The Monterey County elections office looks remarkably calm with just days to go before a primary election. Nine voting booths in the lobby greet early voters. Farther back, behind security glass, a handful of election workers greet visitors, answer phones and run mail-in ballots though a large sorter. The sorter unseals the ballot, takes a photo of the voter’s signature and unique number, and deposits the ballot in a tray for the voter’s district.
The process for selecting leaders is conducted at the county level. Gina Martinez is the Registrar of Voters for Monterey County. On Election Day, her office will balloon from 12 full-time workers to as many as a thousand.
“We understand the enormity of what we do,” Martinez said. “We're contributing to something that means so much to our community and our state and our country.”
With all the overlapping districts, political parties and languages, Monterey County has 137 different ballots that are distributed to over 200,000 registered voters.
“Each ballot has to go to a specific voter,” Martinez said. The same is true for the voter guides, which are tailor-made for each voter depending on their unique ballot.
Mail-in ballots are sent to every registered voter in California. In Monterey County, 96% of those are typically returned by mail, dropped at a ballot box, or carried to a polling place on Election Day, said Martinez.
When a ballot is returned, the elections office first uses a unique identification number to check if that voter has already voted.
“That unique identifier is on the outside of the envelope,” Martinez says, “So we're able to match the ballot directly to the voter.”
Martinez says sometimes the voter forgets they voted and mistakenly votes again. If it is a duplicate ballot, an election worker will call the voter. If there is no duplicate ballot, the elections office checks the signature.
Kevin Hanstick is a Field Supervisor who oversees poll workers at the Monterey County Elections office.
“We match the signature from the envelope to the voter record,” Martinez said. The voter record contains several signatures from previous ballots and other state documents. So even if you sign your name differently on occasion, the signature can be matched.
On Election Day, polling places are staffed by a team of hard-working poll workers. Kevin Hanstick is a field supervisor who trains and oversees poll workers. He has worked with the elections office since 1982.
“The first thing I've always asked the poll worker is to bring us a positive attitude, a couple of smiles and a pocket full of extra ones,” Hanstick said.
The workers will need those extra smiles. Working at a polling place is a 15-hour day.
“It starts at six in the morning and goes till about nine at night,” said Hanstick.
Poll workers greet voters, take them to the proper area and answer lots of questions. The workers are paid, but given the number of hours they work, it is definitely low-wage.
Hanstick says the workers don’t do it for the money. They do it for their neighbors, to help voters perform a citizen’s most cherished right: selecting their leaders.
