Sep 18, 2006 Filed in:
OC Register
Editorial, The Orange County
Register "The Orange County
Board of Supervisors has seemed reluctant to
tackle a potentially serious problem in one of the
most important offices in the county: the
Registrar of Voters. If the registrar is not
operating efficiently or fairly, the public could
start to question the validity of the entire
election process. It would be troubling to head
down that road ... Rather than deal with the
problem directly, the Board of Supervisors hired
... the Houston-based Elections Center, to review
the specific allegations regarding the Orange
County registrar's behavior in the Capo recall
fracas."
Tags: BOS Investigation, OC ROV, Elections Center
Sep 18, 2006 Filed in:
OC Register
Editorial, The Orange County
Register "We find it odd that
all of the registrar's mistakes leaned in one
direction, especially in light of Mr. Smollar's
accusations ... For instance, the possibly illegal
action involved showing signed petitions,
including names and addresses of the signers, to
the Capo district. The registrar also incorrectly
told the district that the recall election would
cost the school district $600,000, when in reality
the county pays for such elections. This mattered
because the district then used that information as
a prime part of its campaign against the recall.
The report said Mr. Kelley learned about his
mistake in December but didn't disclose that
information for another month, according to
published reports."
Tags: OC ROV, David Smollar, Confidential Records, Defamation
Sep 18, 2006 Filed in:
OC Register
Editorial, The Orange County
Register "David Smollar, the
former district spokesman who blew the whistle on
the wrongdoing, told the Register that he was told
by an elections official and by a colleague in his
district that Mr. Kelley was bending the rules to
allow them to see the petitions. Yet Mr. Smollar
said that the Elections Center never tried to
contact him, despite claims by the center that it
did leave messages."
Tags: Whistleblowers, David Smollar, Neil Kelley, Confidential Records, Elections Center, OC ROV
Sep 18, 2006 Filed in:
OC Register
Editorial, The Orange County
Register "The Board of
Supervisors is left in the same place it was
before it spent $25,000 on this report: There is
still debate over the competence and fairness of
how the registrar's office is being run. The board
needs to decide – publicly, we prefer, and after
hearing from Messrs. Smollar and Kelley – if this
is the way they want elections handled in Orange
County ... The report did offer a range of banal,
but useful suggestions. For instance, it
recommended that written procedures should be
developed to handle recalls and that user-friendly
handouts should be available for
petitioners."
Tags: BOS Investigation, OC ROV
Jul 11, 2006 Filed in:
OC Register
Editorial, The Orange County
Register "The scandals that
demand outside investigation are twofold: the
behavior of Mr. Fleming and his administration and
the performance of the Registrar of Voters office.
The former should be conducted by the district
attorney, the latter by the Board of
Supervisors."
Tags: DA Investigations, BOS Investigation, Enemies Lists, OC ROV
Jul 12, 2006 Filed in:
OC Register
Editorial, The Orange County
Register "Then, according to
the July 11 Register, the district’s former
director of communications, David Smollar, and
another district official viewed the petition data
at the registrar’s office and Mr. Smollar wrote
down many names of recall signers, and then handed
them over to Superintendent James Fleming. Mr.
Fleming told the newspaper that he was
uncomfortable with the list of names and handed
them back to Mr. Smollar. But Mr. Smollar said
that Mr. Fleming kept the list."
Tags: David Smollar, Enemies Lists, OC ROV, Dishonesty
Jul 12, 2006 Filed in:
OC Register
Editorial, The Orange County
Register "The registrar is
charged with maintaining the integrity of the
election process. The legitimacy of the democratic
process can be undermined if the office charged
with maintaining fair elections is viewed as
unfairly helping one side in a recall
election."
Tags: OC ROV, Confidential Records
Jul 12, 2006 Filed in:
OC Register
Editorial, The Orange County
Register "[Kelly] adamantly
defended the office’s methods, insisting that he
followed the precise rules for counting. Yet it
appears that Mr. Kelley’s office wasn’t quite so
precise in carrying out the law when it came to
handling the petitions, allowing Capo
administrators and other community officials
access to petition data. Mr. Kelley said his
office was unaware at the time that state law
allows only the 10 original recall proponents to
see the data."
Tags: OC ROV, Neil Kelley, Confidential Records
Jul 12, 2006 Filed in:
OC Register
Editorial, The Orange County
Register "The scandals that
demand outside investigation are twofold: the
behavior of Mr. Fleming and his administration and
the performance of the Registrar of Voters office.
The former should be conducted by the district
attorney, the latter by the Board of
Supervisors."
Tags: DA Investigations, BOS Investigation, Enemies Lists, OC ROV
