VALPARAISO | The Porter County Election Board heard suggestions for election reform, based upon results from a report compiled by Valparaiso University Professor Emeritus Richard Balkema and the Porter County League of Women Voters, and results indicate that Porter County is getting a passing grade and may even make the honor roll.

The group sent a survey of questions to poll workers after the spring 2008 primary in order to improve the voting process come November, as well as retain and recruit new poll workers.

Among the complaints from poll workers were voter confusion over polling location, voter name not on polling place logs, and confusion over the use of provisional ballots. However, Balkema said that Porter County's results, compared to the other four counties surveyed in the report, indicate that poll workers say procedure is improving.

"We've had a rough patch in Porter County, but you did pretty well in terms of poll workers. Porter County would receive about a B or a B+ in terms of answers to the questions. In the fall of 2006 you had about a C or C+," Balkema said.

Among the questions were how well poll workers felt they were trained to complete the day's tasks, how they were recruited for the job, how ample their pay and hours were and any problems they encountered with the voting process.

The report concluded with suggestions for future improvements.

"Polling workers are telling us they'd like to know more about provisional ballots, the use of the machine, the change of address forms, and so I would suggest doing a walk through of the day, from asking for a photo ID to operating the machine," said Balkema, who also suggested improving the county voter Web site and adding phone lines to election central.

Making sure those steps are taken before November is critical, said Porter County Election Board President J.J. Stankiewicz who asked Voter Registration Board Republican Director Sundae Kubacki and Democrat Director Kathy Kozuszek how they planned to prepare.

"I just talked to a representative from the Obama campaign, and I'm sure it's the same with the McCain campaign, but they are projecting conservatively an 80 percent voter turnout, roughly double the spring primary turnout. How are you going to handle it?" Stankiewicz asked.

Kubacki and Kozuszek responded that additional phone lines to election central have already been installed, the Web site is undergoing improvements, and more ballots are being printed to accommodate the numbers.

Stankiewicz also suggested keeping their office open evenings and Saturdays for voter registration and to open satellite offices in Portage, to which Kubacki and Kozuszek agreed.