Councilman apologizes to county registrar
Councilman Alan Wapner was recently critical of the San Bernardino County Registrar of Voters for what he perceived as slow updates for Nov. 2 election results.
Wapner even started checking into ways that the city could take back control of its election process.
But at Tuesday night's council meeting, Wapner retracted his statements.
"I want to apologize. It wasn't the county's fault," he said.
Preliminary city staff reports have indicated that slower-than-usual updates were the fault of the secretary of state, not the registrar, Wapner said.
The registrar's office said the delay in tabulating votes was due to statewide changes in the voting system in past election cycles.
The county had previously used a punch-card system, which was fairly quick, officials said. But after the controversy with the system in Florida in the presidential election of 2000, counties were no longer allowed to use punch cards.
The federal ban prompted county officials to implement a $16 million electronic system.
When Debra Bowen became secretary of state in August 2007, she decertified the electronic system and required counties to return to paper.
Wapner directed city staff members to work with county officials to pressure Bowen to return to the electronic system.
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| Liset Márquez has covered the city of Ontario for the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin since 2008. She started the OntarioNow blog in August 2008. To contact Liset, leave a comment on this blog or send an e-mail to Liset Marquez |
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