Poll confusion arises
Polling locations differ from election to election depending on the number of individuals registered and space volunteered by outside groups. These variations have caused some confusion among students as to where they are expected to vote in Tuesday’s election.
In last year’s gubernatorial recall election, Los Angeles county had 1,800 polling places, compared to this year’s 4,602.
The low number of polls in that election led to UCLA not being allocated any polls. UCLA once again hosted the primary elections earlier this year and will have two polling locations on the Hill on Tuesday.
These locations will mainly serve the residence hall community, while students living in apartments in the Westwood area will have to go to their designated location.
A common misconception is that votes can be cast once again at the same location they were in the recall election. While this is a possibility, there is a good chance that polling locations have changed, especially considering that it is common for students to change their residence every year.
Deborah Knoll, a third-year linguistics and psychology student, believed that she was going to be voting in the university cooperative housing again, since that is where she cast her vote during last year’s recall election.
But Knoll no longer lives in the dorms and said she has yet to receive a sample ballot.
Polling locations and operation hours are listed on the back of sample ballots.
Votes will not be counted unless they are cast at the designated polling locations.
The number of polling locations depends on the total number of voters registered in each precinct, said Kathy Tacawy, a spokeswoman for the County of Los Angeles Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk.
Daniel Smith, a second-year undeclared student, has not found out where he will be voting on Tuesday, but he is not concerned.
“I haven’t really thought about it. ... I’m going to wait until the day of (the election),” he said.
In Westwood, the locations range from apartments to fraternity houses to retirement homes.
Tacawy said the registrar recruits both poll workers and individuals to volunteer locations through extensive outreach efforts, which include door-to-door recruiting.
There is a monetary incentive for those who choose to volunteer their time or space.
An individual or group can get $25 for volunteering their location or $55 for working as a poll-worker.
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