For decades Capital Offset has been printing the ballots everyone in the state uses during election day. NHPR's Lisa Peakes talks to the people who produce the pallets of ballots.
As the election approaches, the machinery of Democracy has been working a lot faster. Its wheels may be spinning most furiously at Capital Offset Printing in Concord, where lately the lights have been on well into the night. Inside (introduce ambience), hulking metal presses with names like ?Speedmaster? clank and whir. And, clustered in various places on the cement floor, are shrinkwrapped pallets?. of ballots.
Most of Capital Offset?s business is producing high end art catalogs and private school quarterlies. But for several weeks every election season, all the attention is on filling a big order for the State Of New Hampshire. The process starts after the primary when the votes have been tabulated. The Secretary of State?s office produces ballot copy for every single town. Diane Stewart comes in. She?s Capital Offset?s Vice President, and she?s been working with Assistant Secretary of State Karen Ladd on ballots for a long time:
FAST BUDDIES (Diane) ?22- 24 years. Karen and I have worked together for over 20 together on elections and other projects, but, elections, mainly, we?re fast buddies, day and night?? laughter. (:09)
Diane lives in California now, but she comes back every time there?s a ballot run, because she knows the process so well. She and Karen proofread copy over and over again. Karen says they can?t be too careful:
IMPORTANT: (Karen) ?It?s very important - everyone who?s a candidate wants to be on the ballot and wants his name spelled correctly???..and it?s our job to do that.?(:09)
Even so, Diane says, things happen:
ALWAYS AN ISSUE (Diane) ?..there?s always and issue this year we were waiting for the ballot law commission to rule, and they ruled on having Ralph Nader on the ballot and Granny D went to court to change her name so that she can be known on the ballot as Doris ?Granny D?? (:20)
And, nature can intervene:
UNCANNY: (Diane) ??.unfortunately someone may die during the process of the ballots being produced. Obviously that person can?t appear on the ballot, and there?s a scramble to reprint ballots. Almost every election it happens. It?s?uncanny.? (:20)
Once the copy?s ready, then the ballots are typeset, the paper?s positioned, inked, scored, cut and wrapped. It?s a job that requires precise calibration. (Cutting ambi)
Even with all the details involved now, Diane Stewart says one development made the work much easier than it used to be:
EASIER NOW: (Diane) ?Computers ? we used to use typesetting ?we used to take pieces and paste up ballots - used to paste up ballots? was incredibly laborious time. It?s much easier now.? (:18)
Karen Ladd says, there?s one area where computers probably won?t be taking over any time soon:
A PAPER TRAIL (Karen) ?The Secretary of State, Bill Gardner, is adamant about having a paper trail when voting. If we go to a computer system, in the future, which I don?t know if we will, there will be a paper ballot printed as well, for recount purposes as well as for checking for fraud, that type of thing? (:20)
All in all, Capital Offset will produce about 722 thousand ballots for this job.
Once the ballots have been used, towns have to hang onto them for 60 days ? if there?s a recount, the sec?y of state?s office collects them, otherwise they stay in the town for 60 days, after which Karen says they?re no longer the state?s responsibility.
SHRED ?EM: (Karen) ?? We ask them to either burn them or shred them, not to just throw them away, but I really have no idea what they do with them. (:10)
Karen and Diane agree they?ll know they?ve done a good job when Election Day rolls around and no one can say they were left off the ballots. For New Hampshire Public Radio, I?m Lisa Peakes.
