Vote Totals on Measures Were Wrong : Election: County officials gave inaccurate tabulations to the state. The error did not affect results on the propositions.

By DARYL KELLEY

Nov. 11, 1992 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

Chagrined Ventura County elections officials confirmed Tuesday that they fed inaccurate vote tabulations on 13 state ballot propositions to the secretary of state’s office last week.

The foul-up, which reversed Ventura County’s yes and no votes for each proposition, did not involve enough votes to change the results on any of the statewide ballot measures, state officials said.

“I don’t know of any other county that screwed up, but I did,” Ventura County elections chief Bruce Bradley said Tuesday. “I linked their yes (computer line) to my no, and vice versa. So on Thursday when we found out, we corrected it.”

The error was made only on the ballot measures, Bradley said.

Ventura County tabulations in other state and federal races, such as the two for the U. S. Senate, were fed accurately to Sacramento by hooking them up to computer lines identified by the names of the candidates, he said.

In local ballot measures and races, there were no statewide feeds and accurate results were released, Bradley said.

“Everything we released here was correct,” he said. “It was only what we transmitted to the secretary of state on those 13 state measures that was wrong.”

There was, however, one additional glitch election night, Bradley said. The totals the county gave the secretary of state represented the votes from 635 of the 636 precincts, because the count for one Oak Park precinct was late and Bradley did not want to hold up a final tally for the state, he said.

The several hundred votes from that precinct have since been added to the state total, he said.

Melissa Warren, spokeswoman for Secretary of State March Fong Eu, said the errors did not affect the outcome of any proposition, since Ventura County’s voting trends generally jibed with the rest of the state and because Ventura County voters are a small part of the state total.

The closest ballot measure was Proposition 162, which shifts control of funds in the public employees’ retirement systems. The measure won by 187,101 votes statewide, according to semiofficial results. It lost by 5,528 votes in Ventura County.

Such mistakes are not rare, Warren said.

“It’s not the first time,” she said. “And undoubtedly it will not be the last time. That is why this is the semiofficial canvas.”

Over the next three weeks, California counties will count late-arriving absentee ballots and provisional and damaged ballots, Warren said. Then they will file a final count with the state by Dec. 1. An official count is expected to be released Dec. 14.

John Flynn, chairman of the county Board of Supervisors, said he had just congratulated Bradley on a particularly smooth election when he learned of the mistake Tuesday.

“It’s regrettable,” Flynn said. “But these are human beings who run these things.”

Bradley, elections director for a year and a half, said the error was the result of a change in format by the secretary of state’s office.

“Everyone else caught the change, but I didn’t,” he said. “It’s just mea culpa . Hey, we make mistakes. But I’ve learned my lesson and will be more careful next time.”

Because of a computer hook-up error, inaccurate Ventura County votes were submitted to the secretary of state’s office last week. Here are the latest totals available from the secretary of state and the Ventura County registrar’s office. Some absentee and provisional ballots remain to be counted. Final figures will be certified Dec. 14.

Statewide

100% Precincts Reporting: Votes (%)

155--Public Schools General Obligation Bond Yes: 5,094,281 (52) No: 4,726,158 (48)

156--Passenger Rail and Clean Air Bond Act Yes: 4,597,863 (48) No: 4,949,936 (52)

157--Toll Highways Yes: 2,672,463 (28) No: 6,801,998 (72)

158--Office of the California Analyst Yes: 3,653,822 (40) No: 5,500,912 (60)

159--Office of the Auditor General Yes: 3,719,412 (41) No: 5,337,099 (59)

160--Property Tax Exemption for Military Surviving Spouse Yes: 4,949,531 (52) No: 4,637,434 (48)

161--Physician-Assisted Death Yes: 4,529,829 (46) No: 5,381,128 (54)

162--Public Employees’ Retirement Systems Yes: 4,737,315 (51) No: 4,561,270 (49)

163--Snack Tax Yes: 6,521,785 (67) No: 3,257,240 (33)

164--Term Limits for Congress Yes: 6,127,435 (63) No: 3,547,398 (37)