November 18, 1998

Your role in the polls

If you want to know how important a vote is, look at Menlo Park where the latest election for the City Council has come down to a single vote. Actually three candidates are so close any of them could win the recount.

Prop. 10, which will add a substantial tax to each pack of cigarettes, passed by a such a tiny plurality statewide the tobacco companies are probably kicking themselves for not throwing another million dollars at California. As it is, they spent a bundle and still lost. Of course, it's my opinion we all gain when the tobacco companies lose. Every child who postpones the day he tries cigarettes is postponing the day he becomes an addict. No one who smokes his first cigarette would be willing to do it if he knew his final years would be lived with an oxygen tank as a constant companion.

I've been spending the last several weeks as an "extra" worker in the county election department. It's given me an inside look at the meticulous care with which every vote is treated, and the concern of county and state election officials and workers. They do their best to accurately record every voter's opinion without exception.

Many of the temporary extra workers are over 65, as are many polling place judges and inspectors. It's an inspiration to see the hard work and dedication that goes into putting together the many details that make up an election. Senior citizens are an underused resource, and I'm delighted to see the election department uses their services so well.

Most people vote in their precinct. If they make a mistake, they can get a fresh ballot and start over again. As the inspector in the Pedro Point precinct, I helped a number of people with fresh ballots when they realized they'd made a mistake in the votes they had started to cast.

More and more people are voting absentee. They don't have the same backup system if they make a mistake, and some ballots come in which the voter's wishes are so unclear they never get recorded.

If you vote absentee, the best way to make sure your vote is properly counted is to plan ahead and prepare your ballot carefully. Request your ballot as early as possible. When it arrives, prepare it and send it in as soon as possible. This will give you time to get a second ballot if you spoil your first. Carefully mark your sample ballot. If you change your mind, re-do your sample ballot, but try to avoid second-guessing your decisions on the actual ballot.

Use a black or blue pen, or a number two pencil. Join the two parts of the arrow. Don't bear down heavily. You don't want your vote to show through on the other side. Don't use a hard pencil, a flo-pen, or a red pen or pencil. Above all, don't erase, don't use white-out, and vote only for the proper number allowed. If you vote for four when the limit is three, you've cancelled your decision for that portion of the ballot. It's called an over-vote. Look before you fill in the arrow. And don't waste a write-in. Unless the person has signed up ahead of time as a write in, you've thrown away your vote.

The bottom line: plan ahead, read the rules and follow them, and your vote will become an important part of democracy in San Mateo County.

Paul Azevedo hopes you vote in every election. If you move, re-register. If you have any questions, call 312 5222.