Ventura Co. Tells of Error in Vote Count

By DARYL KELLEY

Nov. 11, 1992 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

VENTURA —

Chagrined Ventura County election officials confirmed Tuesday that they had 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 outcome for any of the statewide 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 U.S. Senate, were fed accurately to Sacramento by computer lines identified with the names of the candidates, he said.

All the results for local ballot measures and races were accurate, Bradley said.

Melissa Warren, spokeswoman for the secretary of state, said the error did not affect the outcome of any proposition because 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 canvass.”

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 Ventura 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 1 1/2 years, 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 hookup error, inaccurate Ventura County votes on the statewide ballot propositions were submitted to the secretary of state’s office last week. Here are the correct totals based on the numbers given to the secretary of state on Nov. 4.

Propositions

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%)