Officials Advise Voters to Check for Chads

Ballot boxes for Los Angeles’ election Tuesday will carry a sticker: “Got Chad? Check Your Ballot Card.”

The infamous chads, so familiar from the Florida presidential vote, have cast a shadow over local elections, and the ballot box stickers are part of an effort to avoid a repeat of the Florida confusion here, officials said Wednesday.

“We’re asking people to check their ballots--to look at the back to make sure there are no hanging chads,” Los Angeles City Clerk J. Michael Carey told reporters at a Crenshaw district news conference.

“Florida demonstrated that everyone’s vote really does count in a close race,” Carey said. “The other thing Florida taught us is that not everyone’s vote was counted.”

Carey and Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk Conny B. McCormack joined officials from a multiethnic coalition of voter registration and education groups hoping to reassure voters--especially minority voters--that their votes count and will be counted.

“This effort is to assure the people of Los Angeles that they should not fear being ripped off when they vote, as happened in Florida,” said Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas, who chairs the African American Voter Registration, Education and Participation Project.

Priya Sridharan of the Asian Pacific American Legal Center said her organization is “concerned that minority voters not be asked for identification or proof of citizenship that other voters aren’t required to show.”

She said another concern is the availability of bilingual assistance.

Election officials stressed polling-place basics, hoping to avoid confusion on election day.

In addition to posting the stickers, precinct officers will also ask voters if they have checked for hanging, dimpled or pregnant chads before ballots are deposited in the boxes, Carey said.

Voters should also be aware, he said, that if there is any doubt about their eligibility to vote, they may cast a provisional ballot.

“We have emphasized to precinct boards, ‘Please do not turn away anyone who wants to vote,’ ” he said.

Provisional ballots will be checked later to determine if they are valid votes, he said.

Voters casting absentee ballots should mail them by Friday so they will arrive by the 8 p.m. Tuesday deadline, Carey said. But if voters forget to mail their ballots, they can turn them in at a polling place on election day, he said.

An important lesson coming out of Florida is that some voters invalidated their ballots by trying to correct a mistake, he said.

“If you make a mistake, don’t re-punch your ballot,” Carey said. “Go back and get another ballot.”

He urged voters who have any problems to notify election officials at their polling place.

If voters find that their polling place is closed, they can call a toll-free hotline--(888) 873-1000--and an emergency crew with ballots and voting booths will be dispatched, Carey said.

“We’ll put a truck there and set up a precinct,” he said. “If precinct workers don’t show up, we can allow people to vote.”