Time to Remove Registrar of Voters Kari Verjil

From iepolitics.com

According to reports on KFI 640’s John and Ken show, it turns out San Bernardino County Kari Verjil’s invalid signature figures are not quite accurate. As Mike Schroeder, coordinator for the recall effort has said all along, signature gatherers registered unregistered voters at the same time the petitions were signed, which is legal. According to reports, Verjil negated those signatures.

I am told that recall coordinators have begun an audit of the rejected signatures. Of the first 40 rejected signatures reviewed, 25 have in fact been determined to have been valid after all. This is a disgrace. Once again, one of our county officials has made our county look like its run by a bunch of incompetent hicks.

And it may be. A little over a year ago, I met with Joy Chadwick, now-Deputy Chief of Staff for Chairman of the Board Gary Ovitt. During that meeting Joy chastised me for exercising my rights as a United States citizen when I filed a formal complaint with Secretary of State Debra Bowen’s office over the incompetence and favoritism shown towards certain candidates by Registrar of Voters Kari Verjil. She suggested that part of the reason I was having problems on the job was because I was outspoken about official misconduct. And like most of the rest of the officials I have dealt with on the Fifth Floor, she failed to conduct the investigation she promised me and, as usual, my complaints to her office about official misconduct was swept under the rug.

Now, here we are over a year later, and Joy is working for the Chairman’s office and her boss is up for re-election. And the county continues to sweep official misconduct under the rug. So, I’d like an answer. Does Supervisor Ovitt support this kind of incompetence? Does he care about the election process? Based on what his deputy Chief of Staff said to me, he supports this incompetence. And that is shameful. I hope Joy is wrong.

I know from my investigation last year that Kari Verjil plays favorites, making sure certain elected officials are immediately aware of anything their opponents file with the Registrar of Voter’s office. She also aids those that protect her to the detriment of other candidates as she did for Supervisors Dennis Hansberger and Brad Mitzelfelt last year.

It’s hard to say if the current fiasco is Verjil’s doing or was done on behalf of an official who supports Anthony Adams. It does not matter in the end if it changes the outcome or not. What matters is that it was done to begin with. The Registrar of Voters office should be above reproach. Today, instead, it is wrought with accusations of fraud and incompetence.

If the firing of Mark Uffer is not just a fluke but a serious effort at cleaning up San Bernardino County, then this Board of Supervisors needs to act immediately to restore the integrity of the elections process in this county. Kari Verjil is a Mark Uffer appointee and was protected by Mark. It’s time for her to go and its time for the Board of Supervisors to show its constituents its serious about restoring integrity to the elections process. And Supervisors Ovitt and Mitzelfelt need to be the loudest voices demanding Verjil’s resignation.