Election Oversight Top Issue in Clerk-Recorder Race

With six candidates, the race for Ventura County clerk and recorder has the biggest field on Tuesday’s local ballot.

The job’s principal duties include issuing marriage licenses and recording births, deaths and property transactions.

But the clerk’s biggest responsibility is to monitor elections, a highly-sensitive task that gained new prominence after the 2000 Florida election debacle.

Indeed, most candidates are campaigning to modernize Ventura County’s election system, which still relies on punch cards.

If approved Tuesday, a California bond measure could give counties a $3-to-$1 match to pay for new computerized voting machines.

While the county’s punch-card system has one of the lower error rates in the state, candidates still believe it would be worthwhile to modernize to a touch-screen system. To update Ventura County’s system could cost upwards of

$5 million, officials said.

For now, county voters must decide who among the half a dozen candidates is most qualified to serve as clerk and recorder, a post that pays $110,000 a year.

The candidates are assistant county recorder Philip J. Schmit, Oxnard City Clerk Daniel Martinez, former county Republican Party Chairwoman Jackie Rodgers, county Board of Education trustee Yvonne Gallegos Bodle, Simi Valley financial executive John Reid and Moorpark attorney Michael Wesner.

In a contest that has mostly been friendly and low-key, Schmit, who is backed by incumbent Richard Dean, and Rodgers have at times come under fire for issues involving their personal and political backgrounds.

Schmit, 57, acknowledges being audited by the federal government for failing to pay sufficient income tax from 1989 to 1994. But he blamed the matter on an accountant’s error and said he has since paid what he owed--about $27,000 in back taxes, interest and penalties.

Schmit, a former gas company service technician who joined the recorder’s office 12 years ago, says the clerk-recorder post is a natural next step in his public service career.

In addition to Dean’s support, Schmit has received contributions from Assessor Dan Goodwin, Treasurer-Tax Collector Hal Pittman and Fire Chief Bob Roper. Schmit has raised about $20,000, including $6,500 in personal loans.

Rodgers, 37, who resigned as head of the county’s Republican Party to join the clerk’s race, has had to defend her ability to oversee elections impartially. She took charge of the local GOP two years ago as the group’s first black chair and as a champion of the party’s conservative wing.

The Oxnard real estate agent, who once worked in the Santa Barbara County clerk’s office, says she would never let politics influence her job. Rodgers said she believes her election would encourage higher turnout and participation among female and minority voters.

“I just feel I can do an awful lot to break those barriers,” Rodgers said. She has raised about $18,000, more than half in loans from herself and two aides to Sen. Tom McClintock (R-Thousand Oaks). Contributors also include California Republican Party Chairman Shawn Steel.

Bodle, 62, of Oxnard, has raised the most money to date, with about $38,000, mostly from personal loans. She holds a doctorate in policy and organizational studies from UC Santa Barbara and teaches accounting at Ventura College.

In addition to updating the county’s voting system, Bodle wants to do more to increase turnout. She is supported by the largest county government employees union.

More Proposals for Assisting Voters

Martinez, 43, has served as Oxnard’s clerk for nine years. He says the county clerk should work more closely with individual cities and schools to develop voter education programs, including cable news programming to explain bond measures and other ballot initiatives.

He also proposes extending the recorder’s hours of operation on Fridays to allow more home buyers to complete real estate closings in time to move in on weekends. Most of his $22,000 campaign contributions are from personal loans.

Reid, 58, of Simi Valley, is chief financial officer for a Northridge software firm. He became interested in the election process during the Florida recount.

He wants to equip voting precincts with laptop computers to check voter eligibility at the polls; the county now uses printed lists. He also wants to change machines from the punch-card system to an ATM-style touch system. Reid has raised slightly less than $1,800, including an $1,100 personal loan.

Wesner, 52, an attorney and county planning commissioner who lives in Moorpark, says his legal background has prepared him for the clerk-recorder job because he has often filed death certificates and obtained title information from the office.

“I understand what the average taxpayer faces when they go to the counter,” he said.

Wesner thinks the county should consider accepting electronically notarized records and should open a full-service clerk-recorder branch in eastern Ventura County. Wesner’s campaign war chest is listed at $42, which he spent to attend two Republican lunches.