Department of Elections

I agree with Susy C.‘s review. Shut your traps. AMEN.

Contrary to the popular belief that city workers are slackers, I know FOR SURE the employees here work hard — I was one of them for over a year (and i handled 5 elections, mmmmmkaaaaay).
There are things i’ve learned that will stay with me forever, but let me tell you… The fact in knowing that I played a role (not only as a voter) in the monumental November 4, 2008 election is priceless.
Please keep in mind that poll workers are not necessarily employees of this department, they receive a stipend for helping out one day.
And for people who have complaints, if you understood the process you’d shut your trap. It’s a major headache.
Now. Does anybody need explaining on what a provisional ballot is, how to vote absentee, or how non partisans get to vote in a primary? =]

I vote in the lobby of an apartment building for seniors just down the block from my pad. For a couple of years, I always dreaded the experience because the old broads at the ballot tables always seemed to give me the stink-​eye. I seriously thought their rudeness was on par with the DMV set … until last Super Tuesday, when I finally realized that they just don’t speak English very well, so I’d been misreading their confusion as Haterade. Now I charm the fuck out of those octogenarian volunteers, and even shot ‘em a wink as I voted NO on 8 this morning!

My Local Polling Place Rocks.
Unlike City Hall on Saturday, there was no line or hour and a half wait.
I got there early this morning showed my ID, signed-​in, got my ballot, and did my thing.
I’m sticking with my local place from now on.
Civic Duty done.
Funny story:
poll worker (pw): I know that last name. Are you related to [some guy]?
voter: you ask me this question every year. no, I don’t know [some guy].
pw: Really? Your name is rare. I use to work with [some guy]. You sure you’re not related in some way.
voter: I sure.
pw: Okay, the guy next to me will hand you the ballots.
I am thankful for the volunteers who work the polls but sometimes you just gotta wonder.

«Meh, I’ve experienced better service» is how I’d vote this year re: the Dept of Elections. I «spoiled» my absentee ballot 2 wks ago and followed the directions to tear up the cards, put it back in the envelope and check the box on the back, in the right upper corner that it’s a spoiled ballot & mail it back.
Days, hours, minutes and seconds pass and I’ve not received a new ballot as promised. So, I called them 5 days ago. The woman on the phone was very nice but left me waiting in the lurks for awhile while she went to find out what to do. Upon her return, she responded that she’s put in my request again since it’s been a couple of weeks. I’m still waiting…
She told me if a new ballot doesn’t arrive, to go to my polling place and tell them what happened. Now I’ll have to stand in line to wait to vote, something I was trying to avoid.
OK, I’ve dropped it another point. 1 wk later after my phone call, still no ballot. Here’s where I go…“City workers!!!”

One of the things I love about living in San Francisco is the intimacy of its politics. It can get petty, but I’ll take pettiness any day over massive fraud and corruption, which is what you get in larger political scenes. That’s not to say that San Francisco’s doesn’t have its share of scumbags (How’s the rehab going, Mayor Newsom?), hucksters, and political hangers-​on; but we vote so often and on so many issues big and small that at least we always know what’s going on.
I owe most of what I know about San Francisco politics to the San Francisco Bay Guardian and the Department of Elections. With so many elections, so many offices, and so many ballot initiatives, you’d think the people designing the Voter Information Pamphlets and ballots and counting the votes would get overwhelmed quite often. But they don’t. And although the California Secretary of State de-​certified San Francisco’s voting machines, I think our ballots are some of the simplest in the country, and they make manual recounts extremely easy. But what’s probably best about the Department of Elections is that a few days after an election, you can access the complete election results online, broken down by neighborhood. (The ranked-​choice offices take a little longer to count, but they’re still done quickly.)
I’ve voted in L.A. County, Ohio, and Indiana; and San Francisco has a much better system than any of these places. Where else can you get a complete guide to everything you’re voting on, complete with information about who paid for which arguments for and against what?

This was forwarded to me. (so I don’t take any credit for this) but it’s a great message.
Don’t forget to vote!
«This is the story of our grandmothers, and great-​grandmothers, as they lived only 90 years ago. It was not until 1920 that women were granted the right to go to the polls and vote. The women who made it so were innocent and defenseless. And by the end of the night, they were barely alive. Forty prison guards wielding clubs and their warden’s blessing went on a rampage against the 33 women wrongly convicted of ‘obstructing sidewalk traffic.’

