Or are we looking at a broader pattern of incompetence in local elections?
As you know by now, 1,114 ballots went uncounted in Richland County in the recent election. Most who read The State‘s report this morning will have zeroed in on this part:
Jackson declined Thursday to say who was responsible for the error or what actions he might take.
He did acknowledge, however, that absentee balloting is the responsibility of his predecessor, Lillian McBride, who was demoted in the wake of last year’s county election debacle but given another position in the office. Still, he would not pin blame on anyone, characterizing the mistake as a “system” problem….
That part, and also the part where we’re told that the closed-door meeting of the Keystone Kops — I mean, the county Elections & Voter Registration Board — “focused primarily on personnel matters.”
Now let me pause for a moment to complain about the fact that in South Carolina in 2013, we have such a thing as public bodies meeting behind closed doors. When I was a reporter in Tennessee in the late 1970s, we had this thing called a “Sunshine Law,” and public business was done in public. I used to hear about the bad old days when there had been such things as “executive sessions,” and I was appalled at the thought.
Then, I moved home to South Carolina, where such things are still a fact of public life.
End of digression.
The chairman of the elections board acknowledges “glitches,” but tells us, “We feel that the election overall went good.”
Grammar aside, it’s not a statement that inspires much confidence.
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And this is what fuels my libertarianism… incompetence is never punished in the public sector. If just once, we would see swift action, I’d be impressed. But again and again public officials screw up and nothing happens.
Joel Lourie and Darrell Jackson need to be accountable and get her out of there.
You see, this just isn’t true: “incompetence is never punished in the public sector.”
What we have here is a bizarre situation — far from “government as usual” — that is, as Mark notes below, a function of the idiosyncrasies of government in South Carolina. You have people who aren’t elected to run local government running an aspect of local government.
No, wait, I take that back. If they WERE running it, it wouldn’t be so bad. But a characteristic of the Legislative State is that lawmakers set up these administrative entities — like the 500 or so (no one really knows how many there are) Special Purpose Districts in the state — but make them self-perpetuating, with no mechanism for holding them accountable. Lawmakers just set these entities adrift, and they float where they will, with no one having the power to rein them in or demand better performance.
The Richland County delegation needs to get itself out of oversight of the elections office. That’s the problem; the personnel issues are just a sideshow to the larger issue.
And, Brad, how can you expect sunshine in a legislative state?
Well, that’s why I want to do away with the Legislative State.
Look , this election was small potatoes, so messing it up after the debacle that was 2012 should not lead to the conclusion that it “went good.” It was so small that it should have “went perfect.”
Where is the drumbeat at the paper for a strong elections chief?
In 2012, we learned that we can’t leave Ms. McBride in charge of the regular voting. She was then assigned to be in charge of counting pieces of paper (absentee ballots). Now we have learned that she cannot supervise the counting of little pieces of paper in an accurate and reliable manner.
Where does that leave her?
What job can we give her that will be better suited for her competence level?
It wasn’t even counting little pieces of paper. It was ensuring that the cartridge with absentee votes got included in the count. Seems like the most important aspect of her job!
Don’t worry, Darryl Jackson and Joel Lourie will come up with some excuse to keep her on the payroll. I wonder if either of them would hire her to work in their law firm or church?
After standing in line for over 4 hours to vote in the 2012 election I vowed to anyone who would listen that I would vote absentee from then on. Now they are not counting absentee votes. Where does that leave me?
Breaking your vow?