Poll working
Whew, I was a poll inspector today, heading of a team of four pollworkers in a precinct in Encino, California. A loooong day. 6:30 AM to 9 PM. And what a convoluted process Calfornia has for processing the votes. Punch card ballots. Arcane procedures for walk-in absentee ballots when they, gasp, forgot the all important outer envelope, as well as numerous procedures for provisional balloting.
Most of which goes away in 2004 or 2005 when L.A. goes to touchscreen voting. Not a moment too soon. The current system involves huge amounts of time-consuming paper shuffling, most of which can be easily computerized.
And it’s true. Old people vote a lot. Most the voters were over 60. Even with that, our precinct had a pathetic turnout of 40%.