High standards needed for our elections

This is a bad thing. If that seems like stating the obvious, apparently that’s just what is needed. Because the response of Assistant Chief Elections Officer Jim Irizarry was to blame the printer. 

It would seem unnecessary to expound on how that answer falls short, but neither subtlety nor irony seem to abound in Mr. Church’s realm. 

Hence, we are compelled to point out what anyone who has been in the business of dealing with printers can tell you — there’s a final sign-off built into the process, in which the person tells the printer it looks good and go ahead. 

Maybe terrorist frogmen stormed the printer’s office and stole what Irizarry called the “mapping instructions for the construction of the ballot.” Maybe a rogue GPS gave bad directions and, rather than follow the map, the printer wandered down a dead-end street and got his vehicle stuck on the railroad tracks. That’s not what happened, of course, and it is quite likely the printer is a fine individual who was surprised to be blamed by Irizarry for, in the latter’s words, failing to “precisely follow” instructions.

Here’s another possibility. Maybe someone in Mr. Church’s office failed to follow the historic and precise final step of print jobs known, in the highly technical parlance, as proofing.

WHO’S IN CHARGE HERE? Blaming the printer is a convenient excuse, but that’s not where the buck stops. Please note that the person who responded was Irizarry. Note that his title is assistant chief elections officer. That’s because Mr. Church is the chief elections officer.

If you’re wondering why the assistant and not the chief is responding to an elections foul-up, that’s a good question, and it’s another distressing element to this sorry story.

Indeed, in the news accounts, it is noticeable that Mr. Church is nowhere near this story. Apparently, he’s not available. That’s fine. But it begs the question of why he has the job, indeed, why he ran for it again just two years ago, if, in the end, he doesn’t want to assume the full responsibilities of the job.

In the interests of full disclosure: For the past several election cycles, I have co-hosted a live Election Night show on Peninsula TV. Mr. Church’s office has been one of the underwriters of that show.

IF ONLY THAT WERE ALL: It would be nice, given the tenor of the times, to see this as an isolated error, except that it’s not.

I’m hearing multiple reports this cycle of people receiving more than one ballot. I know of one person who received four ballots.

We could always call the Elections Office and ask about it, but I don’t feel the need to listen to someone blame the post office for this mistake.

There are at least two other election/ballot screwups we can detail before this one. Two years ago, some ballots were mailed late because they didn’t include the race for the county Board of Education. And in a prior election, the ballot omitted a judge who was seeking re-election. I’ve forgotten who was blamed for those mistakes.

At what point does this become a pattern and call into question the effectiveness of Mr. Church at running his office? It’s a good question and it warrants further exploration. He has had this job since 2011. He ought to have the hang of it by now.

It’s distressing, even troubling. The credibility of our elections is under severe attack and there is more uneasiness about ballot and potential meddling than I have seen in my lifetime. Incorrect ballots do nothing to reassure us. In a county where we’re used to the fastest results in the state, we now vote by mail, which means ballots that are mailed late in the election cycle or are turned in on Election Day. And that means slower counts and election results that sometimes take weeks to determine. 

We want to believe that the elections are conducted professionally and with the highest standards. In one of the most consequential elections in a generation, we need reassurance, not a consistent pattern of ballot mistakes that invites skepticism and concern.

SPEAKING OF MISTAKES: Yes, my math was off — just a bit — in last week’s item about the house marked down — by 70%, not 700. 

Mark Simon is a veteran journalist, whose career included 15 years as an executive at SamTrans and Caltrain. He can be reached at marksimon@smdailyjournal.com.