Problems at Polls Need Fixing

The primary election was held almost two weeks ago, but still no one is quite sure who won the Democratic nomination in the 40th Congressional District. And regardless of how the “official” tally comes out this week, there will be many voters who still won’t be sure.

The issue of who won the Democratic nomination is important, but so is voter confidence in the county’s ballot-tallying process.

Some confusion was to be expected in the 40th District because of the write-in campaign waged by Bruce W. Sumner, the chairman of the county Democratic Central Committee. Sumner was trying to prevent Art Hoffmann, a Lyndon H. LaRouche Jr. follower and the only Democratic candidate on the 40th District ballot, from becoming the party’s nominee.

When the computer tally was completed, the “unofficial” count showed Sumner to be the apparent winner by a 1,459-vote margin. A few days later, however, county Registrar of Voters Al Olson disclosed that a subsequent hand count of write-in votes in each precinct showed that Sumner had received nearly 2,000 fewer write-in votes than the reported computer results. The last hand tally showed Sumner losing by 262 votes, a difference of 1,721 from the election-night computer tally.

Some people wrote in other names, beside Sumner’s, such as Mickey Mouse or Donald Duck. That happens in many elections. Other people surely wrote in Sumner’s name and didn’t put a punch mark in the square next to it, or punched the ballot and forgot to write in the name. Both procedures had to be done to make the vote valid. But it would be highly unusual if that happened on 1,721 ballots.

Also contributing to the confusion and difference in tally was an apparent breakdown in procedure, instruction and performance at the polls. At least two precinct workers have said that they were advised, incorrectly, by a county election official that there could be no write-in votes for Sumner. And several voters have contacted The Times to report that they were denied a chance to vote for Sumner and that precinct workers refused the information, pens and pencils they needed to cast a write-in vote. And from evidence on hand it seems certain that some election workers missed counting write-in votes for Sumner.

We can’t speculate on how many votes Sumner may have lost. Or on the outcome of the recount Sumner says he will seek as soon as the election results become official this week.

A recount is certainly needed. So is a detailed explanation to voters. The county’s new vote-tallying system seemed to work well in its first major outing, except for the breakdown in communications in the 40th District. What happened must be fully determined--and corrected.

It is important that voters not only have confidence in the system that tallies their ballots but in the ability of their election workers to make the system perform with the accuracy it was designed to provide.