days before the election and on the unprecedented interest in the presidential contest.

"It's too tight, especially for that deadline," said Alameda County Registrar Elaine Ginnold. "I've been here for 16 years, and this is the first time that's happened."

Solano's elections officials said they were able to get everyone that registered by the registration deadline on the printed rolls. That should cause a minimum of confusion at local polls on Tuesday.

But the proof, as they say, is in the pudding. And elections officials no doubt will be breathing a sigh of relief when the balloting is over and done with.

"We've had to roll with the punches on this one," Seiler said.