Registrar Seeks 1,000 Poll Workers : Benefits of Election Day Job Include Fun, Friendship and Best of Democratic Process

If you want to participate in the democratic process but can’t stomach the idea of working for a politician, then Conny McCormack has just the job for you.

Los Angeles County’s registrar/recorder is about to hire 1,000 poll workers for November’s election.

You can make $45 a day as one of the 25,000 workers who collect and tally ballots at 5,632 precincts from Lancaster to Long Beach.

Those who have worked the polls in elections past say it’s a great way to meet your neighbors. What’s more, you get to be a part of a vast army of poll inspectors, sheriff’s deputies, computer operators and helicopter pilots who make each election possible.

*

McCormack is also looking for workers to help out at the registrar’s Norwalk headquarters on election night.

“It’s fun. People can bring their friends, they can see what really happens behind the scenes,” she said. “They can be here touching and holding the ballots in the largest election jurisdiction in the United States.”

If you live in the Mid-City area, you might work with septuagenarian Joyce Klement, who has worked every election since--well, she can’t remember exactly when, though she thinks it was one of FDR’s victories.

“We have mostly beautiful people come in, very nice people,” said Klement. For years, she has allowed her home on South Kingsley Drive to be used as a polling place. The voting booths occupy most of her living and dining rooms. She puts out a davenport for people to sit on when the booths are full.

“You can’t talk politics, but it’s very interesting,” she said.

At the Koreatown precinct staffed by Joseph Silva, 65, the poll workers are often an eclectic mix of Latinos and Filipino-, Korean- and African Americans. The number of voters in the neighborhood has increased dramatically over the last few years as many immigrants have become naturalized citizens.

Silva, himself an Ecuadorian-born naturalized citizen, says he works the polls out of loyalty for his adopted country.

“I feel the desire to help out a little,” Silva said. “I know it’s very hard to find people to work that day. A lot of people say, ‘Why should I waste my time doing that?’ I do it because I feel a sense of patriotism.”

Klement says she enjoys presidential elections the most because they tend to bring out the younger voters who don’t turn out for every race. But she is also very close to the senior citizen voters in her neighborhood. Her husband gives a handful of them a ride home after each election.

A few elderly voters respect the democratic process so much they haven’t missed a vote in 50 years. “They come in and they say, ‘Maybe this will be my last one,’ ” Klement said.

Only once or twice has Klement had a bad experience. “One drunk came in and almost knocked over the booths. That wasn’t funny. It was a rainy day. Thank goodness my son-in-law was here.”

Staffing the polls is a long day’s work. They open at 7 a.m. and close at 8 p.m. (Some poll inspectors, like Klement, prepare lunch for their workers.) Poll workers then spend another hour or so preparing the ballots.

“We have to take a count of all the ballots,” Klement said. “We take an inventory of how many people voted and how many were in and out.”

*

A sheriff’s deputy escorts a poll worker with the ballots to one of 75 collection centers. Some ballots are shipped by helicopter from one of seven heliports to the registrar’s headquarters in Norwalk.

“It’s huge logistics,” said county registrar McCormack. “It’s very similar to a military operation.”

Once in Norwalk, the ballots (as many as 2.5 million when there’s a good turnout) are placed in computers for counting. Citizen volunteers can assist in this process too, McCormack said, rubbing elbows with the nervous politicos and campaign workers who haunt the registrar’s office on election night.

“It’s all very exciting,” she said.

Anyone interested in being a poll worker can call the registrar’s office at (310) 462-2750.

Those interested in working at the registrar’s Norwalk headquarters on election night (from 6 p.m. to midnight) can call (310) 462-2282 or (310) 462-2292.