They beat Lucy Burn, chained her hands to the cell bars above her head and left her hanging for the night, bleeding and gasping for air. They hurled Dora Lewis into a dark cell, smashed her head against an iron bed and knocked her out cold. Her cellmate, Alice Cosu, thought Lewis was dead and suffered a heart attack. Additional affidavits describe the guards grabbing, dragging, beating, choking, slamming, pinching, twisting and kicking the women.

Thus unfolded the Night of Terror’ on Nov. 15, 1917, when the warden at the Occoquan Workhouse in Virginia ordered his guards to teach a lesson to the suffragists imprisoned there because they dared to picket Woodrow Wilson’s White House for the right to vote.

For weeks, the women’s only water came from an open pail. Their food –all of it colorless slop – was infested with worms. When one of the leaders, Alice Paul, embarked on a hunger strike, they tied her to a chair, forced a tube down her throat and poured liquid into her until she vomited. She was tortured like this for weeks until word was smuggled out to the press.

So, refresh my memory. Some women won’t vote this year because — why, exactly? We have carpool duties? We have to get to work? Our vote doesn’t matter? It’s raining?
Last week, I went to a sparsely attended screening of HBO’s new movie ‘Iron Jawed Angels.’ It is a graphic depiction of the battle these women waged so that I could pull the curtain at the polling booth and have my say. I am ashamed to say I needed the reminder.

All these years later, voter registration is still my passion. But the actual act of voting had become less personal for me, more rote. Frankly, voting often felt more like an obligation than a privilege. Sometimes it was inconvenient.

My friend Wendy, who is my age and studied women’s history, saw the HBO movie, too. When she stopped by my desk to talk about it, she looked angry. She was – with herself. ‘One thought kept coming back to me as I watched that movie,’ she said. ‘What would those women think of the way I use– or don’t use — my right to vote? All of us take it for granted now, not just younger women, but those of us who did seek to
learn. The right to vote, she said, had become valuable to her ‘all over again.’

HBO released the movie on video and DVD. I wish all history, social studies and government teachers would include the movie in their curriculum. I want it shown on Bunco night, too, and anywhere else women gather. I realize this isn’t our usual idea of socializing, but we are not voting in the numbers that we should be, and I think a little shock therapy is in order.

It is jarring to watch Woodrow Wilson and his cronies try to persuade a Psychiatrist to declare Alice Paul insane so that she could be permanently institutionalized. And it is inspiring to watch the doctor refuse. Alice Paul was strong, he said, and brave. That didn’t make her crazy. The doctor admonished the men: ‘Courage in women is often
mistaken for insanity.’
Please, if you are so inclined, pass this on to all the women you know.

We need to get out and vote and use this right that was fought so hard for by these very courageous women. Remember to vote. History is being made.»
— also…

It’s Super Tuesday. The polls have closed in California and the media is going wild with predictions on who’s leading, what state went for who, etc.
I got to see the electoral process up close and personal beyond voting. Yes, I voted. My garage is a polling place. I’m impressed with the men and women who work in the Department of Elections. They approached me about using my garage for a polling place as the old place in the neighborhood wasn’t available anymore.
They measured for accessibility for the disabled and whether there was enough space for the machines, poll workers and other materials. Saturday before Super Tuesday, the machines, tables, etc. were dropped off. A port-​a-​potty was also delivered in front of my house so the poll workers could use the restroom.
Poll workers arrived just before 6 a.m. and just left at 10 p.m. They don’t get paid a lot of money to do this, but I was impressed at the conscientiousness and attention to detail to help ensure our elections are free and fair. There’s a fairly elaborate security process. An officer from the Sheriff’s Department picks up the ballots.
It’s Super Tuesday. If you voted, you’re the real winner. The unsung heroes are the many people working in the Department of Elections and poll workers working today to make democracy work.

VOTE! The Department of Elections is relegated to a basement area in City Hall, but the people there are nice and helpful. They will provide you with any information about voting you need, in several languages. I walked in five minutes before closing and came away with a district-​by-​district map of San Francisco and lots of voter registration forms and info.
Better yet is their website:
The website provides all kinds of information about upcoming elections, including a PDF of the full city voters guide.
You can also look up your polling place and view a sample ballot ahead of time: