LIVERMORE – Irma Bowles has always been interested in politics.
Even when she was 18 and not old enough to vote, the 90-year-old woman says she wanted to get involved.
She’s been a member of the Livermore Republican Party for years and even ran for the legislature when she was younger, losing by 150 votes to the incumbent, she said.
Bowles, a seamstress, sat at a table Tuesday at Brettuns Community Building waiting for new voters to register.
She has been register of voters in Livermore so long – 32 years, Bowles said Tuesday – she doesn’t even remember who appointed her.
Tuesday’s election was slow, she said, with only 102 of about 1,500 registered voters casting ballots by 5 p.m. to consider a school budget and elect officials.
“This is a very small (crowd),” she said, unlike presidential races.
“We have a very good turnout for those,” Bowles said.
There used to be a lot more interest back in the mid-1900s, she said. “But I don’t know why. The voting list wasn’t as big back then as it is now.”
There have been so many changes during her time in office in the voting registration process, she said to a visitor, “You haven’t got long enough to talk about them.”
Bowles said she volunteered her services when she started as register.
Now she gets $500 a year.
It’s a lot of work to keep track of all the voters in town, she said.
“It’s quite a job,” she said.
In November, the town had 100 new registrations.
Every time someone registers, Bowles said, she has to contact the town he or she previously lived in and notify that town that the person is now registered in Livermore.
She also has to weed out the old registrations.
“But it is interesting,” she said. “I don’t know how much longer I’m going to do it. I really enjoy it,” she said. “It’s a contact with people and, when you get to my age, you need that.”
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