The election calendar already had the registrar busy preparing for November elections, which are taking place in selected cities and districts, such as Sunnyvale and the Sunnyvale School district.

Lieutenant Governor Cruz Bustamante set the recall election for Oct. 7, the last possible day allowed under the state constitution. (A recall must be held on a Tuesday 60 to 80 days after the certification of petition signatures.) Even with this choice allowing the maximum possible lead time, Ed Morillo, Election Specialist for North County, said the agency typically has longer to prepare.

"This is a real challenge for us. Six months of work has to be done in 60 days," he said. "Everything is heavily consolidated." A normal countywide election in Santa Clara County involves around 900 polling places, but with few locations available on such short notice, precincts that are large enough to normally receive their own polling place will be grouped with several others. Sunnyvale and Cupertino are cities where such problems have been more easily solved. "Thank goodness we still have some patriotic folks out there willing to help us," Morillo said.

He added that finding locations isn't as easy as it might seem. There are set criteria that each polling place must meet, including conformity to the Americans with Disabilities Act. He was recently inspecting an apartment complex in Mountain View that had a nice common room available, but it was only accessible by stairs. Out it went. "We're going a little bananas here," Morillo said.

Elma Rosa, media coordinator for the Registrar of Voters, agreed with Morillo that back-to-back elections are stressing the agency's resources. "We're getting recertified in March of 2004, so we're implementing touch-screen voting for the smaller election in November," Rosa said. This will give the Registrar time to work out any kinks before the recertification process, but this recall election will stick with punch cards as normal.

One aspect of voting that might suffer from the condensed time frame is absentee ballots. Registered voters in Santa Clara County who wish to vote via absentee ballot will have until Sept. 8 to submit applications, but permanent absentees and those in the military or residing overseas might be pinched for time.

Rosa said the Registrar typically has a list of these priority absentees 60 days before the election, but the list for the recall election wasn't ready by that deadlline. The delay shouldn't be a problem if everything goes smoothly. "We're cut a little short on time," Rosa said, "but some procedures are very fundamental."

"We can definitely use people now," Morillo said. A U.S. citizen registered to vote in Santa Clara County can help as a clerk, which pays $85 a day, or as an inspector, which pays $115. Both positions require training, and applications are available at the Registrar of Voters office at 1555 Berger Dr., Bldg. #2, San Jose, CA 95112.