Polling Site Workers Tell City Officials of Election Day Problems : Hearing: Meeting is called in hopes of devising solutions for notorious voting place snafus.

There was the polling place in a Glassell Park recreation center where the voting inspector kept getting hit on the head with an errant basketball.

Or the polling site in a Sherman Oaks elementary school that was moved in the middle of Election Day to make way for a play.

And there was the polling place in Rancho Palos Verdes that was staffed by three workers who assisted only five voters over a 15-hour period.

These were some of the many Election Day horror stories recited by some of the nearly 350 polling workers who attended a special City Hall hearing Wednesday on Election Day problems.

Although polling place snafus have not effected the outcome of any recent race, they have become so notorious that they prompted city officials for the first time to call for the hearing in hopes of devising solutions.

For elected officials who sat through the three-hour meeting, it was an eye-opening lesson on how democracy works--and often doesn’t work--in the real world.

“It’s a war zone out there at some of these places,” said Councilman Richard Alarcon, a member of the city’s Government Efficiency Committee, which called for the hearing.

Councilman Joel Wachs, chairman of the committee, said he will instruct election officials to tackle the problems brought up at the meeting.

“There are many things that can be done and we will debate those in the future,” he said. “A lot of good things will come out of today’s meeting.”

According to those who testified, the biggest headaches are workers who fail to show up on Election Day, polling sites that for various reasons are moved at the last minute, voter registration lists that carry the names of people who are long deceased, and election material, such as booths and pamphlets, that arrive late.

But a common complaint was the small number of voters who appear at the polls every election, prompting workers to suggest consolidating more polling sites. Turnout in the June 6 city election was about 10%.

“We find it embarrassing,” said Bob DeSpain, a voting inspector who reported serving only five voters at his precinct in Rancho Palos Verdes. “People say: ‘Why are you open? Is this a joke?’ ”

Every year the city recruits more than 9,000 election workers--each paid between $45 and $60--to manage about 2,500 precincts from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.

But the problems in operating those polls have increased, according to election officials. For instance, in the June election, 84 polling places changed location with little notification to the voters, and 966 polling workers failed to show up.

Some solutions proposed by polling workers and election officials include:

* Recruiting more poll workers and increasing their pay in hopes that the greater incentive will reduce the number of no-shows. Or reducing the number of poll workers required in each precinct.

* Combining more state, county and city elections so that voting is required less often.

* Encouraging more absentee voting to reduce polling place problems. (Absentee voting now represents between 14% and 26% of the turnout.)

* Closing the polls one hour early to cut down on the workload.

* Purging the voting rolls of the names of deceased and voters who have moved.

Some of these solutions, such as increasing pay, can be adopted by a simple vote of the City Council. Other solutions, such as closing the polls early, may require a vote of the state legislature.

The poll workers said such persistent problems are probably a major reason why voter turnout is traditionally so low. Some say voters have even vowed to stay away until such problems are addressed.

“I’ve had voters say that they will never vote again as long as these problems continue,” said Orlando Bumgarner, who cited a polling site at the Glassell Park and Recreation Center that operated amid basketball games and karate lessons.

Bertha Frey, another polling worker from Gardena, accused city officials of ignoring pleas for help when such problems have come up in the past.

“You forget that we have to sit there all day long and when we call for help we don’t get any attention,” she said.