Evening star., 1952-06-18
Primary Workers Do
Smooth Job DESPITE
Lack Of Experience

Yesterdays Democratic primary
may have had a few moments of
confusion. but, on the whole, it
went fairly smoothly for an opera
ton of its size and comparative
lack of precedent.
The nearest thing to it was the
plebiscite on home rule and suf-
frage several years ago.
With practically no past expert
ence to guide them, the scores Of
volunteer workers. who had been
on the job all day at voting places
and engaged in administrative
work. came through in good fash
ion. All of the ballot boxes from
the As precincts were in the Dis
trlct Building within an hour
after the polls closed at 8 o'clock
last night. ready for the official
count.
To accomplish the smooth
operation, the workers were
briefed through a set Of instruc-
tionS issued by A. B. Halves, who
was in general charge of person.
mel. The official staff included
Miss Reba Payne of the Reming-
ton Rand Co., which will make
the final count. The three judges
were Joel Blackwell, Marx Leva
and GanSon Purcell
One Official Issue.
The official count concerned
only the votes cast for Senator
Kefauver, Democrat. of TENNESSEE
and w. Averell Hartman, the [
Mutual Security Agency director,
both aspirants for the presidency.
Votes for delegates, committeeman ]
and on home rule were to be
counted as soon as possible, under
direction of Remington Rand
accountants.
The whole main corridor of the
fifth floor of the District Building,
as well as the paralleling board
room, were taken over for the
counting. On each side of the
board room entrance were long
tables bisecting the corridor. These
tables acted as gateways to keep
unauthorized persons from the
counting area. For this purpose,
an admissions clerk stood by, to-
gether with uniformed guard,
admitting only persons who ap-
peared on special list.
Boxes Carefully Checked.
AS each precinct reported in, the
number of the polling place. the
identity of the persons bringing in
the boxes and the number of boxes
were checked or recorded. All pos
sible safeguards were made to- /
make sure no unlisted person pre- S
Sented box. Then the boxes were
checked in by a box crew, seals /
were checked and then they were 3
carried to box control desk and !
stacked.
The box crew had TIE special I
duty OF keeping the tellers in the 9
board room supplied with ballot h
boxes and returning them, when d
counted, to the box control desk. I
All boxes from a particular pollingIt t
place had to be delivered to a c
single teller. 1
Meanwhile, card total clerk re-
corded by polling places the rough
count of cards appearing on the r
outside of the boxes and totaled F
the counts. The record and total I
were given to Mr.. Hawes. v
Observers, four for each of theI
two presidential candidates, were r
identified by observer badges. "
They were given every oppor- t
tunity to satisfy themselves as to d
the integrity operation, but were i
not allowed to touch ballots, t.
boxes. tally sheets or check lists. c
Two on Teller Teams.
The teller teams consisted of il
two persons each. The count was -
by polling places. All the ballot
boxes from a single polling place,
and only these boxes were han
died by a team at any one time.
The teams checked the boxes
to see that they were sealed, then
broke the seals, opened the boxes
and removed the ballots. Boxes
weEk opened in such a way as
to be usable again.
The ballots then wree sorted
according to presidential candi-