Both Parties Gear Up for Final Push to Get Voters Out to the Polls

In the name of democracy, Gerda Camour has gotten voters out of the shower, called more wrong numbers than she can count and learned not to take it personally if the voice on other end of the line begins to curse.

Camour of Garden Grove is on the front lines of the Orange County Democratic Party’s effort to get voters to the polls on election day.

Each evening for the last two weeks, she and two dozen other party workers have been methodically calling 10,000 newly registered Democratic voters in the central part of the county.

Armed with a script and a computer list of names, they ask voters to participate in a brief survey: Will they vote for Democratic Sen. Alan Cranston on election day? Will they vote for Assemblyman Richard Robinson (D-Garden Grove) for Congress? Will they vote for Democratic attorney Mark Rosen for Assembly?

Voters who have said yes or have been undecided will get another call Tuesday reminding them to vote. If they say no, “we put a mark by their names,” said Democratic Party Executive Director George Urch. “And we don’t call them back.”

County Republicans have a similar but larger operation, with more than 50 volunteers at 10 phone banks asking registered Republicans, “Can Gov. Deukmejian count on your support on election day?”

With county Registrar of Voters Alvin E. Olson predicting a “moderate” election day turnout in Orange County of 65%--perhaps less--both Democrats and Republicans are working hard to get as many of their voters to the polls as they can.

Friday, Secretary of State March Fong Eu predicted a statewide turnout of only 59% of registered voters--which would be a record low for a gubernatorial election in California.

Leaders of both parties say the votes of Orange County’s 387,860 Democrats and 591,381 Republicans could be decisive not only in local elections but in statewide races as well.

With a strong get-out-the-vote effort, “we are trying to give our candidates the edge if it’s close,” said John Hanna, chairman of the Orange County Democratic Party.

“Obviously, if it’s a lopsided defeat, it won’t help,” Hanna said. But he added that two years ago, when Assemblyman Robinson won reelection by fewer than 300 votes, “the get-out-the-vote effort made the difference.”

Marcia Gilchrist, county precinct director for the Republican Party, agreed about the potential importance of get-out-the-vote efforts.

“It’s been proven time and time again,” she said. “If a volunteer only gets out five votes per precinct, that can make the difference in the gubernatorial election, the U.S. Senate, all the constitutional offices.”

Republican county chairman Thomas A. Fuentes hopes the get-out-the-vote effort here will make a big difference statewide this year, especially for Republican U.S. Senate candidate Ed Zschau.

“My prayer is that it is a light turnout statewide and a heavy turnout in Orange County,” said Fuentes, who hopes that a preponderance of Republican votes here will offset Democratic votes for Cranston in Northern California.

The pre-election phone calls are but a hint of the effort to come. And, as usual, the county’s well-heeled Republican Party has a far more extensive get-out-the-vote operation planned for Tuesday than do the Democrats.

3,000 Volunteers

The Republican effort is expected to cost more than $50,000 and is to involve 3,000 volunteers working out of 24 get-out-the-vote centers from San Clemente to Los Alamitos.

The Democrats are planning a $10,000 effort that includes 1,000 volunteers and paid workers making phone calls and walking precincts, primarily in four areas--the 71st and 72nd Assembly districts, the 38th Congressional District in the center of the county and the 40th Congressional District along the coast.

A few workers will walk precincts in other areas, Urch said, but the focus is on central county cities like Santa Ana, Anaheim and Garden Grove in an effort to boost 71st Assembly District candidate Rosen over Assemblywoman Doris Allen (R-Cypress), Santa Ana Mayor Dan Griset over Republican Richard E. Longshore in the 72nd Assembly District and congressional candidate Robinson over Rep. Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove) in the 38th District.

“Central county--that’s where Democratic registration is in Orange County. And that’s where the battleground is,” Urch said.

Some party workers also will be sent to the 40th Congressional District to help former judge Bruce Sumner against five-term Rep. Robert E. Badham (R-Newport Beach), Urch said.

Candidates’ Efforts

In addition, three Democratic candidates have organized their own get-out-the-vote operations. Griset’s is the most ambitious, with 200 volunteers prepared to walk precincts or phone voters. The Sumner and Rosen campaigns are expecting about 50 volunteers each to help walk their districts.

The Republicans have a countywide operation for all of their statewide and local candidates that extends well beyond central county.

“We’re making sure we’re covering thoroughly all precincts in the 38th and 72nd,” said Republican precinct director Gilchrist, “but we’re set up to cover the county.”

Gilchrist said there are offices in storefronts and volunteers’ garages. Volunteers are to report there election day, receive maps of the precincts and lists of voters’ names. “We’ll give voters a little time to go vote on their own before we start knocking on their door,” Gilchrist said.

Going Door to Door

Then, starting at 3 p.m., Gilchrist’s volunteers will hit the precincts. While some volunteers will work the phones, most will go door to door reminding Republicans to vote. “It’s more effective if you go to the door,” she said.

The Republican Party has been laying in supplies for the election day effort for months, Fuentes said.

“It takes gallons and gallons of coffee, cases of soda pop and boxes of doughnuts and cookies for the volunteers when they come in,” he said. “It takes borrowed folding chairs and card tables for the precinct headquarters and stacks of cardboard walking pads to put the precinct list on.”

Leaders of both parties said there are problems in getting voters to the polls.

Urch argued, however, that Republicans were more likely to vote than Democrats.

‘They Vote Early’

“Traditionally, Republicans turn out no matter what,” Urch said. “They vote early. They’re better educated and they put more importance in voting, where the Democrats are traditionally working-class people, coming home late at night, without a lot of free social time, free time to vote. We have to push extra hard to get them out to vote.”

Fuentes worried a little that the wide margin of registered Republican voters over registered Democrats in the county this year may breed “a special overconfidence, a special apathy.”

“Because voters in Orange County are aware of the magnitude of our margin, there is a great likeliness that they would not feel the obligation of voting,” Fuentes said. “So our get-out-the-vote effort becomes much more important than if we were in a less confident position.

“When you’re fat, the danger for failure is very much there.”