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# Fw: election fun!?

- To: "Global Sales" <salestalk@dieboldes.com>
- Subject: Fw: election fun!?
- From: "Steve Knecht" <skglobal@earthlink.net>
- Date: Sun, 10 Feb 2002 08:32:16 -0800

    FYI
    ----- Original Message -----
    From: Orth, Brandi <BOrth@fresno.ca.gov>
    To: John Elder (E-mail) <jelder@spectrumltd.com>; Steve Knecht (E-mail)
    <skglobal@earthlink.net>
    Sent: Saturday, February 09, 2002 2:39 PM
    Subject: FW: election fun!?

    See - this is what would have happened to us if we didn't get the absentees
    in time.  Thanks goodness you guys came through for us.  Thanks.

    > -----Original Message-----
    > From: tony@dcn.davis.ca.us [SMTP:tony@dcn.davis.ca.us]
    > Sent: Friday, February 08, 2002 8:59 AM
    > To: ccac-elec-net@spoke.dcn.davis.ca.us
    > Subject: election fun!?
    >
    > this is from today's SFChronicle...
    >
    > ==========================================================================
    > ======
    >
    >  www.sfgate.com
    >
    > Bedeviled S.F. Elections Dept. short of absentee ballots
    > Not again -- new S.F. voting oddity pops up Absentee ballots in short
    > supply
    >
    > Rachel Gordon, Chronicle Staff Writer Friday, February 8, 2002 ©2002 San
    > Francisco Chronicle
    >
    >  URL:
    > http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2002/02/08/MN49368.DTL
    >
    >
    >  San Francisco -- The San Francisco Elections Department, already on the
    > defensive for a series of recent missteps, has come up with an unusual
    > solution to a shortage of absentee ballots -- voters are marking their
    > choices on photocopies, and workers will transfer the results to real
    > ballots when they're available.
    >
    >  The latest problem stems from a printing snafu that is out of San
    > Francisco's control. Critics, however, raised questions yesterday about
    > whether the integrity of the March 5 election had already been
    > compromised.
    >
    >  "Oh boy, that really invites problems," said Ross Mirkarimi, spokesman
    > for Harry Britt's campaign for the Assembly. "The more layers and steps
    > you add to the elections process only invites more suspicion."
    >
    >  State elections officials say everything is on the up-and-up, and note
    > that two other counties in California are doing the same thing as San
    > Francisco.
    >
    >  But San Francisco's Elections Department has been under intense public
    > scrutiny, and anything out of the ordinary draws attention. Secretary of
    > State Bill Jones found problems with the vote count in the November 2000
    > election. Questions also were raised about ballot security in last fall's
    > election, although no wrongdoing was uncovered.
    >
    >  Supervisor Mark Leno, who is running against Britt in the Assembly's 13th
    > District, asked Jones' office earlier this week to observe San Francisco's
    > election next month.
    >
    >  Now comes the snag with absentee ballots. Because there are so many local
    > and state races going before voters, most people in San Francisco will be
    > marking three ballots. People who opted to vote early at City Hall this
    > week were handed two original ballots and one that was photocopied.
    >
    >  The printer couldn't get all the originals printed on time, forcing city
    > officials to come up with a backup plan: Have voters mark photocopies and
    > then use elections workers to transfer the votes to the real ballots by
    > hand when they're available.
    >
    >  It just so happens that the problem ballots contain the most contentious
    > local races, including those for public defender, assessor and Assembly.
    >
    >  Cindy MacKenzie, a spokeswoman for the Department of Elections, said the
    > department would transfer the results "in a totally open process, where
    > the public can observe it every step of the way."
    >
    >  MacKenzie said as of yesterday, 94 people had been given photocopied
    > ballots. Elections workers will begin transferring the votes to real
    > ballots Feb. 26. They won't be counted until after the polls close on
    > election day.
    >
    >  Jeff Sheehy was one of the voters who picked up the photocopied ballot at
    > City Hall. He was troubled when he saw it.
    >
    >  "My vote is going to be revoted -- marked by someone else -- in an
    > election where there might be close races," Sheehy said. "It's scary."
    >
    >
    >  Procedures will be in place to assure that the accuracy is checked and
    > double-checked, MacKenzie said.
    >
    >  Alfie Charles, spokesman for the secretary of state's office, which
    > oversees elections in California, said San Francisco was handling the
    > ballots correctly.
    >
    >  "They are required to provide the ballots to the voters, so the copying
    > of a ballot card, and the transferring of the vote to the real ballot
    > card, is the proper way to do it," Charles said.
    >
    >  What's unfortunate, he said, is that the Department of Elections did not
    > alert the public of the problem from the get-go.
    >
    >  "We would have recommended that they publicly announce their situation
    > and let people know what's happening before the voting began," Charles
    > said. He added that San Francisco elections officials had not alerted his
    > office of the problem, either.
    >
    >  Mono and Mariposa counties also are missing some of their absentee
    > ballots.
    >
    >  All three counties contracted with the same printing company, Sequoia
    > Voting Systems. Hugh Webb, vice president of the company's printing
    > division, said he hoped to get San Francisco its remaining ballots by
    > Saturday.
    >
    >  E-mail Rachel Gordon at rgordon@sfchronicle.com.
    >
    >  ©2002 San Francisco Chronicle Page A - 21

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