After months of pressure from the US Department of Justice and
Hollister voters over a problematic March election, and several
absentee ballot blunders last week, all eyes were on head elections
official John Hodges during Tuesday’s election.
Hollister – After months of pressure from the US Department of Justice and Hollister voters over a problematic March election, and several absentee ballot blunders last week, all eyes were on head elections official John Hodges during Tuesday’s election.
“This was the hardest election I’ve been through in my 20 years as the elections official, but I feel we’ve proven ourselves (after March’s election),” Hodges said. “I feel the staff especially put in over 100 percent.”
The results of at least one race are still up in the air, though voting ended Tuesday night. In the race for San Juan Bautista’s City Council, for which there are two available spots, Dan Reed had only a five-vote lead over Ken Schipper. Since Hodges and his team are still counting “quite a few” absentee ballots, he said, “There is certainly a chance that those ballots could make a difference in that race. We’re going to go in and count those by hand.”
Even though it’s technically not quite over, Hodges said he and his staff view Tuesday’s election as a success, in spite of everything that led up to it.
Last week, thousands of absentee voters in the Sunnyslope Water District were surprised to learn their votes for Water District directors were invalid due to a misprinted ballot. Some voters balked at the elections office’s request that they come in to recast their vote in person, and worried that some people might not be able to make it to the court house to vote.
Just days later, several absentee voters reportedly found they had been mailed multiple ballots. Hodges blamed a glitch in the computer software system used to print mailing addresses, but reassured voters the strict process he and his staff went through in counting ballots would ensure no one’s vote was counted twice.
Hodges and his staff have also been criticized for not having enough resources for Spanish-speaking voters in the March election, and for giving improper advice regarding absentee ballots to Board of Supervisors candidate Jaime De La Cruz’s campaign in March.
But while the months and weeks leading up to the election were tumultuous at best, so far, Hodges says, it looks like he and his staff have managed to pull off at least election day itself without any major hitches.
“I think they made tremendous changes in the clerk’s office, and John and his staff should be complimented for doing such a good job,” said Hollister Marshal and City Council member Robert Scattini, who said as far as he knew the election had gone smoothly.
Hodges said Wednesday he also had not heard of any problems with the election.
“Right now we’re processing a lot of absentee ballots that came in two to three days before the election, and we’re still counting the new ballots from the Sunnyslope Water District. I’m being extra-careful with the Sunnyslope water board to make sure that all qualified ballots are counted, meaning that I have to make sure that there was not any duplicate voting because of what happened (with the misprint),” Hodges said.
Hodges said there were “quite a few” people who came to the court house to recast their Sunnyslope votes, but didn’t have an exact number.
Checking his work on Tuesday were two or three officers from the US Department of Justice (DOJ) at each of eight different Hollister polling places, according to Hodges. He said the officers were observing the voting process to make sure the county was complying with the Help America Vote Act. This was the act under which Hodges did not supply enough Spanish-speaking poll workers in March.
Hodges said he did meet those requirements this time around, although it meant borrowing some Spanish-speakers from the County’s regular employee roster.
Mickie Luna is a leader of the local League of United Latin American Citizens chapter, which initiated many of the changes to the election in favor of Spanish-speaking voters. She was pleased the election process was running smoothly while working at one of the polls Tuesday.
“This morning we had a line about ten people deep,” she said. “Many, many people who are voting here are saying they’ve never had to wait in line before.”
One DOJ agent interviewed Tuesday at the Calaveras Elementary School library polling place, who wished to remain anonymous, said he and his colleagues had flown in from Washington, D.C. to observe the county’s election process, but had not seen any questionable voting activities.
Hodges said he had not heard of any problems from the DOJ as of Wednesday. He had not as of yet heard any complaints from voters or officials either, he said.
County Supervisor Pat Loe, who after March’s election proposed looking into ousting Hodges from his office and replacing him with a appointed registrar to handle the election process, said Wednesday she didn’t have enough details yet to say how the election went.
Supervisor Reb Monaco agreed, saying he couldn’t make a call until the DOJ has reported back to the county.
“But, I was up there at the court house for a while last night, and things seemed to be running smoothly. And I haven’t heard any complaints so far,” he said.
Although winners have already been announced in the local races, the election will not officially be over for another 28 days, Hodges said. He and his staff will spend these days canvassing the election, which he said entails going back over all the results and in some cases checking the computer’s counting work by hand.
Martin Cheek contributed to this article.
