Debra Bowen for California Secretary of State - Lawmakers Grill Officials on Voting Snafus

Lawmakers Grill Officials on Voting Snafus

Bakersfield Californian
Jul 31, 2006
By James Burger An old debate over election-night bungling in Kern County reignited Monday. The newly formed California Senate Select Committee on Integrity of Elections launched an investigation into statewide voting troubles with a stop in Bakersfield. Committee Chairwoman Sen. Debra Bowen, D-Redondo Beach, said the mission of the committee is to prevent problems in future elections. "One thing that's always frustrated me about government is we don't do a good job learning from our mistakes, or the mistakes of others," she said. And Monday's meeting was all about mistakes. Committee members pelted local elections officials with searing questions about why they failed the voters. State Sen. Roy Ashburn, R-Bakersfield, asked why touch-screen voting machines failed and paper ballots ran out making voting nearly impossible for as many as 500 Kern County voters. County Deputy Registrar of Voters Sandy Brockman, sitting in for elections boss Auditor-Controller Ann Barnett, took the brunt of Ashburn's questions. Under his questioning, she said Barnett decided not to train elections workers on the use of paper ballots and decided to send only the minimum number of paper ballots to each polling place. Elections workers testified they were told not to use paper ballots. But when electronic voting cards failed, the paper ballots ran out and as many as 500 voters could have lost the chance to vote, Brockman said. Ashburn asked why Barnett wasn't there to answer his tough questions about the decisions she made. Brockman said Barnett was on vacation. "She had scheduled vacation time prior to them calling this hearing," Brockman said. Later, Ashburn said that "she (Barnett) chose not to be here. I got the impression at several points that Sandy Brockman had to take responsibility for actions that were made by Ann Barnett." Ashburn was critical of Barnett immediately after the June 6 election. He called for Secretary of State Bruce McPherson to investigate the county's election bungles. McPherson's report stated that the Kern County Elections Department handled the elections problems well and voters were not disenfranchised. Ashburn said McPherson's investigation was fine, but didn't go far enough. Bowen, who is running against McPherson for secretary of state in November, steered clear of critiquing her opponent. "This is certainly not a campaign platform," she said. Ashburn said he was particularly disturbed to hear that Barnett didn't train workers to handle paper ballots and that she told them not to use paper ballots. He said he was also worried about testimony from election observer Stan Harper who stated that untrained temporary workers were invited to enter the secure vote counting room on election night and help with computer operations. The third member of the committee, Sen. Joseph Dunn, D-Garden Grove, asked hard questions of Diebold Election Systems official Mike Rockenstein. Diebold made the voting machines and electronic ballot cards that malfunctioned in Kern County on June 6. Through the negligence of Diebold, Dunn said, hundreds of Kern County voters were turned away at the polls and lost their chance to vote. If a chance to vote is priceless, Dunn asked Rockenstein, how much would Diebold be willing to pay voters who could prove they couldn't vote because of the company's mistakes. Rockenstein said he had no answer to that question. http://www.bakersfield.com/102/story/65272.html

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