Special election rolls forward despite county protests

Santa Cruz County Clerk Gail Pellerin joined other state election officials a week ago to urge Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to consolidate the special vacancy election in Senate District 15 with the Nov. 2 general election.
Schwarzenegger has scheduled a special election for Aug. 17, resulting in special primary scheduled for June 22, shortly after the standard June 8 primary.
“We’ve got a lot of work to do, and we’re kind of panicked,” Pellerin said last week after the governor’s announcement.
The 15th Senate District encompasses parts of five counties, including Santa Cruz, Santa Clara, Monterey, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo. The counties would foot the entire bill, estimated at about $3 million, to have the new primary and special election.
Election officials protested the special election and asked that it be combined with the Nov. 2 general election, because combining the elections would not burden the counties financially.
“I had every election official in the state e-mailing the governor,” Pellerin said hotly. “He ignored it. He just flat-out ignored it.”
Pellerin argues that conducting four elections — two primaries and two regular elections — is an unnecessary burden for the county and voters.
“I urge the governor to think about the costs and consolidate the special vacancy election with November,” Pellerin said. “We simply do not have the money to conduct two separate elections this summer.”
The cash spent on a special election — $300,000 in Santa Cruz County alone, Pellerin estimates — must come from a county budget that was slashed by 20 percent last year and faces a similar outlook this year.
And there’s bound to be confusion about the back-to-back elections with mail-in voters who will receive separate ballots in the same month. There are 57,400 registered voters in the county, and 34,700 vote by mail.
“Can’t we have a little more respect for the voters?” Pellerin asked.
For Pellerin and her crew, it’s a logistical nightmare to organize the double elections on such short notice. It takes 28 days to fully count and certify the June 8 primary ballots, but her office must conduct the second election exactly two weeks later, on June 22.
There’s not enough space in the storage closets or enough voting machines to have two completely separate elections, Pellerin explained. Her office will have to find creative solutions to make sure the ballots are secure.
The 15th District vacancy was created by Abel Maldanado’s swearing-in as lieutenant governor on Monday, April 26.
Assemblyman Sam Blakeslee, R-San Luis Obispo, and former Assemblyman John Laird, D-Santa Cruz, are running for the vacancy. Laird announced his candidacy in Santa Cruz on Monday, May 3.