THE TIME the ballot boxes went out to dinner (Shutterstock).

Precinct 54, Where Are You Dept?.: On the subject of ballot security this election week, a True Story from the vault.

Many years ago, Garden Grove held its municipal elections in April of odd-numbered years and the city conducted its own voting collection business. 

The way it worked was that voting was held in garages, school multi-purpose rooms and presided over by city folks and volunteers.

One year, a precinct closed up and the folks working there – rather than take the boxes to City Hall – decided to go to dinner. They put the votes in the trunk of one of their vehicles and went out a local restaurant. 

When those precinct workers didn’t show up in a timely fashion, the search began. This was in the days before cell phones, so they only way to contact these folks was an old-fashioned search of “frequently” visited locations.

Police were pressed into duty, and – finally – the missing workers were located and the ballots rescued from the trunk.

There were some red faces, but no real harm was done. I’m not sure if this is an argument for or against voting machines, but it just goes to show the kind of thing that couldn’t happen again.

I think.

Jungle Fever Dept: Speaking of elections, I’m of two minds about California’s so-called “jungle primary” in which all the candidates for an office are lumped together regardless of party, and the top two candidates – again, regardless of party – face off in the fall.

This could mean you end up with two candidates from the same party – in theory – depriving the voter of a genuine choice. 

It rewards the top two vote-getters, but in a crowded field, the top two might be just a few votes above a bunch of folks with an entirely different set of policies and positions.