Some voters confused over polling sites

By Zsombor Peter, Staff Writer

GALLUP—Like many a Gallup voter, Kevin Ortiz was looking forward to casting his ballot during Tuesday's hotly contested "not before noon" liquor referendum. So when lunch time came around, the southside resident headed to the same place he'd cast his ballots in other city elections: Gallup Middle School.

Ortiz made it to the school. But to his surprise, there was no sign of the referendum anywhere, let alone a voting booth.

"All I saw was some kids playing basketball," he said.

As it turned out, the city decided not to use Gallup Mid this time, choosing instead to send all southside voters to Red Rock Elementary. By the time Ortiz figured all this out, his lunch break was over. Without another break to spare before the polls closed at 7 p.m., Ortiz never did get to cast his ballot.

Although early voting started March 1, Ortiz like most of the other 1,900-plus voters who cast ballots in the referendum waited until election say. Still, he felt duped.

"To me it sounds like old Gallup politics," he said. "It just seems like someone's trying to pull a fast one."

According to City Hall, the explanation is far less sinister: by having only one polling site per district, it was simply trying to be more efficient.

According to City Clerk Patricia Holland, all four sites opened Tuesday had been used for previous city elections with the exception of the Gallup Municipal Airport. Even there poll workers reported a steady stream of voters throughout the day, although it did experience the lowest turnout of all four sites.

Other than that, said Holland, "the only difference is we consolidated all the polling sites in the districts."

During the city's last election in 2005, when two council seats were put to vote, the city used six polling sites, three per district. Although Tuesday's referendum still cost city taxpayers some $22,000, the consolidation did save them money.

Back when there were more than 20 sites across Gallup, a citywide election would cost taxpayers upwards of $50,000, according to City Manager Eric Honeyfield.

Paradoxically, he added, more polling places can actually breed confusion. First, a voter has to figure out which district he's in. Once that's taken care of, Honeyfield said, "I'm not done. Then I got to figure out which polling place I'm in."

Having just one polling site per district, he said, saves voters that trouble.

It may have spared some voters a few headaches, but certainly not all of them. Holland said she received only a few calls from voter who showed up at a polling site no longer in use. Much more common, she said, were calls from voters who showed up at the wrong ones.

It's not as though the city went out of its way to keep people in the dark. It ran a full page add on the back page of the March issue of the Gallup Journey, legal notices in four Saturday editions of The Independent, and 30-second spots on the radio through March.

"So we thought we had enough advertising that people would have heard it," Holland said.

In retrospect, she conceded the city could have done more, more of the same and more variety, flyers, say, or notices it could have included with residents' utility bills. Honeyfield suggested running a full-page add next time in The Independent as it did in the Journey the day before the election.

If there's any one group that might have cause to complain about the confusion over polling sites, it's the Gallup Alcohol Action Team, which failed to win the voters' approval of a prenoon ban on alcohol sales despite mounting an intense campaign; however, the group hasn't complained, and Lindsay Mapes, the Action Team's secretary, doubts it did much to swing the final tally either way.

"In every election there is going to be some confusion about where to vote," she said. "We can't send an invitation to everyone ... Read the paper, listen to the radio, and if all else fails, call City Hall."

Anticipating some confusion, the group did take the precaution of posting signs at the usual polling sites that weren't opened Tuesday to steer voters in the right direction. Even so, the group received calls from voters who had to try a few sites before they found the right one.

None of this stopped voters from turning out in unusually strong numbers for a special election. According to city figures, more than 17 percent of Gallup's registered voters cast ballots between March 1 and 28.

The Action Team can also take heart in the fact that, of the five extra provisional ballots approved Wednesday, three were cast in favor of the ban. It wasn't quite enough to overturn the outcome, but put the group one vote closer to closing the gap.

Whether the city sticks with its lean polling plan in 2007 when the eastside, westside and mayor's seat go up for vote will be up to the City Council.