Today’s elections will be anything but business as usual for some of Monroe County’s government workers involved in the voting process. \n“This is absolutely our busiest time of year,” said Jessica White, chief deputy clerk for Monroe County. “We’ve been finalizing all the details.” \nThe basics of 2007’s municipal election differ little from past years – the polls will still be open from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., and, as always, voters can find their precinct’s polling place by calling the Monroe County Clerk’s office. \nBut some facets of this year’s municipal election are atypical.
VOTING MACHINES\nFor elections in 2006, Monroe County used newly purchased Microvote Infinity voting machines in most, but not all, polling locations. This year every precinct will use a Microvote Infinity machine because new state laws require polling places to use machines that are handicapped-accessible.\nFielder said his office has had little trouble with the new voting machines. \n“Like any new system, it has taken us a couple of election cycles for both us and for our poll workers to get used to the machines,” Fielder said. “But we have not experienced any problems with the machines themselves.”
POLLING PLACE SET-UPS\nEach precinct in Monroe County will have five poll workers working on Election Day – one inspector, two judges and two clerks.\nThe judge and clerk positions are balanced between one registered Democrat and one registered Republican for each position, White said.\nHowever, the inspector at each polling site in Monroe County will be a registered Democrat. This arrangement is due to a state law that mandates that all election inspectors must be a registered voter affiliated with the party that received the most votes for Secretary of State in the last statewide election. In 2006, the Democratic candidate for Secretary of State, Joe Pearson, carried Monroe County with 55 percent of the vote, even though he ultimately lost to Republican Todd Rokita.
EXTRA ASSISTANCE FOR VOTERS\nThe county’s election travel board also allows voters to cast their ballots without visiting a polling place, said Rachel McCarty, absentee voting supervisor for Monroe County.\nA team of two – one Democrat and one Republican – travel to hospitals and nursing homes to assist voters who cannot leave these establishments.\nSo far, more than 80 voters have requested the travel board’s service for this fall’s municipal election, she said.
COUNTING OF THE BALLOTS\nThe night of the election, all votes are counted in the county clerk’s office, White said. The chairmen of the local Democratic and Republican parties appoint an equal number of individuals to tally the votes. The county clerk supervises the process. \nMcCarty said this year there will be 10 two-person teams of one Democrat and one Republican each to count the votes the night of the election. \n“It’s a very good check and balance system,” she said. “We do everything for a reason ... to make sure every vote is counted and that it is counted accurately.”
CATS WON’T BROADCAST RESULTS\nFor the first time since 1985, Community Access Television Services will not be televising election results after polls close, said station manager Michael White. \nInstead of televising live election coverage, CATS will air the audio of WFHB’s election show from 6 to 7 p.m. on Nov. 6. \nMichael White said the consensus between CATS and local AM talk radio station WGCL after the past few elections was that useful vote totals were not coming in on the night of \nthe election. \n“It was disappointing to us last election when we weren’t able to provide anything conclusive while we were on the air,” Michael White said. \nMichael White said the reason vote totals are delayed is the process of tallying absentee ballots and write-in votes. \nEach absentee vote is hand-fed into an optical scanner one-by-one, a process that is usually time-consuming, Jessica White said.
VOTERS REMOVED FROM RECORDS\nEarlier this year, the county clerk’s office purged more than 37,000 registered voters from its records, Ruth Hickman of the Monroe County Election Board said. This was the first time the county has been able to remove names from the county’s voting list since 1994 because of stipulations in the Motor Voter Act, White said. \nMost of the voters that were cut from the list had not voted in recent elections, moved out of the county or are dead, Hickman said.\nHickman said this was intended to cut down the number of polling places the county would need. \nThe county officially has 96 voting precincts and one polling place located within each precinct. This year, 71 polling places will be open.\nIn the 2008 election, Monroe County will consolidate to 68 permanent precincts, County Clerk Jim Fielder said in an e-mail. He said this will be done to cooperate with a state law requiring each precinct to only have 1,200 registered voters living within it. He also said the action was intended to cut costs.
