County registrars are scrambling to keep up with new voter rolls

An intense, last-minute surge of voter interest has election officials across California scrambling to keep up with a record number of voter registrations and applications to cast ballots by mail.

In many of the state's 58 counties, registrars have hired twice as many temporary workers as they did in 2004, and put them to work in split shifts in a race to enter reams of information into databases from thousands of incoming forms.

When Nov. 4 finally arrives, experts expect a "tsunami" of voters at polling places, said Doug Lewis, executive director of the National Assn. of Election Officials. Anticipating the crush, many registrars have ordered extra ballots and doubled the number of polling booths and poll workers. Some have even hired people to direct traffic in parking lots.

"Everything associated with this particular election is about volume," said Dean Logan, registrar-recorder of Los Angeles County. "We have a record number of registrations, we're expecting a record turnout and record numbers of people voting by mail."

In Los Angeles County, the nation's largest single voting district, voter registration hit an all-time high of 4.15 million on file this month, topping the previous record of 4.14 million set in 2002, according to statistics from the registrar's office. About 3.9 million were registered to vote in the county before the 2004 presidential election, with 79.1% actually voting.

The immense amount of work comes at a time when county registrars are juggling what has essentially become two elections -- one that started Oct. 6 when they began to send out mail-in ballots, and the traditional Nov. 4 election day.

"What's killing us is running the two elections at the same time -- running a polling-place election and a vote-by-mail election," said Jill LaVine, registrar of voters for Sacramento County. "Somebody says, 'I want to vote.' And we say 'Which way?' "

The historic election, in which voters will choose either the nation's first African American president or the first female vice president, comes as county registrars across the state are struggling to keep up with changes in voting deadlines and new procedures enacted under state and federal laws.

Election officials and experts are concerned that the challenges facing county registrars from Shasta to Sacramento to Fresno to San Diego could lead to problems on Nov. 4, both at the polls and in tabulating the results. Tight deadlines leave election officials just days to ensure that voters are able to participate. Today is the last day to register to vote. California voters have until Oct. 28 to request mail-in ballots.