CONTRIBUTED BY MIKE SPENCE CLERK OF COURT, CADDO PARISH
To most, Election Day is pretty much simple. We wake up, go about our day, at some point go by the polls and cast a ballot, then tune in to find out the results.
The Clerk of Court, however, is the person who is behind the scenes making sure everything goes off without a hitch.
The Inquisitor reached out to Mike Spence, Caddo Parish Clerk of Court, to give us a timeline of his activities leading up to Election Day.
The following is an outline of the duties performed by the Clerk of Court regarding election duties as submitted by Spence:
At the beginning of the Clerk of Court term, all poll workers are certified for the four-year term.
This process includes schooling over 1,000 poll workers with a film created by our office, verbal class, then testing. Each year thereafter, we have schools to add new commissioners to the rolls.
People who work as Commissioner in charge must be trained every year by my office. Then the Parish Board of Election Supervisors meets the second Friday in January to assign them to their precincts for the year.
As elections near, the Clerk of Court qualifies candidates for local races in a three-day period set out by the Secretary of State. The only qualification that the Clerk considers is that they are a registered voter in good standings. No other qualifications are checked by the clerk by law.
As the election nears, the Board of Election Supervisors (which consists of the following) meets:
Mike Spence – Clerk
Dale Sibley – Registrar
Larry Ferdinand – Democratic Party
Creighton Light – Republican Party
Brenda Traylor – Governor’s Designee
At this meeting, commissioners who work at the polls are randomly drawn by lot. Then the commissioners in charge and commissioners are notified of their assignment and the times of the election and runoff. If they decline their assignment, replacements are sent to the next alternate who was randomly selected. On Election Day, we may also have to randomly choose replacements. On a parish-wide election, we may be near having only 50 replacements left. On presidential, the number is less. More workers are needed. The clerk advertises in each paper and on social media to recruit more workers.
The week before early voting begins, the Board of Election Supervisors meets to close the early voting machines and verify the public counter, election counter, testing of the machines by the Secretary of State representative, and view the zero-proof report.
Early voting is conducted by the Registrar of Voters along with mail-in votes.
No later than 36 hours before the election, the Board of Election Supervisors meets to seal the voting machines, usually done the Wednesday before a Saturday election in Caddo Parish.
On the day before the election, the voting machines are delivered by the Drayman who has been awarded the contract by the Secretary of State. The Secretary of State is responsible for the storage, maintenance, programming and delivery of the machines. The Caddo Clerk of Court has elected to follow the delivery of the machines to verify the correct machines are left at the precinct. The custodian and principal of the school, if applicable, are notified that the election is the next day, and the custodian will have to be there prior to 5:30 or 6:30 a.m., depending on the election.
On the day before the election, the Clerk of Court sends a text message to each commissioner and custodian to remind them what time the precinct will open and what time they will need to be there. If a school custodian does not show up, we call the stand-by school board representative to contact the custodian or open themselves. If a library or other precinct custodian does not show up, we contact their representative.
On Election Day the following occurs:
The clerk’s office has six employees who report one hour before precinct opening time to field phone calls.
A log book is keep of each call we receive.
Any machine issues are reported to the Secretary of State election machine warehouse. Most issues are resolved by phone; if not, a service call is made. Each precinct has extra machines.
All early mail-in votes delivered to the Registrar on Election Day are delivered by the clerk’s office to the precinct to ensure the individuals do not vote again.
Any issues that the commissioners at the polls cannot handle, a deputy clerk will be sent to evaluate. The clerk’s office has around 20 deputy clerks roving precincts to ensure that all issues are resolved and the flow at the precincts is to our specifications.
At the end of the day, the clerk’s office has satellite locations for the poll commissioners in charge to deliver the cartridges, keys and paper printout of each machine. This speeds the process up and prevents the commissioners from delivering the result downtown.
Once the cartridges are received at the clerk’s office, they are read by the Secretary of State computer system and transmitted to the Secretary of State by a dedicated line to Baton Rouge. The computer system and laptops are only used for elections and are programmed by the Secretary of State. Paper tabulations are filed by precinct numbers along with the keys to each machine and locked up.
During this time, the Board of Election Supervisors meets at the Registrar of Voters Office and tabulates the early voting machine results and mail-in votes. The clerk receives the results on a flash drive and transmits them to the Secretary of State by the dedicated line. This ends the night, which normally is around 10 o’clock.
For a Saturday election, the machines are picked up by the drayman and delivered back to the voting machine warehouse for inspection the following Monday.
The Board of Election Supervisors meets the third day after the election at 9 o’clock to check the machine count, the vote count, log these number in and deliver to the Secretary of State’s office for inspection.
On the next day, the Board of Election Supervisors meets in the Registrar of Voters Office to finalize the count and send the final results to the Secretary of State to certify the election.
If a recount of mail in votes is requested by letter in accordance with the election code, the mail-in votes are verified in accordance with the election code by the Board of Election Supervisors.
Now the process begins for the next election.
Mike Spence has been with the Caddo Clerk's Office since 1978. In 1987, he was named supervisor of the Civil Department, and in 2000, he became an office administrator under Gary Loftin. In 2008, he was named Chief Deputy Clerk of Court. He ran for Clerk in 2015 and was unopposed. He took office on July 1, 2016. Mike was recently honored by the Caddo Parish Commission, Shreveport City Council, Caddo Sheriff Steve Prator and the Louisiana Clerks of Court Association for 40 years of service to the court and public.
This Article was published in the November 8th issue of The Inquisitor.