Is staff 'the Achilles' heel' at polls?
By TAMARA LUSH, Times Staff Writer
Published August 1, 2004

They have been called the weakest link in Florida's election system, the last defense between a well-run democracy and a banana republic.

They also may be the most overlooked of all the potential problems facing Florida's election system.

While touch screen voting machines and a flawed list of felon voters have garnered the headlines this year, the biggest problem could be the state's 30,000 poll workers.

They make about minimum wage, work a 15-hour day and must navigate the intricacies of Florida's complex election laws.

"Poll workers are the Achilles' heel of the elections process," said Theresa LePore, Palm Beach County's supervisor of elections.

Thousands of poll workers across the state began training last week on the finer points of elections in preparation for the Aug. 31 primary.

Local elections supervisors ensure that voting equipment functions properly, organize needed paperwork and educate voters, but if poll workers fumble on Election Day, the whole system can collapse.

It's not a uniquely Florida problem: Elections officials in nearly every state report problems with the people who work the polls.

"It's a human environment," said Hillsborough Elections Supervisor Buddy Johnson. "Our poll workers do a great job, but no one is perfect."

The 2000 presidential election mess demonstrated how poorly trained some poll workers were. Before then, Florida had no statewide guidelines for training workers.

Voters across the state claimed that poll workers refused to replace spoiled ballots. Precincts opened late because poll workers didn't show up on time. In many counties, people who showed up at the polls were told they weren't on the voter rolls and no effort was made to locate their registration.

Problems continued in various local, primary and statewide elections in 2002, especially with new touch screen voting machines.

Glitches ranged from small to large. In Pinellas County, for instance, poll workers at one precinct didn't handle three machine cartridges correctly, so results had to be read from a printout each machine produces. The switch didn't change or delay results.

In Jacksonville, a precinct opened 90 minutes late because poll workers didn't realize they were supposed to turn on the voting machines.

In Miami-Dade and Broward counties, many poll workers using the machines for the first time said they received no training and had no clue how to set them up.

"These stories are just awful and they're real," said Ted Selker, co-director of the Caltech/MIT voting technology project. "And that's the bad news."

The good news, Selker said, is that improving poll worker training can make a big difference.
People and machines

The problems of the 2000 and 2002 elections stemmed largely from two issues: technical glitches and inadequate training.

Selker and his voting group studied "lost votes" in the 2000 presidential election. He estimates 1-million votes were lost nationwide because of polling place operational problems, including long lines that discouraged voters.

In Florida, a bipartisan task force appointed by Gov. Jeb Bush said problems at the polls can be significantly reduced with better training.

"In fact, it seems remarkable that more problems do not occur," reported the task force, which was led by former Secretary of State Jim Smith.

Embarrassment over Florida's election debacle spurred numerous changes.

In October 2002, President Bush signed legislation allocating $3.86-billion to replace outdated voting systems and to implement new federal elections standards. Most of the money went toward new technology, not poll worker training.

A 2002 state law included training and instruction on how to be more courteous and sensitive to disabled people.

The primary change is an increase in the number of hours poll workers are trained. Florida now requires a minimum of three hours for clerks, who run the polling places, and two hours for inspectors, who activate the touch screen cards and maintain voter registration books.

"You could go from one county to the next and the training was totally different," said Pasco Elections Supervisor Kurt Browning, who hires 2,000 poll workers each election and trains them for several more hours than the state requires. "I think we, the collective we, were guilty of just assuming that we'll get through the day. We found out very quickly, you have to start out with a base of competent people, then you have to be able to provide them the training in a format they understand."

Selker said such training is critical for smooth elections. So is hands-on training.

"We need to make sure poll workers demonstrate proficiency," Selker said.

Poll workers have several specialties - assistant clerk, voting supervisors, deputies, inspectors, voting machine managers. Each receives different levels of training.

In Florida, each elections supervisor trains his own poll workers. Other states have more centralized systems. In Georgia, for example, the state trains all poll workers.

Inconsistencies were evident in Florida counties.

In 2002, Broward and Miami-Dade trained poll workers in two- and three- hour sessions, compared to Pinellas, Hillsborough and Pasco, where many workers received as much as 12 hours of training.

Broward and Miami-Dade had numerous problems with elections that year, while counties around the Tampa Bay area were largely trouble-free.

"We all know what happened down in Miami-Dade and we don't want any of that to happen in Hillsborough," said Rick Charles, a 52-year-old poll worker in Tampa. "It seems like everybody here is putting on an extra effort to get things right."
A job few want

There's a lot to remember if you're a poll worker.

There are Voter Activation Cards, which are different from the Card Activators. There's the red mesh sack filled with goodies, including stickers that say "I voted," moistened wipes for the touch screen machines and a county precinct map.

There's another sack, even more important than the red one. It's called the "Provisional Ballot Bag," which includes the "secrecy envelopes."

On a recent day in Clearwater, about 35 mostly senior citizens sat in a conference room in an office park on U.S. 19 and took stock of all the gear.

Each had a 68-page manual, the poll worker's bible, explaining everything from how to erect the legs on a touch screen machine to how one shouldn't wear perfume at the polling place on Election Day.

The level of detail, and the increased training hours, are among the many reasons why it's difficult for supervisors of elections to recruit poll workers. And most people can't take a day off from work or child rearing to spend 15 hours at a polling place.

So most poll workers are retirees. In Palm Beach County, for example, 2.5 percent of the poll workers are older than 90.

The turnover rate is enormous, said Miami-Dade Elections Supervisor Constance Kaplan, who must find 6,000 poll workers each election. "People get tired and say, "I don't need it,' " she said.

And with all the publicity about election problems, "people are not as keen to get involved in the process," Kaplan said.

Some experts wonder if being a poll worker should be similar to jury duty.

"Clearly, it would be desirable to have a more diverse crowd of poll workers," said David Dill, a voting expert and computer science professor at Stanford University. "We have a system where we're basically relying on volunteers, people who are retired and have more time to do it. I don't think younger people ought to be released from the responsibility for doing this work."

And then there's the low pay, hardly an incentive. Most poll workers make $100 to $150 a day, depending on their position and the county.

"It's above minimum wage," said Palm Beach's LePore, "but that's about it."