Riverside County Board Of Supervisors Grill Registrar Of Voters

Riverside County Registrar of Voters Barbara Dunmore was on the defensive today amid criticism from several supervisors about problems that led to the late posting of results on election night.

The Board of Supervisors began its meeting by calling for an explanation from Dunmore and Executive Officer Bill Luna about why the initial ballot returns didn’t show up on the registrar’s website until after 9 p.m. — and then with no clue as to what precincts were reporting.

“In my view, this was the most successful election we’ve had with paper ballots since we returned to (using) paper ballots (under a state mandate) in 2008,” Dunmore said.

She reiterated that state law prohibited her from releasing the tally of 199,000 absentee votes at 8:15 p.m. — as planned — because last-minute voters were still at the registrar’s office on Gateway Drive in Riverside casting ballots.

Dunmore attributed the lack of precinct reports — which showed zero number of polling stations publishing results until after 11 p.m. — to a “software overload” triggered by the central tabulating room computer’s inability to calculate too many votes at once.

The registrar also complained of space limitations that she said were hamstringing her.

“I’m not presenting excuses. I’m presenting the facts,” Dunmore said.

Supervisor Jeff Stone told the registrar he had lost confidence in her.

“I don’t want to go down the path of having new issues come up,” Stone said. “We have devoted significant resources to you and, frankly, I can’t defend you anymore. We’ve gone down this path too many times now. We can’t have another election like this again.”

Supervisor John Benoit described the county as having “egg on our face because of the time it took” to roll out the initial results for the public to see. He said Dunmore should have done a better job communicating the reasons for the holdup on election night.

Dunmore suggested that county public information officer Ray Smith could have been more proactive and emphasized that her foremost concern was “accuracy” in the ballot tally.

“It must trump everything else,” she insisted.

Board Chairman Marion Ashley wondered why accuracy and speed couldn’t be “compatible.”

“You are a very conscientious public servant,” the supervisor said. “But you’ve got to communicate the results faster … Everybody’s on edge (on election night), wondering `What’s going on?’ We look to see the results from all over the country, but there’s a gray or black hole that’s Riverside County. We must do better. We have a pattern of something always going wrong.”

Dunmore replied that Ashley was suggesting she break the law by ignoring the fact that people might still be voting when the initial returns go out.

“You look all over the state, and we’re the only one obeying the law with lagging voters?” the chairman shot back. “I’m sorry, but it cannot be true.”

Supervisor Bob Buster, who has repeatedly come to Dunmore’s defense, said he thought the registrar’s critics were overreacting and lauded her for keeping her priorities straight.

“We need to get an accurate count and maintain the integrity of the perception of the vote,” Buster said. “That goes to the independence of the registrar of voters. You should be removed from any kind of political pressure. You’re taking the fall for lack of communication on the website. Perhaps the share of blame goes to others.”

Luna, who has direct supervision of the registrar, acknowledged making promises about how the election would be managed that “were not kept.”

“I accept full responsibility for the outcome,” he said.

The Registrar of Voters’ Office has been the subject of three reviews over the last four years. Problems in the June primary 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.

In response, the board authorized $650,000 for the registrar to purchase new vote processing equipment and granted her latitude to hire however many temporary workers needed to expedite the vote tally.

Dunmore said very little of the $650,000 was spent because there wasn’t time to solicit bids. Her office is projecting a $1.8 million deficit in the current fiscal year because of costs tied to the Nov. 2 election.