Posted on 12/11/2002 3:53:14 PM PST by Saundra Duffy
Dianne Hardisty: Some ballots too late to count
Saturday December 07, 2002, 06:30:11 PM
Oscar Meza was disappointed. Richard Beckwith was resigned. And Renee Covey was frustrated and angry.
These three Kern County citizens learned last week after I called them and told them that their ballots were not counted in last month's general election. The absentee ballots of these voters and about 1,000 others were delivered to the Elections Division after the polls closed after 8 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 5, Election Day.
It happens every election, according to Abbe Shugart in the Elections Division. Boxes after boxes of absentee ballots are delivered by the U.S. Postal Service too late to be counted. California law requires all ballots to be in elections officials' hands before the polls close.
Despite the theatrics of the Florida vote count and the much trumpeted and long-awaited "military ballots," California law requires even ballots from troops overseas to arrive before the polls close. Each state's laws are different, as we all witnessed in the Florida count. In California, the voting cutoff is clear and consistent from county to county.
As I watched these late ballots trickle into Kern County's Election Division, I wondered: Do these people have a clue that their votes are worthless? How did this happen? I called a few of these voters.
Richard Beckwith of Tehachapi was one of four family members who mailed absentee ballots from the same place and the same time. Three arrived too late to be counted. One arrived on time.
"So how do you feel about that?" I asked Beckwith, who seemed to be quietly pondering his ballot's fate on the other end of the line.
"The post office sucks. We all know it," he blurted out. Beckwith used an absentee ballot to vote because his work schedule did not allow him to go to the polls on Election Day.
Oscar Meza of Tehachapi thought he had allowed enough time for his ballot to reach the Bakersfield Elections Division. "That's really disappointing," he said.
Michael Nowatzki is a train conductor who thought he would be out of town on Election Day. He mailed his absentee ballot in Bakersfield the day before the election, believing mail within the city usually is delivered the next day.
"This is disappointing. I always vote," he said. As it turned out, Nowatzki's work schedule changed and he was in Bakersfield on Election Day. He could have dropped off his absentee ballot at any polling place or at the Elections Division on Nov. 5 and it would have been counted.
Renee Covey, who had gone to a lot of trouble to vote, was a real unhappy camper when I told her what happened to her ballot. The Tehachapi woman was visiting her college student son in Steubenville, Ohio, on Election Day. She arranged to have an absentee ballot mailed to Steubenville.
The ballot arrived on the eve of the election. She filled it out and dropped it into a mailbox, believing it would be treated as tax forms are treated on the April 15 filing deadline. She mistakenly believed that as long as it was postmarked on Election Day, her ballot would be counted.
"That really makes me mad," she said, explaining that she sat up until 3 a.m. watching California election returns. "That's not right."
Covey said she was particularly interested in the governor's race. "I'm so sick of Gray Davis being our governor. I'm just sick about this."
Several people said they mailed their ballots from Southern California several days before the election, but apparently it takes a long time for mail to get over the Tehachapi Mountains.
Of all the people I called, Riolinda Noyce of Taft seemed the most upset. The good news is that Riolinda's ballot arrived on time and was counted. Her ballot was mailed several days before the election from Taft. The bad news is that Riolinda's husband, Dennis, was not so lucky.
Dennis Noyce works on a maintenance team that travels around the state fixing pumps for the state Department of Water Resources. He was working in Los Banos on Election Day.
Riolinda, a native of the Philippines who became a citizen five years ago, is passionate about voting. She sent her husband's absentee ballot to him by "priority mail" and he mailed it back several days before the election.
"It would kill him to know they did not count his ballot," she said. "We believe in everyone's right to vote. We really wanted to vote this time. We didn't want Davis anymore. We wanted to vote for what's-his-name."
"You mean Bill Simon?" I asked, beginning to get a vague idea why what's-his-name might not have won the election.
"Yes, yes, that's him," she said, laughing. "I even went to San Diego and campaigned for him."
"Who? What's-his-name?"
"Yes, what's-his-name," she laughed, acknowledging Simon may have had a name recognition problem.
So, what's a voter to do if he or she decides to cast an absentee ballot and wants to make sure it's counted?
Shugart at the Elections Division advises returning ballots as early as possible. If you have any concerns about delivery, ballots can be dropped off at the Elections Division in the Kern County Government Center on Truxtun Avenue in Bakersfield. If the office is not open, a secured dropbox is available in the courtyard between the building and the parking structure to the south.
Ballots also can be dropped off at any polling place in the county on Election Day.
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