Almost two weeks after the Nov. 2 election, head elections
official John Hodges and his staff still have not posted campaign
finance information online as ordered by the Board of Supervisors
in August.
Hollister – Almost two weeks after the Nov. 2 election, head elections official John Hodges and his staff still have not posted campaign finance information online as ordered by the Board of Supervisors in August.
The board voted in August to make Hodges’ office post Form 460s, the documents detailing how much money candidates have received in donations and from whom, on the Internet. This would allow for easy public monitoring of candidates’ campaign donations. All candidates and office holders are required to fill out the forms for donations of more than $99, but they are not currently posted online for San Benito County.
Despite the supervisors’ August decision and their initial push to make the 460s available online, their concern seems to have lessened significantly.
“We haven’t talked about that in a real long time,” said Supervisor Ruth Kesler Friday when asked about the board’s August decision.
Supervisor Reb Monaco also said he had not heard any updates on the situation.
“There doesn’t seem to be a big push, and I haven’t heard of anyone pushing for it more,” he said.
The board asked for the forms to be posted at the same time it was discussing creating an ethics commission and limiting campaign contributions. There is no specific deadline for the elections office to post the documents on the Internet, but Hodges told the board after their decision in August he would have the forms available for viewing online before the Nov. 2 election. But nothing is currently posted.
“Well, that’s John Hodges and that’s all I can say,” Kesler said Friday.
Hodges said a lack of resources and equipment would keep the 460s from being posted indefinitely.
“The board made a request, and they said they would like it to be online,” Hodges said of the August vote. “But right now we’re not equipped to do that. You have to get a scanner and go through the process to make it available online. But with the heavy, heavy registration and return of ballots this year, it just didn’t give us time.”
Hodges said Friday he didn’t know yet how much the equipment and staff needed to post the 460s online would cost or how long it would take to get them. He added he wasn’t entirely clear on how the process would work.
“I don’t fully understand what has to be done, but I understand there has to be a Web site and a scanner,” Hodges said Friday.
Under the board’s request, 460s would be posted on the San Benito County Web site, which already exists but does not currently have campaign finance information.
Hodges said he believed candidates’ 460s would eventually be posted online, but didn’t know how long it would be before that happened.
“That was a little extra that was requested, and that takes a little extra time and staff that we don’t have right now,” he said.
In the meantime, Hodges said concerned voters could always come down to his office to see the 460s first-hand.
Hodges has been under fire leading up to and continuing through the Nov. 2 election. In March, his office was sued by the Department of Justice for not employing enough resources for Spanish-speaking voters. Hodges underwent further criticism when his office allowed Dist. 5 supervisorial candidate Jaime De La Cruz’s campaign to illegally turn in voters’ absentee ballots for them.
Most recently, doubts arose when two ballot mix-ups happened within days of each other. The first was a misprint of the Sunnyslope Water District ballots, which told voters to vote for three candidates when there were only two available spots on the water board.
The second blunder occurred when multiple absentee ballots were mailed to individual San Benito County voters. Hodges said the software his office used had a glitch that caused more than one address label to be printed for some voters. He reassured voters, however, that only one ballot would be counted for each person.
The elections office is currently still in the process of counting ballots from the Nov. 2 election, a process Hodges said typically takes about three weeks.
Jessica Quandt is a staff writer for the Free Lance. Reach her at 831-637-5566 ext. 330 or at [email protected].
