Polling place workers prepare for long Election Day

Eight years ago, Jerry Small set a tradition for himself.

Once a year, the Huntington Beach resident will wake up before the sun rises to get to his work place for the day by 6 a.m. and open it up at 7 a.m.

Throughout his 15-plus-hour workday, Small will greet everyone walking through the door with a smile.

“Thank you for voting,” he says as they exit.

Small is a volunteer polling place worker. Since 2008, he has been an inspector — a manager in charge of picking up supplies for the day, setting up and making sure everything is running smoothly.

Other volunteers at a polling place are called clerks, whom the inspector instructs.

There also are volunteers called the “A team,” who fill in where needed to perform the duties of inspectors and clerks.

For this year’s election Tuesday, there are about 8,500 inspectors, clerks and A-team members countywide, said Neal Kelley, Orange County registrar of voters. The most the county has had was 10,000 in 2008.

Each polling place typically has four to six volunteers, Kelley said.

The volunteers are found through various sources, including service organizations, targeted marketing, cold calling of registered voters and notices in mail-in-ballots, Kelley said.

There is a selection process for inspectors, but volunteers can be clerks as long as they’re registered voters in California.

Small, 78, said he began volunteering because he was retired and looking for something to fill his extra time. He learned of the polling place opportunity in his vote-by-mail packet.

“It looked like something I could do,” said Small, who has been assigned to the polling place at College View Elementary School in Huntington Beach for about five years. Before that, he was assigned to Bolsa Grande High School in Garden Grove and a Huntington Beach hotel.

The first year, he attended a class for polling place workers and was asked if he would be an inspector.

The gig hasn’t changed much over the years, said Small, who has had to attend similar classes every year.

A few days before Election Day, inspectors drive to an office in Orange to pick up supplies such as cardboard booths and the judges booth controller, which prints access codes that enable voters to cast their electronic ballots.

They begin setting up at 6 a.m. on Election Day, unless location owners permit an early setup the day before.

The electronic voting devices, called eSlates, are dropped off at each polling location by the registrar of voters office within 10 days of Election Day.

Throughout the day, inspectors must give duties to the clerks. This can include setting up people to vote either electronically or by paper. The procedures can be different if a voter can’t verify his or her address, isn’t registered at that particular site or was originally supposed to cast a mail-in ballot.

Volunteers also must make sure the eSlates are working properly throughout the day and haven’t been tampered with.

Provisional and paper ballots must be organized at the end of the night.

Working as a team and dividing the work are important, Wagy Boctor, a professional trainer for the registrar of voters office, said during a recent class for polling place workers at Huntington Beach City Hall.

At the end of Election Day, the inspector must return the supplies to Orange.

Despite the long day, Small said he enjoys helping.

“It’s a change of pace,” he said. “I’ve been retired for quite a while, and I don’t do any activities. Somebody needs to do it.”

Kelley said polling locations are selected based on various factors. The most important are the ballot style and whether voting district lines have changed.

“Many jurisdictions have moved from at-large elections to district-based elections, and that necessitates the need for new polling places,” Kelley said.

The registrar’s office also looks for sites with accessibility in accord with the Americans with Disabilities Act, such as schools, churches and retail locations.

“On top of all of this, a polling place that may have been one for a long time suddenly may be under construction, so then it’s back to square one,” Kelley said. “It’s a very detailed but methodical process.”

Tuesday will be Penny Williams’ first time volunteering as a polling place worker.

After taking the procedures class at City Hall, the Huntington Beach resident said she is excited to be involved but a little overwhelmed with how much a poll worker has to do.

But she said she’s up to the challenge.

“I wanted to be of some value,” said Williams, who hadn’t yet been assigned a polling place. “I wanted to participate in some way other than just voting. It’s a lot of information, but I want to participate and be a part of setting up, cleaning up and tearing down.

“I know if I show up, there will be something for me to do, and I’m happy about that.”