DATE: Friday, November 28, 1997             TAG: 9711280047

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY JON GLASS, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: NORFOLK                           LENGTH:  114 lines

POLL WORKERS DISPUTE LOSER'S CLAIM ERRORS WOULD NOT HAVE CHANGED TALLY, NORFOLK OFFICIALS ADD.

Poll workers dispute claims that Election Day violations, alleged by Republican Beverly ``Bev'' Graeber, led to her eight-vote loss Nov. 4 to Democrat Donald L. Williams.

``I would never believe that in a million years,'' Andrea W. Hedgepeth, the chief elections officer at the Ocean View Senior Center precinct, said Wednesday. ``I know these people - they're honest and above-board. I was really quite amazed, frankly, that these allegations have been made.''

Other precinct officers in the state's 86th House District echoed Hedgepeth's disbelief in the wake of Graeber's decision Monday to contest the election, alleging a host of ``irregularities,'' including malfunctioning voting machines, defective ballots, ineligible voters and improper ballot security.

The state Elections Board officially certified Williams as the winner Monday. The tally: Williams 2,473 votes, Graeber 2,465 votes.

Graeber says she also plans to request an official vote recount.

Election workers in Ocean View, Williams' home base and where a Graeber campaign consultant alleged problems occurred, said they saw nothing unusual or suspicious. Two of the six precincts in the 86th District are in Ocean View.

Several poll workers said that both Republicans and Democrats had observers stationed at the precincts to monitor the proceedings, presumably to keep them honest.

``The poll I worked at was strictly up-and-up,'' Jacob Pirkey, an elections officer at the Ocean View Elementary School precinct, said.

``We were there to do a job and we tried to do it the best we could,'' said Rita M. Stanley, who worked her first election handing out ballots at the Ocean View school.

Marilyn A. Wolf, another school precinct worker, said elections officers were under strict orders to follow proper procedure.

``We weren't even allowed to tell people who the Democrat or the Republican candidates were, and quite a few people asked that,'' Wolf said.

In her sworn statement, Graeber alleged irregularities because poll workers were seen assisting voters by brushing away the ballot card ``chad,'' the tiny piece of paper punched out of the ballot. She also said that voting machines jammed and apparently miscounted ballots and that election workers allowed voters to reinsert ballot cards.

Precinct workers acknowledged some problems with voting machines and also said they assisted voters - but they also said there was no evidence that ballots were miscounted or that workers did anything improper.

Pirkey said precinct workers were instructed to ask voters to check the back of the ballot card before inserting it into the machine to ensure that the chad was removed. Otherwise, he said, the machine may not have counted the vote.

``We wanted to ensure that the vote would be counted the way they voted,'' Pirkey said.

Pirkey and other workers also cited instances in which voting machines jammed after a voter mistakenly folded a ballot card before inserting it. In those cases, they said, the machine had to be opened to remove the ballot. Because the machine can't count a folded ballot, those voters were given another ballot to mark.

There's nothing illegal about that, said Ann Washington, Norfolk's voter registrar, even though it may look suspect to an uninformed observer.

``People often misinterpret and they've alleged things in the past that were so bizarre, but it was because they didn't understand,'' Washington said.

Graeber also alleged that some voters were given more than one ballot. As proof, Graeber said that more ballots were counted than people recorded as voting in precinct poll books.

In incident reports filed after the election, officers at both Ocean View precincts acknowledged a discrepancy in votes counted and voters recorded in the poll book. But officials at both precincts attributed it to human errors that would not have altered the vote tally.

At the senior center, the total ballots cast and the voting machine counter matched, at 1,108. But the poll book count - in which election officers assign voters a number in the order that they show up to vote - recorded 1,106 - two fewer. Officials suspect that a poll worker mistakenly assigned the same number to more than one voter.

``Since ballots used and counter match, we believe two numbers were each used twice (in the poll book),'' the report said.

Officials suspect the same thing happened at the school precinct, where the number of ballots used and counted were put at 1,270, while the poll book recorded 1,264 voters - six fewer.

The report filed by precinct officials stated: ``No explanation - machine threw out many ballots. Hope this is satisfactory.''

But Veronica P. Ware, the chief elections officer of the precinct, said Wednesday: ``As long as the ballot counter and ballots used coincided, I don't consider that any real discrepancy. I can assure you that there were no improprieties at my precinct, and I will testify to that.''

Ware, registrar Washington and several other precinct workers said they have been subpoenaed by a Norfolk law firm, Weinberg & Stern, which is representing Graeber. Washington said she was scheduled next week to provide the attorneys a deposition, a statement under oath, about the election.

Graeber has said she is pursuing the issue ``just to make sure the integrity of the election process is upheld.''

Del.-elect Williams said he probably would call for a recount if he were in Graeber's position, because of the narrow vote margin and the possibility of human error. But he said contesting the election is ``totally uncalled for.''

``I think that her innuendos and accusations are demeaning and insulting to the electoral process in our city, especially in Ocean View,'' Williams said. ``It's political rhetoric at taxpayers' expense.''

Washington said she expects the experience will make it more difficult to recruit election officers, most of whom are paid $75 for a typical 15-hour day.

``These are just good people trying to do a community service,'' she said. ILLUSTRATION: Photo

Ann Washington, Norfolk's voter registrar, says the poll workers

``are just good people trying to do a community service.''

Photo

Beverly Graeber, who alleges several irregularities occurred, says

she is pursuing the issue ``just to make sure the integrity of the

election process is upheld.'' KEYWORDS: ELECTION RECOUNT POLL WORKERS

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