Published: February 14, 2008 08:53 am         

Extended polling hours concern election officials

CUMBERLAND - Western Maryland county election officials expressed concern about a court order that kept polls open an extra 90 minutes beyond the initial 8 p.m. closing time Tuesday night.

In Allegany County, the extension was one factor in results for all 36 precincts not being available until shortly before 2 a.m. Wednesday, more than four hours after the polls closed.

Each county maintained a Web site and updated results as they became available. Allegany County was the last among the state's three western-most counties. All 36 precincts were available at 1:44 a.m. and cumulative numbers were online two minutes later.

Garrett County election officials had all 19 precincts tallied at 11:26 p.m. - less than two hours after the polls closed. Washington County, with 50 precincts, finished at 12:32 a.m.

"I would say (results were available) about two hours later than normal," said Kitty Davis, administrator of the Allegany County Board of Elections. "I think the 90-minute extension complicated things to the point that it took a lot longer than normal."

Davis said the delay was instigated further by the inclement weather and the local election board's decision to implement its bad weather contingency plan. For the first time, Davis said, election officials traveled to polling sites and gathered up the voting machines and provisional ballots instead of having each precinct's election judges deliver them to the Allegany County Office Complex.

But it was a decision she seemed willing to make again. Davis said the plan "put the safety of our personnel before the time factor."

Most of the county's election judges live near the polling place where they worked, Davis said. Having election officials, driven by local law enforcement, taken to each precinct put fewer cars on the road and allowed her volunteers to go straight home.

Steve Fratz said things "went pretty good" in Garrett County "after the shock" of the extended polling hours.

"I don't ever remember having extended voting," said Fratz, director of the Garrett County Board of Elections for four years and an elections board member for 14 years previously.

Fratz said Garrett's elections board had a similar contingency plan if outlying areas such as Finzel and Bloomington needed assistance.

"Our board is very active," Fratz said. "At 7 p.m., they started touring the county to see road conditions. After finding out the roads were pretty decent, we didn't implement it."

Like Davis in Allegany County, Fratz got wind of the extension at about 7:30 p.m. Staffers immediately began calling election judges' cell phones. That didn't work at The Elbow, where officials called the main office of the Mount Savage Youth Center and a guard notified precinct workers to call the county office. The last polling place was contacted at 7:55 p.m., he said.

That wasn't the case for Allegany County, where the John F. Kennedy apartment complex precinct closed shop at 8 p.m. Election judge Jessica Hartell said she found out about it when her little brother called her at 8:05 p.m.

Fratz, Davis and Dorothy Kaetzel, Washington County election director, all said they were worried the extension could hinder recruitment efforts of election judges. Kaetzel said one judge had already quit Wednesday morning.

"It takes a different person to be an election judge," Fratz said. "They definitely don't do it for the money. They do it because they want to be there. It's always hard to recruit election judges. This is gong to last in their minds that this could happen."

Kaetzel said results were available about 90 minutes late due to the extension, which "we don't appreciate."

She said county election officials had asked the Western Maryland delegation to Annapolis about their role in discussion before lawmakers voted to allow a February primary.

"We got no response," Kaetzel said. "They apparently sat there and said nothing about it. Now we're stuck with it."

Contact Kevin Spradlin at kspradlin@times-news.com.