Long Beach Tries to Untangle Web of Missing Ballots, Election Mix-Ups

It took a couple of days, but the city clerk’s office found the missing ballots from a North Long Beach precinct.

The Case of the Missing Ballots was just one of a series of election mix-ups, some of which occurred before Election Day.

As a result, Mayor Ernie Kell, elected last week as full-time mayor, said he wants the City Council to appoint a task force to find out what went wrong.

City Clerk Shelba Powell, who handled the city elections, attributed the confusion to the unwieldiness of this year’s race. Unlike past June elections--in which the local ballot usually consisted of a single council district runoff--this month’s mayoral runoff involved all nine of the city’s council districts.

Results Delayed

That made the election “nine times bigger than any election we’ve had in June,” Powell said.

On Election Day, initial results were delayed for at least two hours after the polls closed. About 1,000 bent absentee ballots had to be repunched because officials feared the ballots would not properly feed through the counting machine. The count was so slow that some candidates broke up their election parties without knowing whether they had won or lost.

More trouble followed. Ballots from two Long Beach precincts were left at one of the Los Angeles registrar-recorder’s check-in centers. And seven of the county’s ballots were accidentally delivered to Long Beach, Powell said. The misplaced ballots were exchanged early Wednesday.

Two other sets of ballots were found locked in plastic chests with unused election materials. The ballots should have been placed in cardboard boxes for delivery to county check-in centers, Powell said. The error was not corrected until at least 12 hours after the polls closed.

Found in Warehouse

The missing ballots from a polling place at 6430 Long Beach Blvd. ended up at a county warehouse and were not discovered until Thursday afternoon. It was not clear how the mix-up occurred. Powell said a county inspector had put them in the trunk of her car with some county ballots, but had taken pains to keep the two separated.

Powell said she could not determine how many ballots had been missing, but there weren’t enough of them to change election results. There are 373 precincts in the city.

Powell said she may suggest that the city allow the county to process its vote in future June elections.

The problems started with the city’s sample ballot. A printing company under contract with the city failed to include Spanish translations of two candidates’ statements.

In the mayor’s race, Kell rolled to victory over Councilwoman Jan Hall, with 60% of the vote. He outpolled her in in every district, including her own.

The central Long Beach district, which has the city’s largest minority communities, posted the lowest voter turnout of any area--despite the Rev. Jesse Jackson’s presence on the Democratic primary ballot and a school board race involving two black candidates.

The largest turnout was in Kell’s District 5 in East Long Beach, where 14,149 votes were cast. Kell received 10,126 votes there, nearly one-fourth of his final tally.

The second-highest turnout was in Hall’s District 3, with 13,260 ballots. Kell topped Hall there by 416 votes.

Overall voter turnout was 45.4%. The city clerk’s office had predicted a 50% turnout.