By Wesley P. Hester, Media General News Service

Chesterfield County Registrar Lawrence C. Haake III has put the problems of the past behind him, focusing instead on preventing new ones next week.

With Virginia’s fourth-largest number of registered voters—207,552—being prepared for a monumental presidential election in a battleground state isn’t easy, Haake said. The Feb. 12 primary election was marked by problems including long lines and limited parking, and ballot shortages at several precincts.
The registrar recently took a few minutes to talk about the county’s readiness.

Q. How are you addressing the concerns left after the problems during the presidential primary?

A. We will supply 105 percent ballots to the precincts and have additional in stand-by mode for deployment. Our work crews have been doubled and tripled and the number of check-in lines increased likewise. Voters should not be naive; lines and parking issues in a presidential election are like death and taxes - sure things.

Q. Do you anticipate record turnout in Chesterfield and do you have the staffing for it?

A. Yes, perhaps more than 85 percent turnout. The highest I have seen was 74 percent in 2004. February was 33 percent countywide. Yes, we have trained 800 new workers in the past two months for a total of 1,300 officers of election at the polls.

Q. Recent precinct and polling place changes were aimed at providing better parking and better facilities. Is that going to be enough? What else have you done?

A. Making things better does not mean making them perfect. The experience will be better than they were at those places. I have also worked to install a gravel parking lot at Precinct 304, Winfree’s Store, which will make things better for voters there. Overall, the voting experience will be better than in February.
As mentioned, more workers, more check-in lines, more available ballots, schools [being] closed, a call center at the registrar’s office to handle voter issues more quickly and electronic poll books for faster check-in at the larger precincts.

Q. You’ve said that even with the changes, voters should expect long lines as is normal in a presidential election. How long of a wait is normal?

A. It’s difficult - and even dangerous - to try to answer that question. We are working to minimize the voter wait and check-in. Seventeen of our largest precincts will be using electronic poll books, which will eliminate the need for alphabetical check-in lines, making check-in go faster. Some years ago many employers gave their employees two hours off to vote. This included transportation time, parking, waiting, voting and exiting. I think that remains a good rule of thumb.

Q. What were the lessons taken away from February and its aftermath?

A. First and foremost was the lesson of how unpredictable elections can be, which only makes the job more difficult and more subject to Monday-morning quarterbacking. Criticism for not enough ballots in February may very well translate in another election to criticism for ordering too many ballots. The crystal ball blew up in February 2008.

Q. Do you foresee any problems on Nov. 4, given the new polling places and the likelihood of historic turnout?

A. There will be voters in the wrong place; citizens who have never registered to vote that don’t understand why they can’t. Conspiracy theorists who see evil in every action and challenge everything, and the innumerable “watch” groups, most of whom don’t even know what they are watching. In the end, our democracy will prevail and we will all get through it.

Wesley Hester is a staff-writer for The Richmond Times-Dispatch.