Elections Too many questions remain unanswered

Published 1:02 am Sunday, December 18, 2011

To Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann:

Whenever questions persist on the validity of an election more than a month after Election Day, it needs your attention.

In Warren County, tax collector candidate Patty Mekus — who was defeated by the incumbent Antonia Flaggs-Jones by 56 votes — says irregularities in both affidavit and absentee balloting need immediate attention. She is not contesting the race, only how those ballots are handled and processed. State law mandates, of course, that absentee ballots are cast before an election. Those ballots are sealed and delivered to the individual precincts to be compared with ballots cast in person. Affidavit ballots are cast at polling places by voters whose names do not appear on the rolls for various reasons. Those votes are then verified post-election.

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Mekus on Monday reviewed 66 affidavit ballots and 38 absentee ballots and said she was “disheartened” to discover that many of the ballots were rejected on the same basis as others were accepted. Of the 38 absentee ballot envelopes she examined, 36 of them were not opened. Those were labeled rejected without a reason given. The other two were labeled rejected with a reason given, as is required by state law. Alarming to say the least.

Is it a lack of training for poll workers and managers? Is it confusing verbage in the instructions? It also begs the question of whether Warren County is alone in having early-voting and affidavit irregularities.

One more question, if absentee ballots are cast at the county courthouse and final results are tallied at the courthouse, why should the ballots be moved to the polling places and back to the courthouse after polls are closed? That opens the door for rife uncertainty, a characteristic that should have no part in a democratic election.

Changes, of course, will be left up to the Legislature, but Secretary Hosemann, we ask you to look at Mrs. Mekus’ findings and, with all the power in your office, pressure legislators to, at minimum, consider changes.

We have seen in the past that in tightly contested elections, every legally cast vote makes a difference. Whether those votes are cast before or on Election Day, the sanctity of the election system relies on the theory of “one person, one vote.”

Mr. Secretary, this is not about Warren County or Patty Mekus. This is about getting a system in place that effectively and consistently counts ballots that should be counted and rejects those that need to be rejected.

In this case, it appears that did not happen.

It’s on your office to make sure this does not happen again.