Poll workers readying for Tuesday primary

For some poll workers and volunteers, Tuesday’s primary started today.

Bill Bardfield, the inspector for voting precinct 74 (El Dorado), is putting everything in place to “make sure the precinct runs as smoothly as can possibly be done.”

First he’ll open a box of supplies — ballots, required signage, pens, ballot stamps and extra provisional ballot envelopes — from the Pinal County election center and make sure everything that’s supposed to be there is.

 Then Bardfield will start setting up the two machines that count ballots Tuesday.

“I take care, personally, of setting up the machine that counts the (handwritten) ballots,” Bardfield said. The machine is basically a scanner.

 “Then one of my trusted lieutenants sets up the other machine for the electronic ballots,” he said.  

Bardfield said he enjoys working at the polls — this will be his fifth presidential election, his first in Maricopa — but said “it’s a long day for the workers.”

Workers get there at 5 a.m. and generally are there about 60 to 90 minutes after polls close at 7 p.m.

“We have to make sure all the numbers balance out, the votes cast and all of that,” Bardfield said.

In addition, state law dictates that poll workers, once they sign in, have to remain at the precinct until the polls close and can’t leave the building.

“Everyone brings their own lunch and we have an area for people to take a break so they can get something to eat,” Bardfield said.

“I like seeing all the people that come through, meeting some neighbors I didn’t know and doing my civic duty,” he said.

Although it is a paid position, one still has to volunteer for it and, as the self-proclaimed political junkie said, “Somebody’s still gotta do it, whether it’s paid or not.” In Pinal County, inspectors are paid $250 per election, and the precinct election board members $200 per election.

Bardfield said he hopes for “continuing traffic” in his precinct, “hopefully throughout the day.”

According to Steve Kizer, director of the Pinal County Elections Center, when it comes to voter turnout “the trend in Pinal County seems to be going up.”

In the 2008 general election, voter turnout for the county was 72.82 percent, or 106,095 voters casting a ballot out of the 145,704 registered voters. Statewide, the turnout was 56.7 percent and the national percentage of registered voters who cast a ballot was approximately 62 percent, according to Nonprofitvote.org.

“The turnout fluctuates greatly depending on what kind of election it is,” Kizer said.  

Usually, general elections, and particularly those in presidential election years, will show a spike in turnout.

Although, the 2010 midterm election, which resulted in the Republican Party gaining control of Congress, had one of the county’s “highest (midterm) turnouts in years,” Kizer said.

That election, of 164,292 registered voters, 79,643 — or 48.48 percent — cast a ballot. That’s higher than the statewide percentage of 40.4 percent, according to Nonprofitvote.org.

Another factor that tends to drive people to polling stations is the national conversation.

“If there’s a lot of hot-button issues, the turnout is higher,” Kizer said.

Finally, the permanent early ballot list “is also boosting turnout,” Kizer said, since people no longer have to request an early ballot.

“People just get their ballot in the mail and it’s there so they send it in,” he pointed out.