City Clerk Cites 'Human Error' for Ballot Miscalculation

Simple human error caused ballot counters to overestimate the number of ballots still to be counted in the West Hollywood City Council election. That’s the word from City Clerk Tom West, who oversaw the counting Tuesday night.

“It was human error, a miscalculation,” West said Thursday afternoon. “It was late at night.”

On Tuesday night, after the counting of the ballots in West Hollywood Park auditorium was completed and the , city clerk staff also announced that there were still 930 provisional and absentee ballots to be counted. However, on Wednesday afternoon, the number reported on the city’s website was “approximately 800.”

“It was a real rough estimate,” said West, who told his staff at the auditorium to quickly determine how many ballots were left. They hurried, went through the various boxes and gave him the 930 figure, he said, which was announced.

“It’s a no-win situation,” said West, who noted that his staff had been on the job since 6 a.m. Tuesday overseeing all aspects of the election. “If we had underestimated it, people would say I made ballots up. If we had overestimated, people would say I was hiding them.”

According to the unofficial results announced Tuesday night, incumbent Abbe Land was the top vote getter with 2,548 votes, John D’Amico came in second with 2,471 votes, and incumbent John Heilman was in third place with 2,359 votes. In fourth place, 333 votes behind Heilman, was Steve Martin with 2,026 votes. Incumbent appointee Lindsey Horvath was in fifth place with 1,902 votes, 124 votes behind Martin.

With only 646 votes separating those five candidates vying for the three seats up for grabs and 800 ballots still to be counted, those ballots could change the outcome of the election.

West does not have a breakdown of how many of those 800 are provisional versus absentee, nor of what precincts they came from. He said he had been fielding calls from reporters and the public all day regarding the discrepancy and therefore had not yet had time to go through the ballots to figure out the breakdowns. 

Provisional ballots are used if someone goes to the wrong polling place or has incorrect information on their voter registration. Absentee ballots are used when people choose to send in their ballots by mail rather than go to a polling place on Election Day. 

West did, however, say that the 800 number was unusually high. There were unofficial reports of a large number of people voting provisionally in the Boystown precincts. West also said that people were dropping their absentee ballots off at polling places throughout the day. 

In 2007, the last time Land and Heilman were on the ballot, there were 309 ballots left to be counted after election night (166 provisional, 143 absentee).  In 2009, when Jeffrey Prang and John Duran were re-elected to their council seats, there were 254 ballots left to be counted after election night (118 provisional, 136 absentee). 

The 800 ballots were not counted Tuesday night with the other ballots because they must first have their signatures verified by the Los Angeles County Registrar. The provisional/absentee ballots were originally scheduled to be counted Thursday at 9 a.m., but with such a large number needing signature verification, West realized they would not be back from the registrar in time. 

Consequently, he postponed the vote count to Monday at 1:30 p.m. in City Hall. The results should be known within an hour as they are renting a vote counting machine from Martin & Chapman, the same company that provided the counting machines on election night.

Many residents are concerned about the safety of these 800 ballots, as well as the 5,346 ballots that were counted on Tuesday night (if a total recount is requested). West said the ballots are locked in a file room in the city clerk’s offices, a room that he said “only four people have a key to." No other City Hall staffers have keys, not even the janitors. However, West also said the ballots were not locked in a filing cabinet or a safe within that room.

Although no one has accused him of hanky-panky with the ballots, West, who has been city clerk for eight years, stated emphatically that he would not risk his job or his integrity over the ballots.

Since people are not required to show identification to vote, provisional ballots tend to be the most vulnerable to vote tampering. People can show up at a polling place and vote provisionally just by filling out a form with their name, address and signature.

Resident Brad Torgan, who has served as a “ballot watcher” (someone who observes the entire ballot counting process and reports anything unusual) on several occasions, including Tuesday night, verified that the provisional ballots are always “the thing to watch.”

There were rumors of vote tampering in the 2007 election, but those rumors were never substantiated. 

When the 800 ballots are added to the 5,346 already counted, that will put the total number of ballots cast at 6,146, approximately 25 percent of registered voters. 

Also on Monday at 9 a.m. in City Hall, as required under state law, there will be a hand count of all of the ballots from one of the city’s 11 precincts. Which precinct it is will be determined by drawing from a hat. That manual count should take two to three hours.  

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