March 05, 2007

"County election laws challenged"

"The Secretary of State is looking into a complaint by a community watchdog group that says Riverside County has not fully complied with state election laws.

SAVE R VOTE - a Murietta-based community watchdog group created to oversee Riverside County elections - lodged the complaint Wednesday saying the registrar has failed to post precinct election results.

"It's a check against the accuracy of the centralized counting system," said Lowell Finley, deputy secretary of state for voting systems technology and policy.

"It's important because it provides a means for members of the public to verify that the counts issued by the voting machine in the polling places are accurately reflected in the final count."

Riverside County Registrar of Voters Barbara Dunmore said Thursday that she was not aware of the complaint.

California Elections Code reads, "The precinct board shall, before it adjourns, post conspicuously on the outside of the polling place a copy of the result of the votes cast at the polling place."

"I think that's an antiquated law and most counties in the state of California do not post the results," Dunmore said."

The article is here.

Posted by Randy Riddle at March 5, 2007 09:36 AM