Brief honeymoon, but then it's time to get cracking

MCPHERSON MUST CLEAN UP FEDERAL FUNDS, GET STATE READY FOR LIKELY SPECIAL ELECTION

Mercury News Editorial    04 April 2005

The applause that welcomed Bruce McPherson after he was sworn in as California's new secretary of state was especially warm.

Employees of the office, who filled the auditorium for the ceremony, have been through too much turmoil in the past months. McPherson's calm and genial personality will be a refreshing change.

Reviving morale will be the easiest part of the job as McPherson takes over for Kevin Shelley, who resigned over his handling of federal funds and accusations about abusive treatment of some employees.

The new secretary could find himself busy in a hurry if a special election goes forward as the governor is proposing or threatening, take your pick and the zillions of initiatives in circulation qualify for the ballot.

Whether or not that happens, McPherson will have to straighten out the mess Shelley made of federal get-out-the-vote funds.

On other responsibilities of the office, McPherson would actually do well to follow in Shelley's footsteps.

The job has become ever more high-tech, with the introduction of electronic voting machines. McPherson must stick with the policy of requiring voting machines to produce a paper trail against which the electronic tally can be double-checked.

Shelley rightly set exacting standards in dealing with the makers of electronic voting machines. He insisted that local registrars of voters impose similar standards in purchasing and operating the machines.

As voting technology becomes more complicated, the secretary of state's office will be about the only agency with the resources and expertise to make sure that the integrity of elections is maintained. Especially in the smaller counties, registrars will not have the ability to verify what the makers of electronic voting machines and software are telling them.

Shelley made enemies of registrars with his personality. But some of his goals should be pursued with more finesse by McPherson to assure Californians that their votes are counted the way they cast them.