L.A.'S BALLOT BUNGLES VEX VOTERS.

Byline: Anne Burke and Terri Hardy Daily News Staff Writers

For many voters and city leaders, Tuesday's voting in Los Angeles seemed more like election day in La-La land.

``We send poll watchers to South America. . . . I think we should send poll watchers here,'' said Los Angeles City Councilman Nate Holden.

Ballots were switched or never arrived. Pages were mysteriously missing. Polling places didn't open until midafternoon.

Voters were sent to the wrong places and turned away from the right ones. A polling place was moved without telling anybody. Workers bailed out. Equipment never showed up.

``It was absolute chaos,'' said Robert Graham of Reseda, who said voting glitches were the worst he'd seen in 16 years as a poll worker.

Reuben ``Bob'' Hyams of Van Nuys was turned away from his polling place at Hazeltine Avenue School three times Tuesday morning because ballots hadn't arrived.

``Finally, I said to hell with it, and I took my dog for a walk,'' he said.

Persistence paid off for Hyams. He went back at 3 p.m., and the polling place was finally open.

City Clerk Mike Carey conceded Wednesday that the election was more problem-plagued than usual. Irregularities included allegations of potentially criminal activity.

At one precinct, voters reportedly were asked for identification, Carey said. Holden charged that some poll workers had been telephoned and told, ``Don't show up at the polls, you've been replaced.''

The Los Angeles County District Attorney's Special Investigations Division is looking into irregularities to determine whether an investigation is warranted, but spokeswoman Sandi Gibbons declined to be more specific.

Foul-ups occurred from one end of the city to the other. Out of a total of 2,300 precincts, 40 - about twice as many as normal - opened late or didn't get proper materials, Carey said.

Calling the problems ``particularly troubling,'' Mayor Richard Riordan asked Carey for a detailed report on glitches and suspected illegalities.

The worst problems were in the Ninth Council District in South Los Angeles, where ballots in seven precincts were missing pages for City Council and Charter Reform Commission, Carey said.

Voter Richard Marshall, 75, missed out on helping re-elect his favorite candidate, Councilwoman Rita Walters. He suspects something sinister.

``I hate to say what I'm going to say, but I think somebody was trying to do something to us. It's always something when black people are involved,'' said the retired city worker, who is African-American.

Carey conceded Wednesday that election fraud is one explanation for ballots with missing pages. But, he said, ``I'm hoping frankly I can prove I screwed up and we don't have that situation going on.''

Some voters were left to their own devices. At Arminta Elementary School in North Hollywood, where council and charter-reform candidates were missing from ballots, supporters of Councilman Richard Alarcon found out that he was the 29th slot on the ballot, so they punched that one.

On ballots at Graham's polling place at El Camino High in Woodland Hills, candidates for school board member in the 4th District were swapped with candidates from the 6th District.

Correct ballots didn't arrive until 1:30 p.m. - 5-1/2 hours after Graham phoned city elections officials.

At a polling place at Diane Hunt's home on Costello Avenue in Van Nuys, there were no voting booths Tuesday morning - even though Hunt had been trying frantically to get them delivered since Thursday.

``They voted on a work bench in the garage. There was no privacy - zero,'' she said.

City elections analyst Kris Heffron said problems came in so fast and furiously that her office couldn't keep up with them.

``We were totally overwhelmed,'' she said.