THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, December 22, 1995 TAG: 9512200134
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 02 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: Ida Kay's Portsmouth
SOURCE: Ida Kay Jordan
LENGTH: Medium: 85 lines
Many people in Portsmouth enjoy voting. They make an event of Election Day. And they are more apt to vote than residents of other cities.
Statistics show that Portsmouth has a higher percentage of eligible persons registered to vote - and who then actually vote - than other Hampton Roads cities.
In the 1992 presidential elections, 81.5 percent of the registered voters turned out. ``Portsmouth led all the others,'' Registrar Deloris Overton said.
Sadly, the percentage drops as much as 20 points for gubernatorial elections and down to 30-50 percent for local elections.
Still, Portsmouth does better than the other cities.
There could be more than good citizenship involved in the statistics.
Last Friday night, Overton invited the city's former poll workers to a party down at City Hall. More than 40 of the people who have encouraged voting through the years came.
``You made it possible to have free elections,'' long-time Electoral Board member C.O. Clayton told them. ``You know, less than one percent of the people ever serve as election officers. You are among the elite!''
The pay was less and the hours longer when May Haycock, 93, started working the polls in Port Norfolk.
``We used to count every ballot by hand,'' she said. ``One night we stayed all night and until 9 o'clock the next morning. We couldn't leave until we got it right.''
``I thanked the good Lord when we went to machines,'' Dorothy Dubose said. She and her husband, Carroll DuBose, were among several couples who worked at the polls.
Dubose, 84, and Haycock haven't worked for several years.
But Haycock's son, Charles, is carrying on the family tradition. Now retired from Coca-Cola, he works at the Park View Elementary School precinct.
``I started when Mama quit,'' he said. ``You see a lot of people on Election Day that you haven't seen for years.''
``Yes, it's fun if it goes all right,'' his mama chimed in.
Marion Battey, a longtime worker at Monumental United Methodist Church, said voting is ``a social occasion'' for many of the elderly voters in her precinct.
``They get out to vote and they enjoy it,'' she said.
Electoral Board chairman Glenn Francis called working at the polls ``a labor of love by you all.''
Many of the older workers, indeed, did not do it for the money. The pay in 1949 was $6 a day. Now it's $65 a day.
``You get up at 4 a.m. to be at the polls by 5 or 5:15,'' Clayton said. ``Sometimes you get there and the building is locked or there's no heat. And it can get real cold in November.''
Now most poll workers are able to leave not too long after the polls close but that still has them working 15 hours or more.
In fact, the people who work the polls do have an awesome responsibility. And their competence and consideration can have a lot to do with whether people are compelled to go vote in every single election.
Keeping the lines moving is important - especially for people who work. Many people will stop to vote on their way to work and they don't want to be held up while polls workers muddle around over names. People who work at the polls for several years and who pay attention to what they're doing get so familiar with regular voter names that they can move quickly to check them off.
Moving the lines late in the day is important, especially when the turnout is heavy. Anybody who is in line at poll-closing time can vote, so efficiency of the workers can affect the time the final tally is ready.
Among the partygoers were some of my neighbors who kept Park View going for a long time, including Alice Iman and Doris Hanvey Lindauer.
Lindauer liked going to City Hall. Her father, J.T. Hanvey, was on City Council and mayor of Portsmouth back in the 'teens and his picture hangs on the walls of the council chambers.
David Lindauer, a nephew of Doris Lindauer's husband, was another guest at the party. He served on the Electoral Board for 29 years, many of them as secretary, and has the longest record of service to date.
``I never worked with anyone who was more fair and more honest than David Lindauer,'' said Clayton, who succeeded David as secretary.
The 40 folks who attended the party left today's poll workers with a lot to live up to. They have an awesome responsibility to keep Portsmouth's voting record clean and growing. by CNB