Murray an election stalwart at the polls

When votes are tallied Tuesday night, the results will be known within a couple of hours after polls close at 7 o’clock. The tabulation process wasn’t always so easy, recalled Lois Murray, longtime poll worker.
“I remember elections when we wouldn’t be finished until 3 o’clock the next morning,” said Murray, 74.
For more than 40 years, Murray has seldom missed helping with elections. On Tuesday’s Election Day, her cheery face will greet voters once again.
Before computers, all ballot counting was done by hand.
Also, advance voting, which promises to account for more than 20 percent of the ballots marked this year, was restricted to those who were unable to venture to polling places on Election Day, because of illness, disability or knowing ahead of time they would be out of town.
“We’d pick up the ballots at the clerk’s office between 6 and 6:30 on Election Day morning and get everything ready to open the polls at 7 o’clock,” Murray said.
Workers checked addresses, issued ballots and then made sure they were securely tucked away after being voted. At mid-afternoon, counting board workers arrived to start the tedious and time-consuming task of counting each vote.
After all were tabulated, they were carried to the courthouse, where for years Probate Judge Leslie Norton kept track of totals for each candidate on a large tally board as they were called out, often in ceremonious fashion.
Some of the process is unchanged, though arranged a little differently.
Ballots still are carried to polling places early Election Day.
“After the election, we have to make sure that voted ballots, those set aside as being provisional and ones that are spoiled, add up to the number we received,” Murray said.
Once that chore is completed, ballots are carried to the courthouse where a machine tallies the votes.

A RECENT change that has caused some voters distress is having to show a photo ID before being given a ballot.
“We really didn’t have much trouble with that,” at the August primary, Murray said. “Mainly it was some of the older folks, whose response was, ‘Why? We’ve known each other for years.’ Most younger voters didn’t pay any attention to the requirement.”
 While apathy is a concern in any election cycle, Murray said those who do show up “take their voting seriously.”
Murray added that local elections, unless there is a hot-button issue, draw fewer voters, while voters stream to the polls when a governor or president is being elected.

THERE IS significance in Murray being a registered Democrat.
“My mother and grandmother were Republicans, though not greatly involved in politics,” she said.
She became associated with Virginia Wille, as staunch a Democrat as Allen County has known, through their work together at St. John’s Catholic Church.
“She was looking for election workers and she was such a good gal I agreed to help out,” Murray said.
Wille also recruited Murray to register as a Democrat and involve herself in partisan politics, which wasn’t difficult, she being a fan of Jack Kennedy and his time as president.
“I was co-chairman of the (county Democrat) central committee with Buddy Baker,” she said, though she never was elected a precinct committeewoman.
She wouldn’t characterize herself as a liberal Democrat, Murray said, “more a conservative,” but one who agrees that government has a role in helping people, particularly when they’re down and out.
“I think people should help themselves and I know there are times when people abuse the system, but there are people who need assistance,” said Murray, a lifelong Iolan.
“I guess what I’m saying is I’m not a dyed-in-the-wool Democrat,” she added. “I have voted for Republicans.”
But, come Tuesday, President Obama will get her vote.