THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, February 9, 1996 TAG: 9602080168
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 10 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY MARY REID BARROW, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 100 lines
ONCE ON A COLD January day early on in Frances Riggs' 37 years of service as an election official, she counted ballots by flashlight, seated in an automobile for warmth.
Then, Sigma Precinct polls were in Harris Grocery, a country store at the corner of Newbridge and Sandbridge roads. Usually heated by at least a woodburning stove, the store had closed the month before the January referendum was to take place.
``It was the last election we had there,'' Riggs said. ``There was no heat and no electricity. It was freezing.
``It was so cold we sat outside in the car where it was warmer because there was some sunshine coming in,'' she went on. ``We counted the 25 ballots by flashlight!''
Things have changed a lot in those 37 years. It's for sure there will never be another precinct in fast growing Virginia Beach where only 25 votes could be cast and now, of course, ballots are counted by computer, not by hand. These days, the Sigma Precinct polling place is downright cushy in the comfortable confines of Tabernacle United Methodist Church.
And Frances Riggs is retiring.
A fixture in the Sigma Precinct, Riggs is calling it quits after almost four decades as an election official there. Voters knew Riggs by her smiling face and friendly nature, if not by name, because, election after election, she along with other election officials checked their names and addresses in the polling book, explained the intricacies of the voting machines, assisted as they put their ballots in the vote counter and handed them a red, white and blue ``I Voted'' sticker as they left.
Riggs has been at the polls at 5:15 a.m. and stayed until way past the 7 p.m. closing time for every election in Virginia Beach for 37 years except two. Once she was ill and the other time she was out of town.
Over the years Riggs has opened the doors for Sigma voters to mark their ballots in temporary trailers, at the Sandbridge Fire Station and at Margie & Ray's Grocery where the voting booth was located in a space between the front of the store and the counter, she recalled.
Back when ballots were counted by hand, Riggs and other election officials strung the paper ballots on a string with a needle as each was counted. There was a time when politicking was allowed up close to the voting booths, too.
``They'd be right up on the porch of Harris Grocery,'' Riggs said.
She remembers when Wash Woods, a tiny precinct in the village of Wash Woods where False Cape State Park is now, joined the Sigma precinct. ``They came with us in 1968,'' she said. ``Thirteen people were registered to vote in Wash Woods then.''
Riggs recalled that the first check she got for working as an election official was $15. (Now election officials average $70 for an election day plus $15 for each training session.)
Once Riggs was asked to be one of a representative group of Virginia Beach election officials to participate in the recount of votes cast in the gubernatorial election between Douglas Wilder and Marshall Coleman. They did the recount in a cold warehouse on Leroy Drive where the voting machines are stored.
``It was cold but it was interesting,'' Riggs said. ``It came out the same way it came out the first time.''
Riggs has seen Sigma Precinct grow like all of Virginia Beach. At first it was a little rural precinct. Then came residents from Sandbridge, followed by folks in Lago Mar and now even some come from a portion of Red Mill. Sigma had 700 registered voters in 1983, she said, and has a little over 2,400 now.
The 70-year-old Riggs has been an election official almost as long as she's been a wife. Married 49 years in March to Robert E. Riggs, she and husband ``Toppie'' have raised five children down off Sandbridge Road and are now enjoying their first great-grandchild.
Election day became a routine affair around the Riggs household. Toppie Riggs would always be at the ready to deliver a forgotten item to his wife, because, Riggs explained, once at the precinct, election officials are not allowed to leave the premises until the polls close.
The day before election day, Riggs would make a big pot of chili for supper the next night. Toppie Riggs was in charge of the bread. ``He'd make the bread, fried bread,'' Riggs said. ``It's really good.''
For the past 10 to 15 years, Riggs served as chief election official at Sigma, which means she was in charge on election day. Among other duties, Riggs would pick up election materials, like ballots, at the registrar's office the day before. She would make sure the vote counting machine was set at zero before the polls opened at 6 a.m. and she would call in the final count to the clerk of court office when the polls closed.
But this year, she decided she had called in her last vote totals, made her last batch of election chili and taken her last oath of office as an election official. ``It's been a good experience and I've enjoyed it,'' she said.
``I just thought I'd done it long enough,'' Riggs went on. ``It was time to let some young ones take over.'' ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo, including color cover, by D. KEVIN ELLIOTT
In between elections, Frances Riggs, 70, and her husband/helper of
49 years, Robert, raised five children down off Sandbridge Road.
They are now enjoying their first great-grandchild.
by CNB