On The Right Course
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By SCOTT SCHWEBKE
Standard-Examiner staff
sschwebke@standard.net
Poll workers undergo classes for upcoming elections
OGDEN -- Lou Sobers couldn't resist voting for the Rat Pack ticket during a recent training session for Weber County poll workers.
Sobers carefully reviewed a list of fake presidential candidates that included Christopher Columbus and Napoleon Bonaparte before deciding that Ol' Blue Eyes should occupy the White House.
Then she did it her way.
Lightly touching the screen of an electronic voting machine, Sobers, 74, cast a ballot for Frank Sinatra as president and Sammy Davis Jr. as vice president.
She was among 200 poll workers who underwent a five-hour refresher course over several days earlier this month in preparation for Tuesday's Western States Presidential Primary.
Sobers and her partner, Eva Jean Moffat, 73, spent the first part of the training session reviewing the painstaking process of setting up touch-screen voting equipment.
After a slow start, Sobers and Moffat, who are from Ogden and have been poll workers for five years, managed to fit a tangle of power cords into appropriate outlets, installed memory cards into the machines and then properly filled out voter reconciliation forms.
"It sounds hard (setting up the machines) but once you start doing it, it comes easier," Sobers said, matter-of-factly.
Several poll workers said they appreciated the thoroughness of the refresher course and feel confident in their ability to manage the primary election,
"It's definitely adequate," said Carol Campbell, a 51-year-old poll worker from North Ogden, who has been involved in four elections. "It's very detailed. For people who have been through it before, there is a lot of repetition. Once you go through it, then everything kind of clicks."
In addition to offering technical instruction, the training session also served as a pep rally for poll workers.
Gloria Berrett, the county's election administrator, urged workers to be vigilant in preventing electioneering by overzealous poll watchers, which she said was a problem in November's mayoral balloting in Ogden.
"Maintain order in polling places," she admonished the poll workers. "Don't be afraid to speak out."
Mayor Matthew Godfrey won the election over challenger and former City Councilwoman Susan Van Hooser by 449 votes.
However, the election was fraught with complaints of inappropriate use of voter challenges, denial of provisional ballots, voter intimidation, and electioneering.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Utah, based in Salt Lake City, is investigating the complaints and is working on a report detailing its findings. ACLU officials could not be reached for comment regarding the status of the report.
Some of the alleged electioneering in November involved candidate-appointed poll watchers greeting voters as they entered polling places, Berrett said. "It's wrong and you must stop it," Berrett told poll workers during the training session.
Berrett doesn't believe poll workers in November's balloting engaged in electioneering intentionally.
"I would like to think personally that the people that did do things that were wrong that they didn't do a lot of them on purpose," she said. "Maybe as poll watchers they didn't understand what their duties were. "We're (Weber County election officials) doing everything correctly ... according to the law. People need to know that."
Poll watchers can observe the overall voting process but are prevented from displaying campaign materials, and can't handle poll books or watch individuals cast ballots in voting booths, she said. They also must present a letter from their sponsoring candidate and picture identification to election workers before they can observe.
Poll workers can challenge a voter's right to cast a ballot, but they must complete a form that will be used by the county for the first time during the Western States Primary, Berrett said.
The form requires the name and address of the person being challenged and the reason for the challenge.
Difficulties with voter challenges in November's election resulted in a need for the form, Berrett said.
About two weeks before the election, Godfrey's supporters submitted to the county a list of 150 voters that were to be challenged, Berrett said. "There were no specifics given why they were being challenged," she told poll workers during the training session.
Some poll workers, particularly those who have been working elections for years, may encounter difficulties because they are inflexible to change, Campbell said.
Challenges can be issued if a voter isn't a resident of the state, isn't 18, has already voted, or doesn't live in the precinct where they are attempting to cast a ballot. Those who have their right to vote challenged are permitted to cast a provisional ballot that must be validated by the county.
Poll workers received undeserved criticism as a result of the November election, Berrett said during the training session.
For example, some election judges were accused of telling people at the polls how to vote, Berrett said.
However, in reality the judges were just fulfilling their duty in guiding handicapped voters in casting ballots, she said.
"If they need assistance, you need to help them," she reminded poll workers at the training session.
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