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Public raises election administration and voter-roll concerns; registrar defends county procedures
Summary
Speakers told supervisors that a North Kern–South Tulare hospital district race did not appear on Tulare County ballots and urged an investigation; the registrar of voters said Kern properly notified Tulare and that county responsibilities are limited to notifying other counties and running Kern ballots.
Several residents and advocacy groups used the March 11 public comment period to raise concerns about election administration in Kern County and neighboring Tulare County.
Tom Pavich of the Election Integrity Project California told the board the North Kern–South Tulare Hospital District race did not appear on Tulare County ballots in November and that Tulare failed to include the contest, potentially disenfranchising Tulare County voters. “Tulare County failed to include the race on its ballot and Kern County failed to pick up the mistake,” Pavich said, and he asked the board to investigate what went wrong and recommend procedural changes.
A resident who identified herself as a Tulare County voter said she was not given the opportunity to vote in the race because it only appeared on Kern ballots. She said the district crosses the county line and covers communities in both counties.
Registrar of Voters Amy Espinosa responded at the meeting: Kern County notified Tulare County of the contest and the county ran the election correctly on Kern ballots. “Whatever happened on the Tulare side, they failed to add it to their ballot,” Espinosa said, adding that Kern followed counsel and the secretary of state in its actions and that each county is responsible for its own ballots.
Separately, multiple speakers urged the board to improve public observation space at the county elections office, and others pressed for cleaning of voter rolls. Charles Shin, a retired Marine, urged removal of roughly 37,000 inactive registrations and pointed to the use of national change-of-address data as a tool; Dennis McLean and others also raised practical questions about vote‑by‑mail processes and the ICX voting device used at some polling locations.
Supervisor David Couch and county staff said the concerns were taken seriously; Espinosa and staff noted the elections office ran a cancellation job on Feb. 12 that removed nearly 29,711 registrations and explained some differences arise when people vote after a cleanup run.
Why it matters: The comments touch on core election administration duties—ballot printing, inter-county coordination and voter-roll maintenance—which directly affect voters’ access to local contests and public confidence in elections.
Next steps: Speakers asked the board to consider an investigation into the Tulare omission and to support improvements to the elections office’s public observatory spaces; the board did not take a formal vote on those requests at the March 11 meeting.
