County Calls for Volunteerism on Election Day : Finances: To help defray costs, precinct workers will be asked to work for free and sponsors will be sought for polling places.

Facing budget cuts that could leave them shorthanded on election day, Ventura County election officials are calling on civic-minded volunteers and the charity of businesses to help reduce election costs.

The new program, called “Count Me In,” will ask precinct workers to forgo their stipend, and businesses to make $250 donations to sponsor operation of a polling place and the printing of sample ballots. Polling place owners will also be asked to donate the use of their location instead of accepting the typical $25 fee.

And while displaying advertising banners at polling places is illegal, election officials say they may soon be forced to sell advertising in sample ballots mailed to registered voters.

“We need to save money,” said Assistant Registrar Bruce Bradley, who helped develop Count Me In after the elections division absorbed a $100,000 budget cut. If voters reject an extension of the half-cent sales tax on November’s ballot, the division could lose another $350,000 of its $1.4-million budget, officials said.

In Ventura County, precinct workers earn $50 to $68 for working up to 16 hours at the polls, handing out and collecting ballots.

“Now we’re saying maybe recognition is more important to some of our officers than pay,” Bradley said.

If only a fraction of precinct workers are willing to accept a plaque and the county’s thanks in lieu of pay, the savings would be significant. With up to 450 polling places during a general election and as many as 1,800 precinct workers on election day, the labor costs alone of a major election can run as high as $100,000.

And if enough businesses adopt a polling place by donating $250, Ventura County would be better prepared for the influx of new voters expected with the implementation of the “motor voter bill” in 1995.

“Instead of closing polling places, we could open new ones,” Bradley said.

As evidence that volunteerism could play a major role in county elections, Bradley said some precinct officers voluntarily return the stipend they receive for working.

The county would continue paying those precinct officers who would prefer the money, but they would not be eligible for the plaque. “Those who choose to get paid will receive a check in the privacy of the mail,” Bradley said.

Election officials across the state are looking at Ventura County’s pilot project to see if it will lead to significant savings.

“We are watching Ventura County’s money-saving ideas with a lot of enthusiasm,” said Ernie Hawkins, Sacramento County’s registrar of voters, who also is chairman of the legislative committee of the California County Clerks Assn. “Nobody has done anything yet on the scale Ventura County is proposing.”

John Mott Smith, an election specialist for the secretary of state, said most counties are worried about the costs of fulfilling their constitutional responsibility to conduct elections.

“Counties are looking with a sense of urgency for ways to save money,” Smith said. “Everyone is waiting to see if Ventura County’s program works, or if anyone protests.”

Some election officials and political reformers have raised questions about the effect that relying on volunteers to run an election or selling ads in the sample ballot might have.

“Everybody has to be very careful that volunteers run a precinct with a nonpartisan approach and have no special agenda,” said Orange County Registrar of Voters Don Tanney, who is familiar with the Ventura County proposal.

“Maybe it’s just my election paranoia, but we have a need to be unbiased and not lean either left or right,” he said. “You have to be well-assured that no group with a special agenda is running a precinct.”

Others expressed concern about how the presence of advertising in sample ballots might affect voter perceptions if Ventura County decides to sell advertising.

While calling voter pamphlets “outrageously expensive,” Hawkins said election officials must be sensitive to the potential controversy advertising could cause.

“Registrars must be sensitive to political concerns,” said Hawkins, who also serves on the board of the Virginia-based Election Center, a nonprofit group that represents the interests of election officials.

“Advertisements could be controversial, especially if, say, an insurance company advertises in a sample ballot that contains a measure affecting the insurance industry,” Hawkins said. “Or an ad could cheapen the process and jeopardize the neutrality of the sample ballot.”

Kim Alexander, a policy analyst for Common Cause, expressed support for most of the goals of Count Me In, but cautioned against the use of advertising to help pay for ballot pamphlets.

“The sample ballot is the single most valuable information voters receive during an election,” Alexander said. “It’s important that whatever the county does, it doesn’t reduce the amount of information contained in the sample ballot or detract from its integrity.”

While emphasizing that Ventura County’s elections division will consider selling ads in the voter pamphlet only if the budget is cut further, Bradley said he sees few problems with the idea.

“We’re under no obligation to put any business in there,” he said. “We’re not going to advertise adult bookstores or liquor stores. The ads would be institutional ads like you see at a fund-raiser, something like, ‘This sample ballot brought to you by McDonald’s.’ ”

Reaction from several precinct workers was mixed.

“I myself would work at the polling place no matter what they paid,” said Francis Murphy of Camarillo, who kept a hand in the election day process after retiring from the city of Los Angeles’ election office. “I’d rather volunteer than have them raise my taxes.”

Others said they would be reluctant to devote long hours without some compensation.

“Before my husband retired four years ago, I would have been happy to volunteer,” said Joyce Koeritz of Simi Valley. “But it’s different now. They money really helps, and I don’t want to give it up.”

Vincent Ordonez, an assistant executive officer for the county court system, is one of several dozen county employees who have agreed to give up a paid day of vacation and volunteer to work on election day.

“As a county employee, I know how we’ve tried to reduce costs in my department,” Ordonez said. “I felt by volunteering I could do something good and let the public know that county employees want to save the taxpayers money.”