Even though the president of the United States, the local city
council members, and the Dist. 4 County Supervisor were decided
over a month ago, some of the most anticipated results from San
Benito County’s Nov. 2 election have just come in.
Hollister – Even though the president of the United States, the local city council members, and the Dist. 4 County Supervisor were decided over a month ago, some of the most anticipated results from San Benito County’s Nov. 2 election have just come in.
In a letter that will be presented to the Board of Supervisors today, the United States Department of Justice said head elections official John Hodges and his staff succeeded in making the November election more accommodating to Spanish-speakers.
After the March election, the DOJ had determined the elections office was not providing enough resources to Spanish-speaking voters. The department then issued a decree that the county fix these problems, and threatened to sue if they weren’t remedied in November.
But after monitoring eight of the 26 county polling areas on Nov. 2, the DOJ determined the county had complied with all the requirements, according to the letter, written by Bert Russ of the department’s Voting Section.
“At the outset, we note the progress that the county has made pursuant to the decree, and the great improvement in the opportunity for the county’s minority language citizens to obtain useful information and vote as equal and effective participants in the political process,” Russ wrote.
Hodges and his staff improved the voting process by providing 54 bilingual poll workers in comparison to October 2003’s 16, translating voter information into Spanish, and providing a bilingual version of its official ballot, according to the letter.
While the DOJ’s decree will remain in effect until Dec. 2006, the letter is a sign that Hodges and the county are headed in the right direction, according to County Counsel Karen Forcum.
“This is just a starting point for the county and the elections department. After the decree expires, we intend to continue to follow its requirements. The good thing with regard to what is represented in the letter is that I clarified with Bert Russ that they (the DOJ) don’t have any intention of going to court,” Forcum said.
Although the county isn’t completely out of hot water with the DOJ until Dec. 2006, Hodges said he was proud of his staff for pulling off what he thought was a very successful election.
“We went way out of our way to make sure we were in compliance with the DOJ. We strove to really reach out to all voters, and this year we really were able to make it count. Those guys (from the DOJ) have a job to do and they came in and outlined it for us, and we worked with them. It helped the whole office and it helped the voters, ” Hodges said.
But now that the elections office has begun providing Spanish voting materials and bilingual poll workers, the DOJ letter outlined some suggestions for the future. In particular, Russ and the other DOJ employees he observed the election with would like to see San Benito County’s poll workers better trained, the letter states.
DOJ employees at several of the polling places reported seeing voters who were not on the list being turned away without being offered provisional ballots. They also saw voters being sent back and forth between the polling place and the county court house when poll workers did not know where else to send them, according to the letter.
Hodges said these problems will be fixed as poll workers become more experienced.
“They only work once or twice every other year, and a lot of these poll workers, this was their first time. But for their first time, they did quite well,” he said.
Finally, the letter reports there were several complaints at the Ladd Lane School polling place that the voting machines were “loose” and didn’t align candidate names and boxes properly.
Hodges said this was a common problem among voters who were unfamiliar with the voting equipment.
Ruben Lopez, the president of the San Benito County League of United Latin American Citizens, said Monday he had heard of another complaint at the Ladd Lane polling place. Lopez acknowledged the county did make a big improvement in reaching out to Spanish-speakers, but said he had heard that when a bilingual poll worker was sent to Ladd Lane School, the other English speaking poll workers weren’t happy to see him, Lopez said.
“They practically ran him out of there,” said Lopez, who worked the polls at the Veterans of Foreign Wars post polling place.
Hodges could not immediately be reached for comment.
But despite these snags in the process, said Supervisor Pat Loe, this election day was a smooth one that she hopes will pave the way for better elections in the future.
“I think this election went very well, and hopefully they will continue to go well until we are out of hot water with the Department of Justice. But I don’t think anything can be perfected in just one try,” she said.
Jessica Quandt covers politics for the Free Lance. Reach her at 831-637-5566 ext. 330 or at [email protected].
