Sacramento County plans to hire a consultant to review its elections office following complaints from city clerks about the handling of last year’s elections. As reported by The Sacramento Bee last month, current and former clerks in Sacramento, Galt and Rancho Cordova said the elections office had become less reliable in the past 18 months. The office published inaccurate information about contests in Sacramento and Rancho Cordova in sample ballot guides and provided Galt’s clerk with wrong information about the ballot order of council races, among other things.
The complaints are one reason Sacramento County Chief Deputy Executive Paul Lake is asking for a review of the office. As head of the Countywide Services agency, Lake oversees the office and its chief, Registrar of Voters Jill LaVine. “We want to see what we can do to improve,” he said. “We want to have good customer service.”
The county also wants to make sure the office is working effectively by next year’s presidential election, Lake said. LaVine declined to comment on the proposed review of her office, but Lake said she supports the effort and the opportunity to improve.
The county issued a request for consultant proposals on Aug. 31 and expects to receive them by Sept. 28. The consultant is expected to give a report to the county by Dec. 31 and make a presentation to the Board of Supervisors the following month.
Full Article: Sacramento County seeks review of elections office | The Sacramento Bee.