Thu Sep 09 2010
By DARLENE PRINCE
Voting is an American tradition and nowhere may that tradition be held more dearly than by some residents of nursing homes.
Many nursing home residents have maintained their interest in community and national affairs and often closely follow election campaigns.
To assist hospital and nursing home residents in voting, absentee ballots are taken to them.
Pam Schroeder, deputy director at the Defiance County Board of Elections, said, "We prepare absentee ballots for the people who want to vote at nursing homes and at hospitals. We receive a list from each nursing home of (registered) voters. Two election board officials, one a Republican and one a Democrat, take the ballots to nursing homes and hospitals. They will assist the voter if they need help."
Schroeder said voting is done at nursing homes several weeks prior to the election, and on the same day of the election at hospitals.
At Brookview Healthcare Center, residents were casting their ballots on Tuesday. Assisting the residents were election board officials Trudy Smith (a Democrat) and Norine Rethmel (a Republican).
On Tuesday, Smith and Rethmel helped Brookview resident Betty Spangler with her ballot. Spangler is a former Sherwood resident who has been at Brookview since April 1.
Spangler said she has been reading about this year's election campaign and watching it unfold on television.
"I have always voted," she said proudly, "ever since I was able to vote. I have been reading about the campaign in the paper. I wait for my paper to come each day. I watch it on TV, too."
She said the historic campaign with a Democratic black man running for president and a Republican woman running for vice president makes for "a different campaign this year."
Spangler acknowledged that she was mostly interested in the presidential campaign this year and added, "I think everyone else is, too."
As Smith and Rethmel prepared the ballots for the next voter, they talked about their jobs.
"We are considered part-time, seasonal workers," Smith said. "I have been doing this job with absentee ballots at nursing homes and hospitals for about four years now."
Rethmel said she has been working since the last primary election.
At the precincts, Smith said she and Rethmel do a lot of detail work, such as preparing the polling, street and signature books.
They both recalled their adventure driving together to Hicksville on Election Day in this year's primary and encountering snow and icy roads.
"When we got to Sherwood, we thought we made it -- it can't be worse than that," Rethmel said. "But it was. We finally did make it to Hicksville."
Smith said there are a lot more mandates from the Ohio secretary of state for election board officials than there have been in the past. Those mandates tell the poll workers "what to do and how to do it," she said.
When assisting voters, Rethmel and Smith are careful to double check the absentee ballots for such common mistakes as forgetting to write the correct address, the voter's date of birth or neglecting to sign the ballot or put down the correct date.
"We help between 60-70 residents of nursing homes fill out ballots," Smith said. "And a lot of them already know who they are voting for in the election before they even see the ballot."
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