Local
D.C. elections board says it’s ready for mass voter turnout on Tuesday
By: Michael Neibauer
Examiner Staff Writer
October 31, 2008
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| D.C. Board of Elections and Ethics officals said Thursday they are ready for a historic voter turnout Tuesday. Each precinct will have two optical scan voting machines and one touch screen machine. (Examiner File) |
Each of the city’s 143 precincts will have two optical scan voting machines in use Tuesday in addition to one touch screen machine. There will be at least 2,400 trained volunteers at the polls and extra staff from the mayor’s office to handle crowd control. Every precinct’s voter rolls were analyzed to determine whether, for example, last names starting with “S” need their own line.
“We are prepared for this election,” elections board Chairman Errol Arthur said during a briefing with reporters. “We are prepared to process all of our voters.”
But first, the board must get through the next four days.
More than 7,000 D.C. residents had cast absentee votes in person as of Wednesday. The process continues from 8:30 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. today, Saturday and Monday. The line, forming in the main lobby of Judiciary Square, was running dozens deep Thursday morning.
Unlike Virginia and Maryland, the District does not allow early voting. Absentees must swear in writing that they have a valid reason for skipping Tuesday’s vote at their precinct.
“It is the honor system,” said Dan Murphy, the board’s spokesman. “We have not turned anybody away.”
The D.C. Republican Committee, meanwhile, said Thursday that “numerous” GOP members had not received the absentee ballots they requested by mail. There have been frequent complaints that the elections board is unreachable — Arthur said all calls to the office are being routed to the mayor’s call center.
As for Tuesday’s vote, be prepared to wait. Bring a friend or a book, Arthur said, “something to occupy your time.”
The most competitive race on the ballot — Barack Obama will easily win the city’s three electoral votes — may be for one of two at-large D.C. Council seats.
Incumbent Councilman Kwame Brown, a Democrat, is likely to win another term. But the second seat, which must be held by a member of a minority party, is up for grabs: Republican Councilwoman Carol Schwartz is running a write-in campaign, while the GOP’s Patrick Mara has picked up some key endorsements and former Democrat Michael Brown is on the ballot as an independent.
Depending on the number of write-in votes, the results of the at-large race might not be known for days.
