S.F. Election Snafu Results in Shake-Up
Chief Administrative Officer Bill Lee has named his chief of staff to oversee San Francisco’s runoff election next month because of recent problems with absentee ballots and vote counting.
Steve Nelson was appointed Thursday to take control of the election from Registrar Germaine Wong.
Wong had reported that up to 600 voters may have received duplicate absentee ballots for the runoff election.
“Pending an investigation of this new problem and in light of the issues that have been raised with regard to the Nov. 7 election, I am taking this extra step to ensure the integrity of the election,” Lee said.
Mayor Frank Jordan and former Assembly Speaker Willie Brown will face each other in the mayoral runoff Dec. 12. The district attorney’s post also is at stake.
In the Nov. 7 general election, a printing error forced many absentee voters to fill out a second ballot. Then a computer failure at the registrar’s office delayed the vote counting.
Lee said Wong would remain the registrar of voters.
Sign up for Essential California
The most important California stories and recommendations in your inbox every morning.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
