Absentee Ballot Count Still Polls Apart

STILL INVESTIGATING: The citizens group Committee for Election Integrity has zeroed in on the count of absentee ballots in the 36th District.

El Segundo Councilman Liam B. Weston, chairman of the group, said that discrepancies have turned up in the count of absentee ballots turned in at polling places.

The Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder allowed absentee ballots to be turned in to polling places on Election Day if voters forgot to mail them. After the polls closed, precinct workers counted the absentee ballots and sent them off to the Registrar. There, the absentee ballots were counted again and corrected if the totals were wrong.

Weston said that the tally of absentee votes in at least 197 of the district’s 547 precincts was changed to a higher figure at the registrar’s office. But in one case, precinct workers counted six ballots while a registrar worker counted 94. He came up with the figures after reviewing tally sheets.

“The one thing that is critical here is who had access to the ballots,” said Weston, who has called for an independent audit of the results.

After the election, both parties sent teams of observers to watch the long process of counting the absentee ballots. Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder Beatriz Valdez said that guards always were present.

But Valdez said that her office is trying “to figure out what the discrepancy is. It’s very difficult to be guessing what it is about.”

Among other possible explanations, said Valdez: Poll workers misunderstood instructions; they also could have included other ballots, such as those dropped off by a convalescent home representative; provisional ballots--which are set aside because they are cast by voters who went to the wrong precinct--could have been mixed in with the absentee votes, or poll workers could have miscounted.

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PURGE POLITICS: Assemblywoman Debra Bowen (D-Marina del Rey) introduced a bill last week to purge the voter rolls, which contain the names of residents registered at one or more former residences.

Her bill would require the County Registrar-Recorder to match the voter registration against change of address data before each election.

“Dumping the deadwood from the rolls is a huge step toward preventing fraudulent voting,” she said.

It is also a complaint of various voter fraud groups.

“It sounds like a step in the right direction,” said Weston, chairman of the Committee for Election Integrity.

Weston has been mentioned as a possible candidate for Bowen’s seat next year, although he said he has considered the prospect “for about 10 minutes.”

In any case, he and Bowen are not in agreement on politics. He opposes a provision of Bowen’s bill that would allow any registered voter to get permanent absentee status. Rather than process applications for an absentee ballot each election, county registrars would automatically mail the ballots.

“I don’t understand giving people permanent absentee status when there’s already enough abuse in the system,” he said.

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NO MORE GIFTS: Rep. Jane Harman (D-Rolling Hills) has vowed to refuse any gifts from lobbyists--such as meals, travel expenses and tickets to entertainment events. So what did she accept before her self-imposed ban? A jacket from Northrop and another from TRW, said her spokesman, Roy Behr.