BALLOTS TO CLOG SYSTEM? COUNTY AGENCY READIES 818 DIFFERENT VERSIONS.

Byline: Helen Gao Staff Writer

After Los Angeles County's ``perfect storm'' March primary, officials said Thursday that the Nov. 5 general election poses additional potential for calamity because of new political boundaries and a dizzying array of ballots.

The vote on Hollywood and San Fernando Valley secession and the more than 100 candidates seeking office in the proposed cities have added to the election's complexity and substantially increased costs.

But Registrar-Recorder Conny McCormack said her staff is making every effort to avoid a repeat of the primary problems in which an unprecedented number of polling-place workers didn't show up, causing 125 polls to open late or not at all. The county is producing 818 versions of the Nov. 5 ballot, more than double the number in the previous general election. About 250 ballot versions are the result of state redistricting and an additional 225 are due to the secession elections.

``The potential for errors is exponential when you have all these ballot combinations,'' said McCormack, who noted she has assigned extra staffers to do proofreading of election literature and has ped up efforts to make sure poll workers show up and voters are informed where to cast their ballots.

As of Thursday, the county has already recruited about 15,000 polling- place clerks and inspectors out of 20,378 needed.

``After March, we went into an extensive polling-place rebuilding effort,'' said Kristin Heffron, deputy registrar-recorder. ``The voters going to the polling place should have a very comfortable experience.''

Overall, the county will have to count votes from 4,922 precincts, up from 4,899 precincts in the previous gubernatorial election.

In the San Fernando Valley, voters will choose from 10 candidates seeking to be elected mayor and 101 candidates running in 14 districts, while Hollywood will choose five at-large council members.

Richard Katz, co-chairman of the San Fernando Valley Independence Committee, said although his group will be doing voter education and monitoring polling places, it's the registrar's job to ensure smooth operations on Election Day.

``That's the county's job. That's their responsibility. That's why they spend millions,'' he said. ``We will do whatever we can to make sure voters get to the polls and that it's as easy as possible for them to vote.''

The secession races are happening at a time when the registrar's office is still struggling to deal with the consequences of new state political districts.

Prior to redistricting, two Assembly districts fit perfectly into one Senate district in an arrangement called nesting. The current boundaries are not as neat.

``In this redistricting that was done, they didn't nest two-to-one. They are just all over the map where lines are drawn,'' said Heffron, the deputy registrar-recorder. ``You have little pieces that are widowed and orphaned - little areas that are not like their neighbors on either side of them.''

These isolated areas, thrown into different districts, in turn require different ballots. It also means that neighbors living next to each other or on the same street could end up voting in different polling places.

In the March primary, more than 20 percent of the voters had their polling places changed, causing them to show up at the wrong place and assume their precinct never opened.

There could be a repeat of the scenario in November because many people who don't vote in primaries vote in general elections. Election officials said they are highlighting in the voter information pamphlet the need for people to check their polling places.

Logistical complications aside, the county is also facing substantially higher election costs.

In the past, the cost of printing sample ballot booklets and ballots was around $1 million. This November, it's projected to be $3 million to $3.5 million.

The total cost of the election is estimated to run around $20 million to $22 million, compared with $15.4 million spent on the 1998 gubernatorial election.

The Los Angeles Unified School District, which had expected to pay $600,000 to $700,000 to put its $3.3 billion bond measure on the ballot, is now facing a $1.9 million tab.

``Nowhere did we think it would go from that to $1.9 million. We were just floored by that number,'' said Glenn Gritzner, coordinator of local government relations in the superintendent's office.

County officials said they would spread the higher cost of the November election among all the agencies that have ballot measures.

Heffron said the higher costs will stay for 10 years because that's how long the new state districts would be in effect.

``We recognize the costs are high. We are looking for alternatives,'' she said, blaming the higher costs on the great variation of ballots the county must print.

``If you can print something in large quantities, then the scale of the job means you get it at a reduced cost,'' she said. ``When you have to break it into so many small jobs, 818 in total, you have a smaller setup, a smaller run. It takes so much effort and cost to just set up a run.''

How much various jurisdictions' costs would go up is unclear at this point, election officials said, because the LAUSD was the only one that requested an estimate in advance. The registrar does not bill agencies until the election is over.

Escalating costs and increasing complexity in elections are not unique to Los Angeles, according to a position paper by the California Association of Clerks and Election Officials, which is mounting a campaign to reform the election process.

``Elections in California are at risk of collapsing under the weight of their own complexity,'' the association's position paper stated.

The complexity is such that election officials are concerned that they will no longer be able to conduct elections ``within an acceptable level of error,'' and therefore, ``the integrity of the voting franchise in the state will be seriously compromised.''

Staff Writer Troy Anderson contributed to this report.