Testing voters' already shaky trust
A Times EditorialPublished December 8, 2004
Careless, avoidable error has once again marred the performance of Pinellas County Supervisor of Elections Deborah Clark. After the Nov. 2 election, Clark's office incorrectly reported to the state results on two referendum questions. While the mistake didn't affect the final outcomes, it has given voters another reason to be skeptical of the already maligned process of casting and counting votes.
We don't doubt Clark's honesty and sincerity, but the latest in a string of embarrassing stumbles raises questions about her managerial control over the office's complex operations. In the 2000 presidential election, the office overlooked a number of ballots and counted others twice. Two years later, it gave voters in three precincts the wrong local ballot. And before the incorrect vote tally this year, the office belatedly discovered 280 misplaced ballots, which were never counted.
Human error occurs in every election, but it is the supervisor's responsibility to put procedures in place to catch such errors and correct them. In the recent count, an employee reversed the outcome on Amendment 4 to the state Constitution that could bring slot machines to South Florida and a revision of the County Charter that would have given the administrator authority to fire senior staff without commission approval. The two amendments had been rejected by Pinellas voters but were reported on a state form as passing. A proofreader failed to catch the mistake.
The missteps didn't end there. A group involved in the state amendment campaign notified one of Clark's employees of the discrepancy two days after the election, which allowed enough time to fix it before the flawed results became official on Nov. 13. By the time the office acted, it was too late.
It is an embarrassing episode for Clark. To her credit, she took responsibility for her staff's performance and promised to take action. A top administrator has resigned, other employees are being disciplined and new procedures will be adopted. No doubt, she will have to tighten operations.
Clark has earned respect for her integrity and long public service, but she cannot afford too many more mistakes before the surplus of goodwill is spent.