Shelley’s Replacement Has a Challenging Job

Re “Secretary of State Shelley Steps Down,” Feb. 5: I used to wonder, what does a statewide secretary of state do? Is it an important job? Since Katherine Harris, Florida’s secretary of state, brought us a troubled election in 2000, and Kenneth Blackwell, secretary of state in Ohio, presided over election irregularities in 2004, I have answered my own question. The job is very important. Whether or not the accusations made against him are true, Kevin Shelley, as secretary of state, clearly acted to ensure the fairness of our elections. He refused to certify the use of electronic voting machines in several counties because they lacked paper trails. And he was acting to require that all voting machines contain a verifiable paper trail in time for the 2006 elections.

The governor and the Legislature will be picking a replacement for Shelley. That person must continue the work of upholding the honesty of our elections. The governor and legislators need to choose a secretary of state who is committed to making every vote count, so that what happened in Florida and Ohio can’t happen in California.

Jacqueline Riskin

Berkeley