March 5, 2002 Election Special Investigation: Redistricting Ballot Errors

Analysis of the voter rolls by the county Elections Officer produced the following information: six voters in the East Weaver Creek Road area received ballots for District 4 when they should have voted in District 1. Supervisors in both districts were up for reelection. In the Oregon Mountain area, 16 voters received District 4 ballots, even though they are located in District 2. The District 2 supervisor was not up for reelection this year. Of these 16 voters, seven are located on Trinco Road and nine are located on or near Oregon Street. In the two Weaverville precincts, precincts 1 and 2, ten voters in Precinct I and eight voters in Precinct 2 (a total of 18 voters) had addresses that may in fact not be in those precincts - that is, they are incorrectly located on the precinct rosters. In the above situations, only a portion of a precinct and district were redistricted to a new precinct and district. In the Salyer, Burnt Ranch, and Buckhom areas, these precincts were moved, in their entirety to new districts, and the ballots were all correct. The Wildwood area was redistricted in the same manner as the East Weaver, Oregon Mountain, and Weaverville I and 2 areas. However, the Wildwood voters were not voting for a supervisor, so the accuracy of their supervisorial district was not required for this election. These have not yet been analyzed. The County Elections Office is using this relatively slow time (vis a vis elections) to correct each of the identified cases, expecting to complete this work in a month’s time. Much of their success in meeting this time line depends on cooperation from the Planning Department, which is the only department that has the names of private streets and roads (and driveways). Though this investigation began in order to find out how many voters’ ballots were incorrectly located in the supervisorial districts redistricting, it has also uncovered other voters who are not as- signed to the correct district in the first place. As a result of these findings, the department is planning changes to the voter registra- tion and re-registration process that will assist the department place voters in the correct precinct. In most places, a person’s address is sufficient to place them accurately in their districts. However, Trin- ity County does not have an address system. Therefore, the infor- mation that is vital to accuracy is the Assessor’s Parcel Number (APN) where the voter lives. In the case of renters, the owner’s name will assist in locating the APN. The Elections Office workers in the polling places have been a great help in discovering erroneous precinct assignments; and they will continue to be an important link between the Elections Office and registered voters. Errors discovered at the polling places, in conjunction with continued efforts by the Elections Office to accu- rately locate registered voters, will result in a more accurate reflec- tion of voter distribution in Trinity County.