News that San Benito County’s civil and criminal grand juries
will be investigating not one, but two, races in the Nov. 7
election lands like the thud of a wet newspaper on a driveway. It
was a particularly emotional local election year, and it now takes
on a somewhat endless quality.
News that San Benito County’s civil and criminal grand juries will be investigating not one, but two, races in the Nov. 7 election lands like the thud of a wet newspaper on a driveway. It was a particularly emotional local election year, and it now takes on a somewhat endless quality.
The outcome of the investigations will likely not be known until well into the new year. County District Attorney John Sarsfield said this week the secretary of state’s office will be notified, and that the investigations “will be going on for some time, well after I’m gone.” Sarsfield leaves office Jan. 8. Election results will be certified on Dec. 5; any lawsuits contesting results would have to be filed within 30 days of that date.
We understand that campaign investigations have become a common aftermath of elections, not just in our county, state and nation, but all over the world. But the notion of allegations of irregularities here, again, is enough to induce voter depression.
One of the questions regarding this year’s count will, like it or not, take on political overtones. The race for District 4 supervisor between Tracie Cone and incumbent Reb Monaco was decided by 60 votes. A voter said that a machine would not allow him to vote for Cone. He said he had to shake the machine vigorously before it cast his vote. Cone’s attorney said he and the candidate “don’t want people to politicize this yet, because there’s nothing to politicize.”
We’re not certain what he means. We have a hunch we’ll find out.
We do know this: If there was an irregularity in the local election that involves someone being prevented from voting for who they wished, it does indeed need to be made public.
The other question regards a disqualified candidate who received 1,820 votes. The Rev. Ardyss Golden ran for a position on the San Benito High School District Board of Trustees. Unknown to her, she lived outside the district. She was disqualified.
Disqualified, yet her name remained on many ballots. The number of votes she received were definitely enough to affect the election. It is an embarrassing situation for Golden, who is an outstanding citizen, and for the registrar of voters.
The combined result of these two election questions are civil and criminal grand jury investigations.
Thud.
We can only hope the investigations do not turn up anything substantive.
“I don’t know of anything that went wrong,” said John Hodges, registrar of voters, earlier this week. “We did a flawless election, basically.”
We hope his assessment is close enough to reality to allow all Nov. 7 results to remain untainted. It was a tough enough election for everyone without further ramifications.
