Oct 24, 2007
Eileen Moore, The Orange County
Register “Each signer shall
at the time of signing the petition or paper
personally affix his or her signature, printed
name, and place of residence …”
said
Justice Eileen Moore of the 4th District Court of
Appeal, quoting California election law.
“How
else do you expect us to interpret those words?”
Appellants' counsel, Mark
Rosen, argued that the disqualified petitions, which
he said cost the parents the recall election,
violated the spirit of the law.
Sep 18, 2006
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."
Sep 18, 2006
Editorial, The Orange County
Register "The Elections
Center is a trade group that represents registrars
and election workers. Its Web site is filled with
information about how hard they work, etc., so the
skeptic in us thought it unlikely that the center
would be too harsh with one of its own. We weren't
surprised, then, by the tone or conclusions of the
investigation. It confirmed problems that have
been printed in the newspapers, but excused Mr.
Kelley's behavior: Yes, he made mistakes, but he
didn't mean to."
Sep 18, 2006
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."
Sep 18, 2006
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."
Sep 18, 2006
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."
Jul 30, 2006
Steven Greenhut, The Orange County
Register "Before I left, I
read that our new registrar of voters, Neal
Kelley, illegally provided signature information
to Fleming’s district. While I was gone, the L.A.
Times reported that Kelley also provided info to
the district about the progress of the recall –
information he didn’t share with the other side.
Such acts of illegality and favoritism undermine
the sense of fairness that is essential in a
registrar’s office. Maybe Kelley will follow the
lead of Fleming and resign, which would at least
cap a week of disturbing but typical news with
something positive." Greenhut
is senior editorial writier and columnist for The
Orange County Register.
Jul 12, 2006
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."
Jul 12, 2006
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."
Jul 11, 2006
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."
