Sunday, November 08, 2009
Editorial: Minor election problems add up
Montgomery County election officials had several problems this year that demand further investigation.
From the RoundTable blog
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Montgomery County residents might ask just what the heck is going on at the elections office. Voter Registrar Randy Wertz and his team faced a string of niggling problems this year. None is individually damning, but together they warrant a closer look.
The first problem hit a weeks ago when the office was late sending out absentee ballots. The office had a reasonable explanation for what happened and missed the mailing deadline by only a couple of days. It was not the end of the world.
Then Election Day arrived and the troubles mounted.
A faulty equation in a spreadsheet delayed reporting results. It took several hours to isolate and fix the problem.
To their credit, election officials took the time to get it right at the end of what had already been a long day. They made sure turnout counts were accurate before reporting them to the state.
Things went less well with one school board race. Someone keyed in an incorrect number resulting in candidate Leonard Session being reported the winner. When tabulators corrected the error, it turned out he had lost to Jamie Bond.
It is important to note that these were not problems with electronic voting machines. Those devices have some inherent problems of their own, but all of the problems this year originated with humans and were correctable.
None was a major error, and Wertz's team quickly and appropriately addressed them. Nevertheless, the public deserves a fuller accounting of what happened. How, for example, did a mistake sneak into a spreadsheet that should have been created and tested months ago? And why had some turnout numbers not yet been reported days after the election?
The public trusts the voter registrar to protect the most vital part of our representative democracy. When small errors accumulate, it is only natural to question what else might be wrong.
We hope there is nothing more to it. In the past, Wertz has run a solid operation for Montgomery County. Perhaps this really was just a string of bad luck. A thorough public investigation into these incidents by the county and the State Board of Elections could reassure them of that. Follow it up with a plan to ensure these things do not happen again.
