Polling Place Problem

As Los Angeles city clerk, I wanted to respond to the article by precinct worker Alan E. Frisbie in Voices June 9 (“Democracy Is Sweeter When Voting Under Battlefield Conditions”).

First, let me personally commend Frisbie and his wife for the extraordinary efforts they put forth to ensure that voters had the opportunity to exercise one of our most fundamental rights.

The City of Los Angeles holds elections every two years and has approximately 2,500 polling places employing over 10,000 polling place workers. We spend five months recruiting the sites and people. The work, while not overly difficult, does require that a person dedicate the entire day for very little compensation. Frisbie obviously had to go above and far beyond the normal demands.

In recent years, fewer people have been willing to work as poll workers and recruiting people and sites has become increasingly difficult. Most people fulfill their commitment to their community and provide a friendly and comfortable voting environment. But a growing number of people, after agreeing to work or make their homes or businesses available for a polling place, cancel on short notice. A new polling place must be found and voters notified of the change in location, often in the last days before or on the day of the election. Some poll workers simply fail to show up, leaving those remaining, like Frisbie and his wife, to fend as best as they can.

We hope that the Frisbies’ experience will not result in their declining to serve again in 1997. ELIAS MARTINEZ

Los Angeles City Clerk