BY LAURA COLVIN
Clarkston News Staff Writer
A Springfield Township woman squints in concentration, trying hard to understand and absorb the meaning of every word, every sentence, every rule ? and there are so many rules ? flying across the room as Nancy Strole speaks.
The woman seems puzzled when Strole slows her explanation momentarily to explain the process of handling a spoiled ballot.
‘What would you do with the ballot,? the woman asks, ‘just shred it or something??
Around the table, a few people giggle, perhaps wondering the same thing. Others, more experienced, exhale a long ‘nooooo.?
The woman, and the 20 or so others who sit with her around the big table in the Springfield Township offices, are ordinary Americans citizens who have signed up for the extraordinary job of serving as an election inspector.
At the head of the room, township Clerk Nancy Strole is in charge. It is her responsibility to see that all seven of her voter precincts’eight when there’s an absentee ballot’are properly staffed with election officials ? also known less formally as ‘election volunteers,? or ‘those nice people who help out during the elections.?
‘Most people show up at the polls and assume all this happens mysteriously,? Strole said, ‘but every one of those inspectors must be trained, certified and sworn in.?
Each must also pay close attention to detail. Serial numbers and seal numbers must be recorded. Ballots must be carefully distributed, numbers for spoiled ballots must be crossed out, re-recorded and ballots reissued. Notes must be made for any and every incident out of the ordinary, and the rules for those voting challenged or provisional ballots must be learned.
And the one phrase election inspectors will hear over and over while they are learning the ropes will strike fear into their first few elections: At the end of the night, every single ballot must be accounted for. If a ballot is missing, a detailed description of how it went missing should be entered into the log book.
‘All my inspectors take their responsibilities very seriously,? Strole said. ‘They all have a sense they are providing a public service to the community and they take pride in that.?
Six months of planning goes into every election, she said, so there’s much more to the whole process than meets the eye. But if everything runs smoothly, and it usually does, the average voter remains happily oblivious to the intricate details of the polling place.
Sometimes, though, there’s a bump in the road.
‘Once the tabulator just stopped tabulating,? said Gwen Joseph, an election inspector who is the director of corporate relations and special events at Habitat for Humanity of Oakland County. ‘You have to know what to do when that happens because people do not want to stand there waiting when there’s a problem.?
Fixing such a problem, she explained, is more complicated than just getting the machine running again. The ballots that accumulate while the machine is down must be handled in a very specific way, stored and fed into the machine according to detailed instructions designed to maintain the integrity of the vote.
Sue Chase, a retired hairdresser, has worked long days at the polls during every election ? except one primary ? ever since she inherited the job from her ill mother some 23 years ago. During that time she’s seen a little excitement and a lot of changes.
‘We had a bomb threat in 1986,? she said. ‘I turned around and saw the clerk’standing over in the corner looking worried. He called me out into the hallway and told me someone had called in a bomb threat, and that I could go home if I wanted to.?
He told Chase to offer the other inspectors the same opportunity, but all chose to stay, she said, except for one young mother. It turned out to be a hoax. Lately, Chase said, she is surprised and delighted to see the up-and-coming generation taking a serious, informed interest in politics and policy.
‘More and more young people are coming in to vote,? she said, ‘and they take it much more seriously than those who’ve been coming for years.?
In addition to the care taken with ballots in the regular precincts, that same attention to detail must be exercised with absentee ballots, counted in a special precinct dubbed 8C.
‘The whole process is important,? said Jean Vallad, who works as an 8C inspector when her name is not on the ballot for reelection to the Springfield Township Parks commission. ‘As an elected official I’ve come to realize that if we are concerned about something that’s happening around us, we have to get out and vote. It’s the only way to make changes.?
Springfield Township’s seven precincts open at 6 a.m. Tues. Nov. 7. Nancy Strole has her election inspectors trained, certified and ready to ensure that residents have a positive, private voting experience. It’s the American way.