More Elections Confusion Prompts Calls For Resignation

The Riverside County Registrar of Voters’ Office mistakenly posted uncertified results from the write-in tally in last week’s election, but officials said the error was caught early and did not affect any races.

Two days after the June 8 primary, write-in votes cast were included in the tallies posted on the registrar’s Web site, even though the write-ins had not been vetted for eligibility, according to county Registrar of Voters Barbara Dunmore.

“The inadvertent postings have no effect on election results,” Dunmore said in a statement issued late Thursday. “All write-in votes are reviewed by Registrar of Voters’ staff during the 28-day canvass period that follows every election.”

Dunmore, who has come under fire for the laggard pace of the county’s vote count and the handling of mail-in ballots, did not say to which contests the write-ins applied, or reveal the number of write-ins.

According to the California Secretary of State’s Office, write-in candidates must file statements of intent to run and have basic qualifications, such as being adult U.S. citizens and registered to vote.

“The Registrar of Voters regrets any confusion that might have been caused by inadvertent write-in reporting on interim count updates,” Dunmore said.

On Monday, a bipartisan group of lawmakers wrote a letter to the Board of Supervisors expressing “concerns regarding the policies, procedures and performance of the county registrar.”

Signatories included Rep. Mary Bono Mack, R-Palm Springs; Rep. Ken Calvert, R-Riverside; Assemblyman Paul Cook, R-Beaumont; and Assemblyman Manuel Perez, D-Coachella. They noted that Riverside County was the last to report its results to the California Secretary of State.

Similarly, Assemblyman Jeff Miller, R-Corona, and two civic groups — Democrats of the Desert and the Palm Springs Lincoln Club — have called for Dunmore’s ouster because of the delays in tabulating the election returns.

Election integrity activist and former county financial officer Tom Courbat told City News Service that Dunmore should be dismissed and a nationwide search conducted for her replacement.

“Preferably someone with a lot of experience,” he said.

Dunmore was appointed registrar in 2004.

Of the roughly 226,000 ballots cast in the election, 43 percent — 98,000 — were not counted the day after the June 8 primary.

The registrar’s office didn’t complete the tabulation until Sunday morning.

Some 12,500 mail-in ballots were left at a Moreno Valley post office and went undiscovered until hours after the election deadline, causing them to be invalidated.

Dunmore blamed the difficulties on a crush of last-minute mail-in ballots and a post office snafu that resulted in absentee votes being sent to the wrong place.

The registrar also said budget constraints had led her to hire fewer temporary workers to help process the ballots. However, she told City News Service Tuesday that she and her staff have done their utmost to “serve the public and will continue to serve the public going forward.”