MEMORANDUM TO:  The Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors

FROM:  Sharon Sweeney, individually

November 12, 2014

Solely for purposes of identification, I am Sharon Sweeney, Chair of the Santa Clara County Citizens’ Advisory Commission on Elections.  I am writing this Memorandum for myself, as an individual, and not on behalf of the heretofore named Commission.

On November 7, 2014, I sent a memo to you requesting that the entire chain of events and chain of command at the Registrar of Voters Department be investigated for the entire year or more.  At this time, and because the November 4, 2014, election must be certified by December 2, 2014, I am requesting that the Board of Supervisors immediately make arrangements with Harvey Rose Corporation to perform an independent and emergency audit on the issues at the ROV.  It MUST be completed before the end of November 2014.  According to the ROV, the Secretary of State will not be investigating operations and procedures.

Therefore, the County needs to reassure the voters that the recent ballots were counted and counted as cast.  The only way the public can be reassured is to have comprehensive and detailed audits of all ROV resources, including an impartial audit of management and staffing, and a separate and independent audit of the ballots.

Until we have an investigation into all aspects of the operations, processes, and management at the ROV, all we have is speculation and rumors.  I am interested in the facts.  I believe you are too.  To conclude anything at this time with regard to aging or outdated voting systems, vendors, 3-page ballots, lack of polling place scanning and counting machines and other things is premature.  There must be a thorough investigation before anyone can determine solutions. Why would ROV officials want to buy more products when it has now become obvious that they had difficulties on Election Night running what they already have?  You’ll recall that former Registrar of Voters Jesse Durazo promised that election results would speed up if he could have TWO sorters.  Well, there are now two, and results certainly weren’t tallied and aired to the public any faster.

There seems to be very negative public perceptions of the ROV at this time.  When we’re hearing daily rumors and/or stories of shenanigans, inaccuracy, ballots not counted, it’s high time that the County undertake thorough investigation and analysis.  We might find that things are working well, or they could work better, or there may issues inherent that can be fixed.  Joe Le’s resignation may have just been the tip of the iceberg.  While the ROV has claimed that they can work without Le, and indeed did so, was that work done as efficiently?  Did we get what we paid for?

Some of the items that I see should be explored are listed here.  There may be additional ones that someone more astute than I would recommend.  

LIST 1:

●  Why was there a failure to include the Argument against the City of San Jose Measure B in the June 2014 Primary election when, indeed, both arguments for and against that measure were filed with Candidate and Public Services on March 11, 2014?  Why was there failure to provide correct candidate ballot data for the college and school board elections?  How is that information passed on to other employees so that they can, and will, perform their jobs to create an accurate product?

●  How and who handled the downloading and uploading of Election Night tallies to the website?  Why were there problems?  Why is the county paying for a website and vendor that could not be used?  

●  How and who handled the polling site delivery tracking site?  What were the issues?  Why were there problems?  What did they do about it?  Did ROV staff shuck the whole thing and enter receipt of polling site materials in some other way?

●  A complete investigation of the entire workforce including management, and employee relations. Who does what? Who is trained best for what?  No corporation, business or government agency can produce a quality product without their most valuable asset --good well-trained employees.  

​I’m concerned about the human aspect. Therefore, if the County ever gets new equipment, it is essential that we take care of the employee issues FIRST.  The employee unions might investigate too and focus on working conditions, long hours, etc. but not on management.  

● Why isn’t there a stand-alone Training and Staff Development position at the top of the ROV’s hierarchy?  The ROV’s own flow chart shows that this has been denigrated to a lower level rank and file section of the work force BELOW even the second level management – Precinct Operations/Outreach/Training/Staff Development. As is pointed out  in the Facilities Needs Assessment Overview (FGOC Agenda 11-13-14) for the Civic Center Master Plan, (p. 6):  “5) Training facilities are dispersed across the county and not coordinated in management.”  Why not look at that for the ROV too?

LIST 2:

Negative public perceptions of the vote tallying itself are floating around. Was my vote counted? Was it counted as cast?  The simplest way to ensure that all ballots were counted as cast is to count a second time with different equipment – not the same stuff that is in place – for obvious reasons.

● To reassure the voters that their ballots were counted and counted as cast, I am requesting a voted ballot audit via a separate and independent audit system.  The Humboldt County Registrar of Voters-County Recorder employs such a system after every election before the results are certified.  In this manner, it would be well-worth the County’s time and money to conduct such an independent system using different equipment.  If the results come out the same, then the rumors are negated.  If the results are different, then other steps can be taken.  The costs certainly couldn’t be as high as the $256,000 spent to correct the omission of the Argument Against San Jose Measure B in the June Primary pamphlet and unknown costs related to the school board ballot issues in the November General Election outlined above. What are we afraid we might learn?

In conclusion, I assure you that my only interest in requesting these two types of audits is nothing more than the integrity of our election system and the Registrar of Voters Department.  If we don’t identify and correct employee and management issues whatever they are, we’ll have the SAME problems over and over again. If we never confirm that our current election system works, counts and tallies accurately, questions will remain.

The management and staff are good people. Let’s analyze everything with grace so that negative perceptions can be dispelled.

Sincerely,

Sharon Sweeney