Say Yes to Registrar Funds

The Orange County Board of Supervisors has an easy call when the registrar of voters seeks an extra $1.1 million in the budget: Just say yes.

Registrar Rosalyn Lever says she expects to ask for the money, which will let her hire 13 more workers, at the board’s meeting Tuesday. The extra workers will be needed for a variety of chores and will be most visible next election day, when they can help the county avoid the types of problems that occurred in November.

While the rest of the country tried to figure out who won in Florida, some Orange County voters complained that sample ballots arrived late, a candidate’s party was mislabeled, and one precinct received no ballots. Some Spanish speakers at Santa Ana polling places reported that the election sites ran out of ballots; other voters said they were turned away.

Many of those problems can be dealt with by hiring more workers. Lever’s office, yet another casualty of the 1994 bankruptcy, now has 34 workers. San Diego County, which has about the same population as Orange County, has 56 employees.

Supervisor Todd Spitzer, head of the Board of Supervisors’ election committee, said he will urge approval of the $1.1-million increase. Lever said she plans to create an elections committee of community representatives and county officials to develop a management and financial plan. That’s a smart move. Getting more people involved will give a wider group a stake in seeing that the office functions well. A smooth operation is important when it comes to voting. Government needs to ensure that everyone who wants to vote can do so.

It also will be important to train the new workers. Lever said that in November, 1,100 of the 6,700 poll workers did not receive any training.

It is unfortunate that the county still does not have money to train poll workers. Depending on experienced poll workers to provide on-the-job training to new workers while also doing their own work increases the chances of something going wrong.

The county grand jury said in a report on November’s election that the public “has an expectation of perfection” when it comes to voting. It also found that problems were not due to outdated voting equipment and suggested increasing the staff in the registrar’s office.

The grand jury also pointedly titled its report “If It Ain’t Broke, Don’t Fix It,” concluding that the county’s punch-card ballot casting system worked well. It did propose testing a touch-screen system on a small scale, which is a good idea.

The priority should be getting the current system to work. The extra money and added workers should go a long way toward reaching that important goal.