State Voters Undaunted by Long and Complex Ballot

Undaunted by the longest and most complex election ballot in 60 years, most California voters went to the polls Tuesday with their homework done, minds made up and choices marked on sample ballots for president, senator, myriad state and local officials, and 29 state ballot initiatives.

As a result, the state’s voters generally were able to elude the long lines predicted by some election officials, and the massive effort of coordinating thousands of polling places in 58 counties went off without a hitch--almost.

Statewide election returns were halted for more than an hour, after a Alameda Countyu superior court judge ordered a single Oakland polling place to remain open past the 8 p.m. closing time because of a power failure. Secretary of State March Fong Eu said at a press conference that she persuaded Judge John Sutter to vacate his order by about nine o’clock.

“The poll is closed,” Eu proclaimed. “And we are ready to count.” When the counting resumed, Eu’s forecast of a 75.2% statewide turnout of registered voters looked as if it would come in right on target, said Cathy Mitchell, a spokeswoman for the Secretary of State. And because of the state’s growing population and record high voter registration, the actual number of voters appeared on its way to a new state record, exceeding the 9.79 million who voted in 1984, Mitchell said.

In Los Angeles County, meanwhile, officials were projecting a 70.2% turnout, compared to 73% in 1984.

Polling races generally ran more smoothly than expected because of voters were more organized than election officials anticipated.

“The great majority brought in a marked ballot,” said Joan Trygstad, an election official at one Los Angeles polling place. “If they do, they are in an out in two minutes, if not, it’s taking five or 10.”

Charlie Ackerman, 76, a retired engineer serving as a poll inspector in La Jolla said, “A lot of voters came really prepared. . . . Lots of them brought notes, many had already marked their sample ballots and simply transferred their choices to the actual ballots.”

There were no reports of serious problems with a state law limiting voters to 10 minutes in the booth. Most registrars had said they would not strictly enforce the rule.

“I filled mine out in less than 10 minutes but my wife’s been in there a half hour,” said Raymond Walsh, a 67 year-old retiree from Laguna Niguel.

But, despite generally smooth-running operations at most polling places, there were some problems.

In Los Angeles, several polling places had delayed openings, including stations in the Crenshaw district and Hollywood. But a spokeswoman for the county registrar said all 28,000 volunteer workers were in place at the 6,247 polling places by 9:30 a.m.

In Orange County, uniformed security guards hired by the Republican Party of Orange County were removed from Santa Ana polling places Tuesday morning after the chief deputy Secretary of State Tony Miller termed their presence “unlawful intimidation of voters.”

Outraged Democratic party leaders had charged that the guards were harassing Latino voters in the bitterly contested 72nd Assembly District, writing down license plate numbers of their cars and challenging them to prove that they were U.S. citizens.

Republican Party Chairman Thomas Fuentes confirmed that the security guards “were part of our election day security effort” in mostly Latino neighborhoods in central and south Santa Ana. He said that, along with the uniformed guards, signs in English and Spanish were posted outside polling places warning non-citizens that it is a felony to vote. In areas where voting went smoothly, election officials pointed to another likely reason. As inspector Milton Greene, working at one Beverly Hills polling place, put it: “I have a feeling many don’t vote for most propositions.”

Judith Nelson, an emergency road service dispatcher who voted in Hancock Park, was one such voter.

Nelson said she was not turned off by the length of the ballot, but she admitted skipping a few items--”the ones that weren’t in the news that much,” such as the initiatives concerning judges. “Thats terrible, but it’s the truth,” she said.

Dan Postal, an unemployed mechanic, said it took him about 15 minutes to wade through the ballot, even though he did not vote on every item. He estimated that he had voted on “over half” of the initiatives, including “the insurance ones, of course.” Undeterred by the length of the ballot, he said, “I’m glad I did vote because now I can bitch.”

In addition, some voterssaid they were overwhelmed by the number of issues confronting them this year and were at times paralyzed by indecision.

