ELECTIONS COUNTYWIDE : Record Number of Area Voters Request Absentee Ballots

Ventura County election officials said Friday that they have received a record number of requests for absentee ballots, reflecting the growing number of voters who prefer to mail their ballots from home rather than go to the polls.

Richard D. Dean, Ventura County clerk, said the elections office received 27,000 requests for absentee ballots and expects about 22,000 of them to be returned for Tuesday’s election. Dean and his election deputy, Ruth Schepler, have promoted the use of absentee ballots in an effort to increase voter participation.

Voter turnout has declined steadily over the last two decades, an indication of growing voter apathy and cynicism, Dean said. He predicted that only 40% of registered voters will cast ballots Tuesday. If this is the case, it will be one of the lowest turnouts of any election in the county, he said.

He calculates that absentee ballots will make up as much as 20% of votes cast in the Tuesday primary election, the highest percentage in county history. “If it will help turnout, I’m all for it,” Dean said of the county’s promotion of voting by absentee ballot.

He and Schepler said absentee ballots help voters squeeze their civic duty into fast-paced lifestyles. More and more people, they said, have difficulty getting to the polls when their days are consumed with long commutes to work and other pressures.

Since the law changed in 1976, registered voters can request an absentee ballot without explanation. Before the law change, voters had to prove that they were not ambulatory or were going to be out of the state on an election day.

Candidates and major political parties have exploited the law change to help get out the vote.

For example, in this election, Assemblywoman Cathie Wright (R-Simi Valley) has mailed applications for absentee ballots to Republicans in her district. She even sent supporters an envelope addressed to the elections office with the postage paid.

“It has become almost a fine art,” said Mark Thompson, a spokesman for Wright’s campaign. “The message is no longer ‘Vote absentee.’ It’s ‘Vote by mail and guarantee your vote.’ ”

Thompson said history has a long list of candidates who have won or lost campaigns on ballots from absent voters. Wright faces a tough challenge to her reelection from Hunt Braly, an aide to state Sen. Ed Davis (R-Santa Clarita).

Of the 22,000 absentee ballots that Dean expects to receive, 18,000 will be in early enough to be counted immediately after the polls close at 8 p.m. Tuesday night. That will give a strong indication of winners and losers early in the evening, he said.

One drawback, he said, is that about 4,000 absentee ballots are not expected to arrive until Election Day. Those ballots, which must be opened and verified, will not be completely counted until nearly a week after the election. “When you get a bunch of them like that, you cannot call a close race,” Dean said.

County officials have set up elaborate procedures to ensure that the vote count goes quickly and smoothly Tuesday night at the election office in the county administration building in Ventura.

Traditionally, votes from Simi Valley are the last to be tabulated because the city is far from election office computers in Ventura. This year, there is particular interest in the Simi Valley because of the race for the 4th Supervisorial District, where five candidates are running, and a political brawl between Wright and Braly.

County officials are hoping that they have covered every unforeseen problem that could hold up the count. Last year, for instance, sheriff’s deputies driving vans with the ballots from Simi Valley ran out of gas on California 118.