In baseball, three strikes send a player back to the dugout. In the criminal
justice system, it could land an individual in jail for life. Today at a
D.C. Council roundtable, residents may learn the penalty for officials at
the Board of Elections and Ethics who botched, in varying degrees, three
elections.
The first problem came during the February presidential preference primary.
After witnessing record numbers of voters coming to the polls in other
states, BOEE officials in the District failed to provide sufficient ballots
at several precincts, creating utter chaos. Then, in the September primary,
which focused on local political offices, phantom votes appeared and
disappeared; BOEE officials and those with Sequoia Voting Systems Inc., the
private California-based company providing voting machines and ballots,
couldn¹t explain adequately what actually happened. In the recent general
election, dozens of District citizens who sought to vote absentee either
received an incorrect ballot, or never received one; in the latter case they
were forced to stand in line at the BOEE; some didn¹t vote at all.
Why aren¹t BOEE folks emptying their desks?
The serial botchers aren¹t suffering a lack of resources; BOEE has a budget
of more than $5 million. Sequoia was paid nearly $461,000 for providing
ballots for the Nov. 4 election. BOEE Chairman Errol R. Arthur declined
through a spokesman to comment about elections problems or whether staff
should be invited to submit resignations.
Ward 3 Councilwoman Mary Cheh, the chairwoman of the special committee
investigating elections problems, hasn¹t reached the conclusion that
everyone at the agency, including its chairman, should be fired. But she is
plenty upset by the board¹s inability to carry out its prime mission.
³I have concerns up and down the line,² she says. Her roundtable will focus
on several issues including training of poll workers. There were complaints
that there weren¹t enough people at precincts. Some captains had never
worked the polls before and probably shouldn¹t have been given such
important assignments.
Further, Cheh says some results in the November election suggest ³the same
glitches² identified in Sequoia software during the September primary
continue to plague the system. Then, there are ballot issues ‹ absentee
ballots and bad ballot design.
³We are going to make a comprehensive set of recommendations,² says Cheh,
adding that she expects the legislation will deal with how the voter roll is
maintained, early voting, including whether there should be other venues for
such voting, and how the BOEE board is structured.
Although there aren¹t any more elections this year for the BOEE to mess up,
the issues that Cheh and residents have identified are significant. They
have the potential of eroding the public¹s confidence in the most basic
function of the democratic process ‹ voting.
That¹s reason enough for the council and Mayor Adrian M. Fenty to seriously
consider making changes in the board and staff leadership.
Jonetta Rose Barras, an author and political analyst, can be reached at
[email protected]
