I received new information today that the school district employee that was thrown under the bus at Monday’s SF city council informational meeting was probably not surprised by the accusations. The city has a reputation of blaming others when things go awry in city elections.
Here is some crucial information to keep in mind;
1) It was not the school official’s MAIN job or priority to deliver ballots to precincts (only to assist). Which makes sense. The city and school district hires people to help with elections. Directors and managers (and city councilors) should NOT be doing that stuff, they should be directing and managing.
2) They did not have that many ballots in their vehicle (as the city has been claiming) only backups.
I also find it ironic the city refuses to mention the school district employee’s name. If you are going to make accusations at least tell us who it is, otherwise, what’s the point? Maybe the clerk’s office doesn’t want us questioning that official and getting their side of the story. Well some people have been contacting her, and she does have a different version.
Who knows who is telling the truth? Like most government officials, it is ‘SOMEONE ELSE’S FAULT.’
I still think Bob Litz as auditor is a questionable. I can’t wait until he has to manage a presidential election. SD the new Florida.
First, the city should be accurate about if this person was solely responsible for this situation. If they weren’t then yeah, don’t through them under the bus.
Second, if they’re supposed to assist then they should have their phone on. It’s election day and you have ballots in your car and you don’t have your cell phone on? No getting around that one, they messed up.
Lastly, is this the first time we’ve ever had an election with ballots? Forget the fact that we had voting centers. Did we REALLY think it was responsible to rely on ONE person to have these ballots in a vehicle? These things are IMPORTANT people. YOu can’t go to Office Max and get more made up.
This makes everyone involved look dumb, the employee, the city, Litz. Everyone it responsible. As with most government mistakes no one will lose their job. The only way to lose your job is to be fired in a closed session for God only knows why.
Two things I am pretty sure about (but don’t quote me on this)
The school official did have her phone on, but she was getting so many calls it was impossible for her to answer them all (I have a feeling people were calling her with all kinds of questions since she has been involved with past elections).
As I understand it there was over 30,000 ballots printed, so I am still puzzled as how they ran out.
What’s most puzzling is how they could possibly run out at noon??? I could get where an oversight could cause some ballot issues late in the day, but at the halfway mark?
Cory at Maddville said it best, “When you see you are running low on a particular ballot, not out, low, you go get more.”
It was a bigger blunder when Lutz took ballots home for the Events Center vote. Not saying he rigged it but votes should always be managed and counted by a group. Lutz’ name always comes up when a tampered vote is suspected. Time for voting observers appointed by the governor.
There was good observers on the EC vote. I don’t think any hanky-panky happened.