A Little Too Absent for Mail-In Ballot

Frank Adams’ absentee ballot arrived in plenty of time for the presidential election but the former Long Beach Republican won’t be voting. He died three years ago.

Adams’ ballot showed up Friday in the office of Woodland Hills attorney Bryce Neff, who handled the deceased retiree’s estate. Though it might be argued that Adams did generally fit the description of absentee, Neff did not even consider voting in the dead man’s place.

“I don’t think Ross (Perot) has a chance anyway,” Neff said.

The problem began three weeks ago, when Neff received a voter information pamphlet for Adams, which contained a form allowing the voter to request an absentee ballot. Instead of throwing the package away, Adams returned it.

“I thought I’d covered it pretty well when I took a red pen and said, ‘This man passed away,’ ” Neff said. “I guess not.”

At first, the county denied that there was any error. Marcia Ventura, a spokeswoman for the county registrar’s office, which oversees voter registration, initially declared that it was impossible for a ballot to have been sent unless Adams, who had been a machinist, or someone posing as Adams had filled out a formal request and signed his name to it.

“I don’t believe that they would have received a ballot,” Ventura said, despite assurances that one had indeed arrived at Neff’s office. “The only way you can get an absentee ballot is to fill out a form or write to us requesting one.”

Later, however, Beatriz Valdez, assistant county registrar-recorder/county clerk, confirmed that the ballot had been sent mistakenly.

“I’ve never seen this before,” Valdez said. A computer operator, she said, had mistaken the returned voter information pamphlet for a request for an absentee ballot.

“It was just an error,” Valdez said, adding that the county planned to delete Adams from the voter rolls. “They put it in the pile to be processed” and mailed back to absentee voters.

Southern California voting records showed that--at least until Tuesday--Los Angeles County considered Adams to be alive and well--and residing in Neff’s office.

“We do show him as an active registered voter on the file out of Woodland Hills,” Ventura said.

Neff’s wife, Suzi, who works as his secretary, said she hoped the publicity would push the county to remove Adams’ name from its register.

“I just don’t think dead people should keep getting ballots,” Suzi Neff said.