‘You Get Bombarded’

“Frankly, I was fed up,” said Louis P. Caffar, 71, a retired Rancho Bernardo resident. “You get bombarded with all the pros and cons about each proposition. I went through my sample ballot so many times. I kept changing my answers--yes, no, yes, no. I was running out of dots to mark.”

Some pollsters and political pundits had forecast a near-record low turnout based on polls that showed voters were fed up with negative campaigning and burned out by the 29 statewide ballot propositions.

Pollster Mervin Field said he thought that a low turnout might be due to a lack of enthusiasm for either of the major party presidential tickets and the high degree of negative campaigning that dominated the presidential and U.S. senatorial elections.

Bruce Cain, professor of political science at Caltech, said the poor turnout figure could be caused by poor record keeping. He said some political scientists believe that in a mobile society many voters are carried on the registration rolls in several locations, but can only In addition, some voterssaid they were overwhelmed by the number of issues confronting them this year and were at times paralyzed by indecision.

‘You Get Bombarded’

“Frankly, I was fed up,” said Louis P. Caffar, 71, a retired Rancho Bernardo resident. “You get bombarded with all the pros and cons about each proposition. I went through my sample ballot so many times. I kept changing my answers--yes, no, yes, no. I was running out of dots to mark.”

Some pollsters and political pundits had forecast a near-record low turnout based on polls that showed voters were fed up with negative campaigning and burned out by the 29 statewide ballot propositions.

Pollster Mervin Field said he thought that a low turnout might be due to a lack of enthusiasm for either of the major party presidential tickets and the high degree of negative campaigning that dominated the presidential and U.S. senatorial elections.

Bruce Cain, professor of political science at Caltech, said the poor turnout figure could be caused by poor record keeping. He said some political scientists believe that in a mobile society many voters are carried on the registration rolls in several locations, but can only vote in one. And that tends to reduce the turnout percentage, he said.

Express Lines Set Up

Some election officials TOOK STEPS TO MAKE THE VOTING GO EASIER did count on a big turnout and planned accordingly.

In San Francisco officials inaugurated express lines for voters who had their sample ballot filled in ahead of time.

And Santa Clara County, with 49 state and local ballot propositions on the ballot, officials had planned to enforce an obscure state law that limits time in the voting booth to 10 minutes.

A legal battle over the time limit erupted late last week, and although the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the county’s right to enforce the law, officials said they would not chase voters out of the booth. Opponents of the 10-minute rule had argued that non-English-speaking voters would need more time.

John Molchan, assistant registrar of voters in Santa Clara County, said during the day that, “We haven’t had reports of any problems so far.” Ten precincts throughout the county were surveyed in the afternoon and the average voting times were “about four to five minutes . . . and sometimes it’s even less,” Molchan said.

Help in Spanish

Tuesday marked the first general election since the 1986 designation of English as California’s official language, and while bilingual materials or translations were still available at polling places around the state, the ballot itself was printed in English only.

“Se habla espanol” was posted outside the Atlantic Appliance Store, a polling place on Whittier Boulevard in East Los Angeles. Four polling booths were set up in the back of the store, next to stoves, refrigerators and old washing machines. Grace Vega, precinct inspector, said the majority of voters at the precinct are Spanish speakers. “They demand to be spoken to in Spanish,” she said. Of the 47 people who had cast their ballots by 10 a.m, 10 were first-time, Spanish-speaking voters, she said.

Maria Luisa Palacios, 64, went to the polls with an English-speaking friend, Maria Esther Becerra, 68. “My English is so bad that without her I couldn’t vote,” Palacios said in Spanish. “She helps me. She’s my guide.”

For some voters, even the English is tough to comprehend.

“I voted (on) everything, but I didn’t understand all of it,” one voter said. “I tried to read the ballot, but they use so much hocus-pocus, mumbo-jumbo language that I couldn’t understand. Why can’t they just use plain English.”