(AFP) – You can really feel at home while voting in San Francisco — literally. “I cook things… we eat all day,” laughs Angelo Figone, a retiree who runs a polling station in his garage, a common practice in the Californian city. “It’s always nice. The more people you see, the better.”
On one of the city’s vertiginous streets, a large blue sign outside tells all-comers that they can cast their ballots here between 7:00 am and 8:00 pm. Inside, five poll workers, including Figone, staff a table with the precinct register and bundles of ballots, a few voting booths, an electronic machine, and a sealed red ballot box. Voters fill out their ballots on site and scan them with the machine, or drop them in the ballot box.
“It’s very common for people to vote in… someone’s private home garage, or maybe backyard or something like that,” says Michel Weksler, who is overseeing this polling station. “You need to make sure that it fits, you know, that there’s enough room for voting equipment and for disabled voters.” Figone has been hosting a polling station for years, a concept he grew up with. “Many years ago… we actually voted down the block from us, in the garage… and I thought ‘Oh, this great democracy, you can vote in somebody’s garage.’ I always wanted to do it.”
So when he got a full-time job many years ago, he applied to the city’s election department to turn his own garage into a polling station. “I used to hang an American flag across the top of the building. I’d always get people who live in a neighborhood to be the poll workers. You could do that. Then, you could sign anybody up,” he said. Nowadays, at 76 years old, he has had to take an online exam — as have the other people officiating alongside him, local people he met for the first time that morning. But that chance to staff a polling station with complete strangers adds to the fun.
“You never know till 6:00 am who’s going to be in your garage,” he said. “Everybody is different ages, some retired, some still working. It’s great fun.” The city of San Francisco has around 500 polling places, including many in schools. But a lot of voters now choose to send their ballots by mail. Figone worries that as remote voting rises in popularity, the city will end the garage polling places.
Trade is not exactly brisk. By early afternoon, only 45 people had stopped by to exercise their democratic rights. They included Robin and Michael Marich, who walked to the garage to cast their ballots. “I procrastinated so, so I had to run it down (here),” said Michael. “(But) we probably would have dropped it off here anyway.” His wife agrees. “I think because we always come here, there’s like a familiarity to this, and it feels… like a local thing,” she said, adding that it felt “celebratory.”
The location — inside someone’s home — doesn’t worry the couple. “We have a very strong election management system in California, in the (United) States,” says Michael. “So it’s pretty normal. I totally trust these guys.” – Julie JAMMOT
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