Registrar takes blame for ballot error Registrar takes blame for ballot error (May 27, 2005)

Ginnold says listing names in alphabetical order was wrong
by Jeb Bing

The names of the candidates running for the open seat on the Pleasanton City Council in the special election June 7 will appear in the wrong order on the ballot because of computer and proofreading errors by the Alameda County Registrar's office.

By law, names of candidates seeking public office must be drawn at random, and those candidates' names must appear in the order in which they were drawn. The law was passed by the Legislature years ago to make sure no one benefited by being first on the ballot because their last name started with the letter "A."

In the random drawing for the Pleasanton special election, the first name drawn was Council candidate Jerry Thorne. Candidates Dan Faustina and Brian Arkin followed in that order in the three-man race.

Although that's the order in which their "Candidates' Statement" appears in the Sample Ballot booklet that has been distributed to registered voters, the ballot itself, which will appear on touchscreens used in the election, is alphabetical, with Arkin first, Faustina second and Thorne last.

"I'm not sure that it makes all that much of a difference in this special election where most people will have made up their minds, but it could," said Thorne.

Arkin said that it didn't make any difference to him when his name was supposed to be last, but he's glad to be at the top of the ballot.

Elaine Ginnold, Assistant Alameda County Registrar, said her office takes full responsibility for the mistake, explaining that a computer erroneously printed the ballot alphabetically and her office failed to catch the error while proofreading. By the time Thorne saw the mistake in his Sample Ballot, after telling supporters he would be listed first, it was too late.

"I apologize for the mistake," Ginnold said. "It was clearly our error but the ballots had already been printed and sent out by the time we caught it."

Legally, since the June 7 ballot doesn't follow the guidelines mandated by state law, the election could be challenged with the results possibly being invalidated. City Atty. Michael Roush said he has never heard of that happening, and Ginnold agreed.

"Of course anything can be challenged in an election, but I know of no instances where there have been minor mistakes on the ballot that someone has taken us to court," Ginnold said. "This has never happened before in Alameda County and we are looking carefully at all of the steps we take to make sure the Sample Ballot information and the ballot, itself, are correct. We want to make sure this never happens again."

Steven Bocian, Deputy City Manager, said Ginnold's office prepared a draft news release for the city of Pleasanton to issue so that voters would not think it was a local government mistake.

"We initially told her (Ginnold) that we wanted an apology to make it clear that it was not Pleasanton's error," Bocian said. "But the more we read through her draft release and the explanations required to explain what happened and state that it wasn't our fault, we decided as a city government to stay out of it and let her do the explaining directly."

In the first eight days of early voting in the June 7 election on touchscreens at the City Clerk's office, 102 voters have cast ballots. The early voting service closes at 5 p.m. today.

A total 11,818 out of the 38,330 registered voters in Pleasanton now have permanent absentee ballots, with many having sent in their ballots already. That number has not been tallied. Forms to request absentee ballots are in the Sample Ballot booklet and must be sent to the Registrar's office at 1225 Fallon St., Room G-1, Oakland, CA 94612. These requests must be received - not just postmarked - by close of business Tuesday, May 31.

Those interested in talking to the candidates can meet with them tomorrow and next Saturday at Farmers Market. Televised forums in which all three candidates discuss election issues will be aired on Comcast Channel 26 at 9 p.m. tonight and again June 3, and at 7 a.m. and 9 p.m. Thursday June 3.

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