Supervisors Bolster O.C. Elections Office

Orange County supervisors added $1.1 million to the registration and elections budget and approved hiring 13 employees Tuesday, bolstering an elections department harshly criticized for problems during last year’s general election.

The unanimous decision came after the five supervisors heard from Latino and Vietnamese community and elected leaders, who endorsed the proposal by Registrar Rosalyn Lever.

Garden Grove Councilman Van Tran commended the county, Lever and her staff for the proposal, which was formulated after gathering public opinion and ideas at more than 10 meetings throughout the county. “This is the very first proposal in two decades to take on the elections process and revitalize it,” he told board members in their Santa Ana hearing room.

The proposal calls for a major reorganization of Lever’s department and also technology upgrades, community outreach, training for poll workers, more voter education and developing a program that uses county employees as poll workers.

Supervisor Todd Spitzer, who unveiled the plan last month, said he and Lever are still negotiating with union officials to allow county employees a paid day off to help at the polls.

Lever and her department came under fire for problems Nov. 7 that included 40,000 sample ballots being shipped late to Spanish- and Vietnamese-speaking voters. A Libertarian candidate was mislabeled a Republican on the ballot, a precinct opened without any ballots on election day and Spanish-speaking voters complained of problems in Santa Ana.

Latino community leaders criticized the county’s slow response to an inch-thick report they released in December based on a telephone survey of 1,275 Latinos, most of them Spanish speakers.

Of that number, 260 had reported some type of voting “incident.” Among the problems listed were polling places running out of ballots and voters intimidated or turned away by precinct workers.

Part of the registrar’s problems were attributed to a reduction in staff because of cutbacks after the county’s 1994 bankruptcy.

Lever said the $1.1 million would enable her to hire 13 employees, increasing her staff to 47.

She has said her department is understaffed to handle an election system for 2.1 million voters. By comparison, San Diego County, with a comparable population, has 56 employees in its registrar’s office, she said.

Since 1995, the registrar’s staff has decreased 33% because of the bankruptcy, yet has faced an 18% increase in voter registration. In addition, use of absentee ballots has increased 57%, according to the registrar’s figures.

At the meeting, supervisors were optimistic the funds and proposals would ensure that future elections run more smoothly.

“The bankruptcy took its toll in many ways, and Roz Lever’s department was no exception,” said Supervisor Jim Silva. “She received a lot of criticism. I think it’s about time this unfair treatment of Lever’s department be rectified.”