Supervisor calls for changes in local elections department
Friday, September 24, 2004

By JAY GOETTING
Napa Valley Register Staff Writer

Still smarting from an election loss he believes was the result of ballot tampering, Supervisor Mike Rippey wants to see changes made to help future races from being tainted by nefarious deeds.

With electronic voting proving so far to be reliable and secure, Napa County elections officials and elected representatives are turning more attention to the paper ballots being used by more and more voters.

"Fully one-third of the ballots are paper ballots," Supervisor Rippey told his colleagues on Tuesday. "That opens the possibility of intervention."

With fear about electronic voting in some circles, some groups have been advocating increased use of absentee or paper ballots and early voting procedures. In addition, elections officials are mandating that a paper trail be accessible from electronic votes, a policy that will take effect in Napa County in 2006.

Rippey brought legal action earlier this year challenging the outcome of his District 5 race where it was ruled Harold Moskowite eked out a narrow victory.

Rippey charged that a person or persons tampered with ballots in which the actual voter did not choose a candidate, affecting the outcome of the election. Rippey's claims were rejected in a civil trial this summer, but the Secretary of State's office is probing the Moskowite-Rippey outcome.

More recently, supervisors accepted a report from a task force recommending changes in security and procedures surrounding elections. Much of the work had already been completed by Registrar of Voters John Tuteur and his staff. More work remains to be done.

The area generating the most controversy is the duplicating of ballots that the electronic readers can't decipher. The machines failure to pick up the votes can be caused by the type or color of ink, by a voter making the wrong type of mark or by poor calibration of the machine itself.

"There's a glaring error in the method of marking ballots. I think duplicates should be made," said Rippey. "That way there's no room for temptation."

The task force, headed by retired county management analyst Karen Schoenfeld, presented a preliminary report stating, "Unreadable absentee ballots should be duplicated and not over-marked until there is a written procedure approved by the Secretary of State."

Tuteur and Secretary of State Kevin Shelley have been at odds over some of the state's directives on these procedures, but Tuteur has written his own policy. "I have to weigh the wishes of the candidates, the public and the media," he said.

He has proposed having six teams of two workers working in a secure area with video monitoring. They would over-mark the necessary ballots, then initial their work.

Not good enough, said the task force, and Rippey agrees. "Six to 12 percent are left blank in the lower races," he pointed out. "The temptation is there (to alter ballots). It needs to be tightened."

Supervisor Brad Wagenknecht said every race should be treated as if it's a "50-50" contest. "Every vote has to count," he said.

Chairman Mark Luce called the process "central to our way of governing," agreeing with the task force recommendations.

Schoenfeld said it's unlikely the task force's final report will be ready before the Nov. 2 general election, but said they will be watching the process and issuing the next report as soon as practical.