Neither fish nor foul

Loyola Law School election expert Rick Hasen looks at the election night Inka job by City Clerk Frank Martinez and concludes it was not "ballot tampering—as some have suggested—or sound election administration."

Martinez deserves criticism on two grounds. First, Martinez did not adequately get the word out to candidates and the press before the election that this correcting practice was going to take place, and that it would likely delay the announcement of results on election night. The delay and subsequent investigation of the reasons for it now have created a great deal of suspicion about the vote counting process, with at least one observer noting that the city employees working under Martinez are members of a labor union that had endorsed Jim Hahn for mayor.

Unfortunately, the revelations come after Florida 2000, with many reports since then on nationwide problems with the casting and counting of ballots. The reports about Los Angeles simply feed into a growing national belief that we cannot conduct elections in this country in a competent and neutral way.

He says we were lucky to avoid a San Diego-type fiasco. In his online argument, Hasen links to a conspiracy theory posted at the Mayor Sam anonyblog.