Count them in: The importance, privilege of voting not lost on local election workers

Tuesday, Oct. 31, 2000 | 9:47 a.m.

Only 465,000 Nevadans voted in the 1996 presidential race. More Americans than that -- exceeding 600,000 -- died in combat during the last century to preserve the right most voters don't bother to use.

Nevada led the nation in voter apathy that year. According to the Federal Election Commission, only 38 percent of the state's 1.2 million eligible voters exercised their right of suffrage. (The next-to-the-worst record was Hawaii, with a 40 percent turnout.)

On a national level, the numbers weren't that much better -- 49 percent of 196.5 million Americans old enough to vote did so. More than 98 million in this country snubbed the privilege billions around the world only dream about.

"They have compulsory voting in Australia," 86-year-old Gretchen Batelle said. "People over there absolutely have to vote. Maybe we should do that here."

Batelle is one of more than 3,000 Clark County residents -- most of them senior citizens -- who will go to the polls Nov. 7 to oversee voting sites. Since Oct. 21 about 350 people have been working at early voting locations, where voters can cast their ballots before Election Day.

The temporary employees receive $120 for their one day of work. Those who spend two weeks at early voting locations receive $8 an hour. All of them, the new ones and veterans alike, must attend a three-hour training class before elections to bring them up to date on the latest laws and procedures.

Maria Tsarouhas oversees the recruiting and training of the workers for the Clark County Election Department. She said finding help is a never-ending task.

"There never seems to be quite enough," she said.

Tsarouhas works with the media to obtain publicity, distributes fliers and encourages civic organizations to provide precinct workers.

"We get a little here, a little there. Basically, it's year-round recruitment," she said. "Even when we think we have way over what we need, the last two weeks before the election we receive a huge number of cancellations. We have to have a lot of trained extras to fill spots."

Two years ago, she said, 59 percent of the temporary workers who were chosen to help the precincts elected not to serve. Replacements were found for most of them.

"Illness is the most common reason (they don't come in)," she said.

Tsarouhas is optimistic enough to believe there are plenty of people willing to help, if only they knew there was a need.

"The thing is getting the word out to everybody," she said. "We've never been in a situation since I've lived here (nine years) that we were so short that we couldn't function. But every election we run a little bit short here and there.

"In addition to cancellations, there are the no-shows. Some people just don't show up. So we try to keep a base of standbys to send out."

A duty to vote

Stanley Dreyfuss is one precinct worker Tsarouhas needn't worry about.

The 75-year-old retired businessman (and uncle of actor Richard Dreyfuss) has only missed one election since he became eligible to vote, in the days before the minimum age was lowered from 21 to 18.

"A few years ago I was under the knife," having an operation for appendicitis, Dreyfuss said. "A nun in the hospital came by to see if I wanted to vote, but I was unconscious or I would have."

He calls voter apathy a national shame.

"You go to other parts of the world and see what little they have, but they still turn out to vote," said Dreyfuss, who moved to Las Vegas from Southern California in 1987. "I vote in every election, big ones and small ones. I even vote in school board elections. My wife, Jessica, is the same way.

"I just know it's my duty. It's as important as going to war to protect our country. The most important thing an American can do is vote. If one doesn't vote, he has no reason to complain about the way the country is run."

Dreyfuss will be working at a yet-to-be-determined location this election day.

Batelle has the same passion about voting. She has worked for election boards in California and Nevada for a total of 40 years. But the upcoming election will be the last in which she will help.

"I'm getting too old," she said. "There should be many, many young people who would be interested. That's what's wrong with this country. I don't know the answer. I think it all starts with the upbringing."

Batelle's first presidential vote was cast for Franklin D. Roosevelt in his first race. She believes having places where people can vote before election day is a waste of money. "They don't have that much of a turnout," she said.

Batelle said she visited a friend in Australia a few years ago and learned about compulsory voting.

"I was amazed when I was over there," she said. "Everyone votes and there is never an argument about having to do it."

Australia is one of about 20 Democratic nations that penalize its citizens for not voting, according the Australian Electoral Commission. Although it is called "compulsory voting," in reality the only rule is that the eligible voter appear at the precinct, have his or her name checked off a roster, receive a ballot and enter the voting booth. If the person chooses not to vote, no one will know.

Failure to go to the polls in Australia may result in a fine of $20 or more.

Reason to vote

Fernande Bica, another temporary worker, doesn't need to be forced to vote or to be reminded how its importance. The 71-year-old native of Bucharest, Romania, escaped from her homeland in 1946, when Communism was beginning to take control of the Balkan nation.

"We knew Communism was going to take over," she said. "We knew there would be no freedom of choice or religion."

She learned about Communism from her grandparents, who fled from Russia to Romania after the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917.

At the end of World War II, Romania was one of the European countries ceded to the U.S.S.R. by the Allies. It still had a king, Michael I, but people could vote for the political leaders who actually ran the country.

In 1953 Bica met an American sailor in Canada, married and moved to Springfield, Mass. Eventually the couple divorced and she married a California dentist who was a native of Bucharest. In 1995 they moved to Las Vegas, where she volunteers her services to many organizations, including St. Paul the Apostle Orthodox Church.

This will be the first time she has worked with the Clark County Election Department.

"I would have done it the first year I came here if I had known," she said. "Such pride we should have to vote. Everybody born in this country should learn more about the United States and be proud of what we have here.

"It doesn't matter what group you belong to. I don't care if you are a Republican, Democrat or independent. You will have my deepest admiration if you are an American first. We have to love this country or we will be damned."

She said she is eternally grateful that she is an adopted child of America.

"I would give my life for my country," she said.

And she would vote.

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