Vote Junkies Elect to Get the Results Firsthand

Her eyes darting and hands fidgeting, Sherry Baum was clearly nervous.

The first returns were about to come in from Tuesday night’s election and Baum, seeking reelection to the Coast Community College District board, was at the registrar of voters office to watch the democratic process in action.

Baum’s only challenger had dropped out of the race--not soon enough, though, to get his name off the ballot--and absentee returns showed her with a commanding 40-point lead. Still, she practically raced to the registrar’s front counter when clerks posted the first precinct results.

“This is where it’s at,” said Baum, adding that it was the 10th year she awaited election returns firsthand. “I can’t stand to sit at a party and have people telling me what is happening.”

Baum was just one of a few dozen self-proclaimed “election junkies” to sate their appetite for political action Tuesday night in the lobby of the registrar’s office on Grand Avenue.

Whenever a new set of computer printouts with results was posted, they would run to a bank of pay telephones to relay the good--or bad--news to friends at home or at election night gatherings. I and reporter Wendy Paulson did the same for our editors in Costa Mesa, who received returns via computer.

In those stretches between results, people in the registrar’s lobby gossiped about the unfolding political events or occupied themselves with diversions such as strolling back to a public viewing area in the warehouse where ballots were being unboxed and counted.

Wendy and I passed part of the time with a miniaturized version of the table game “Battleship.” We wound up making it only partway through “Battleship,” however, once the returns began coming at fairly frequent intervals after an early delay.

The election watchers began gathering at the registrar’s office shortly before the polls closed at 8 p.m. The assemblage included an assemblyman’s aide, a representative of the teacher’s union in Orange, and volunteer “runners” for candidates whose job it was to telephone them with updated returns.

Russ Throop, 32, was one of the volunteers. Throop, an office manager, was representing Joe J. Cherry, an incumbent who unsuccessfully sought reelection to the Orange Unified School District board. Throop slumped in a chair and read from a book between relaying the bad news to Cherry and his worried camp.

“The candidates want to know,” Throop said, squinting up from his book. “It’s kind of nervous for them, I guess.”

Throop said he did the same thing during the last election for two other candidates to the Orange school board. When I asked Throop if his wife minded his staying out like this, he smiled.

“I’m not married, so it’s not a great imposition to me,” he said.

Seated near Throop was Al Peraza, 56, a member of the Anaheim City School District board who stayed up late to monitor the returns even though he was not running for reelection.

“I’m just interested in seeing who is elected,” Peraza said. “I like to get a firsthand account.”

Seeing that he had a wedding ring on but was alone, I asked Peraza why he wasn’t accompanied by his wife. Peraza laughed and said, “She just stays home.”

Baum, however, had plenty of company. Both her husband and grown son tagged along. They kept reassuring her throughout the night, even though it was clear her reelection was imminent.

Even with the outcome of this election a virtual certainty, Baum could not pull herself away from the registrar’s office until the last returns were counted after midnight.

“It’s like being a junkie,” she joked to a friend at the same table where I was playing “Battleship.”

“I’ve gotta wait for just one more return.”