Elections Chief On The Hot Seat In Riverside

The Riverside County Board of Supervisors is expected to grill Registrar of Voters’ Barbara Dunmore today about problems that led to initial ballot returns posting later than planned in last Tuesday’s election.

Dunmore had indicated before the Nov. 2 general election that absentee ballot results would be up on the registrar’s website by 8:15 on election night — but it was nearly an hour later when the first count appeared.

A software glitch also made it unclear how many precincts were reporting until two and a half hours after the polls closed.

Last week, Board of Supervisors Chairman Marion Ashley told City News Service he was “very unhappy” with the late publication of initial ballot returns.

“The votes were counted in a timely manner, but they weren’t released in a timely manner,” Ashley said. “That’s what’s frustrating — they weren’t rolled out as promised.”

The supervisor said he was “embarrassed” because after foul-ups in the June 8 primary, the county allocated resources — including $650,000 for new vote-counting equipment — to prevent hang-ups.

“We said the process would work, and here it is, we didn’t get it out,” Ashley said.

Supervisor John Benoit agreed with Ashley that Dunmore needed to be asked pointed questions about “what went wrong this time.”

“This is a very public thing,” he told CNS. “A lot of people see this as a symbol of how the county operates. We’ve fallen on our face a couple of times, and we need to do what we can to fix it.”

Dunmore released a statement Monday saying her office went “above and beyond” what was required to serve the county’s voters and ensure the election was carried out “with the utmost integrity and in accordance with all laws.”

“Tuesday’s election was well-executed,” she said. “Despite a smooth, trouble-free voting day, attention has been focused on the 45-minute delay of the initial election night results.”

The registrar reiterated the reasons county officials cited last week for the delay — mainly that a line of last-minute voters at the registrar’s headquarters on Gateway Drive in Riverside prevented the closing of polls and posting results at 8:15 p.m., and a software snafu caused another postponement.

The first returns did not appear on the registrar’s website until shortly after 9 p.m. There were no further updates until 11:20 p.m.

“Candidates want to know where they stand on election night and media representatives want to be the first to report the results of winners and losers,” Dunmore said. “But state and federal laws provide for an electoral process that allows voters to cast a secret ballot, free from intimidation, and absent outside influence in the polling place.”

The registrar praised the work of 3,000 poll workers and her staff, including dozens of temporary employees hired specifically to expedite the vote tabulation process.

Dunmore stood by her office’s mission statement that voters’ “can be assured our electoral process is conducted p professionally … and administered timely, responsively and with integrity.”

The Registrar of Voters’ Office has been the subject of three reviews over the last four years. Problems in the June election led to calls for Dunmore’s ouster.

More than 40 percent of ballots were not counted until four days after the primary, and because of a communication breakdown between the postal service and registrar’s office, more than 12,500 absentee ballots went uncounted, leading to a lawsuit against the county.