I’m sure anyone that reads this blog and PaveRoadsFirst knows that we feel that Kari Verjil is the MOST incompetent Registrar of Voters for San Bernardino County in recent memory. My belief is that the incompetence borders on criminal. Therefore, were decided to take further action. I know a FPPC complaint will be filed. I also feel both a Grand Jury complaint and a letter to the Attorney General’s office and the Secretary of State’s office are in order. Hopefully, this will be completed by week’s end.
To give you some history, Ingrid Gonzales was the Registrar of Voters for San Bernardino County for maybe 10 years or more. I dealt with her some as my director was secretary to the County Women’s Network of which Ingrid was the president. That basically made me the secretary to the County Women’s Network. On a personal level, I didn’t really care for Ingrid. However, as an election official she was well respected and I do not remember much in the way of political intrigue involving her office.
Once she retired, her permanent replacement, whose name I now forget, was appointed but didn’t last long. He was involved in some election difficulty that embarassed Mark Uffer and he was gone quickly. Kari Verjil was Mark Uffer’s and Bill Postmus’ hand-picked replacement. She proves her loyalty to the Postmusites regularly.
My personal experience with the Registrar of Voters occurred last September. I decided to run for the Board of Retirement. I went into the ROV’s office as instructed and explained to them what I wanted to do. They provided me with the paperwork. They went through it line-by-line and explained what they wanted me to fill in and/or they filled in the blanks for me. I was told I was done and so I left. At 3 p.m. on the last day of filing I received a call from the ROV’s office telling me that I had to be in the ROV’s office by 5 p.m. that day or I could not run because I filled out the wrong paperwork. I explained that I was in Sacramento and could not get in there in two hours. After some discussion the election official agreed to check with someone else and call me back. In the end I was told that only part of my paperwork was for the wrong position and they decided to allow my name on the ballot. By this time I asked to withdraw because I really didn’t need the hassle. My name appeared on the ballot but I asked my supporters to vote for someone else. The interesting part of this story is that one of my opponents was Jim Erwin. Gee, how much of a coincidence do you think that was?
I could chalk the above up to coincidence until recently. Now that I have witnessed the incompetence and backroom dealings of that office in connection with Rita Vogler, I know it was not a coincidence. Once my letter and complaint are completed, I will post a copy to the blog.
6 users commented in " Registrar of Voters "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackI have a friend who has worked at ROV for a long time. She says it has gone from a happy place to work to somewhere that has a lot of stress. She says it is badly run. She says that Verjil is difficult to work for.
You’re a little off on your facts. Ingrid “retired” after personally screwing up an election so badly that some winners were declared losers, some losers were declared winners, and a full manual recount had to be conducted. Scott Konopasek “resigned” after he personally screwed up an election and then publicly blamed elderly poll workers, saying to a newspaper, “Anytime you put things in the hands of 70-year-olds you’re going to have a problem.” It embarrassed not just Uffer but the whole county. As for Kari Verjil, neither Uffer nor Postmus had anything to do with her hiring. Norm Kanold hired her on his own. She was the assistant registrar at Riverside County, and is considered by the other county registrars to be one of the state’s best. She’s never come close to screwing up an election. Just because you didn’t know how to file your paperwork doesn’t make her a bad registrar. In fact, it sounds like she actually bent the rules to accommodate your ignorance. Anyway, I guess God was looking out for us because both you and Erwin lost. My guess is that anyone who doesn’t like working for Kari is a slacker who doesn’t like being made to work in exchange for a paycheck.
I will agree with you on the Scott Knopasek situation. I couldn’t remember what happened until you reminded me but I do remember he embarassed Uffer and that comment was uncalled for. As for Ingrid, I’ll have to take your word for it, because I do not remember what you are saying about her to be true but it doesn’t matter. As to Kari, she truly is the MOST incompetent ROV yet. She can’t even get an election certified, a ballot properly printed or statements properly entered into the computer system. She is the biggest joke of a ROV yet.
Mrs. Verjil spoke at a training session of County Women Network a little over a year ago. Her most frequently heard answers were ‘I don’t know’ and ‘I would have to check with the Secretary of State’. When she was asked what was being done to prevent illegal aliens from voting she said nothing. When it was pointed out to her that her method of delivering the cast ballots was flawed she realized she had been caught. Over all she was unimpressive.
I was there for part of that. I remember how the audience gasped when she told us how easy it is for illegal aliens to register to vote in this county and how SB County does nothing to prevent it. We probably shouldn’t be giving the Mitzelfelt people any ideas.
Sharon I know you read the pave roads blog. Did you see the articles they put up about Kari’s incompatence? It would appear we have a history of ROV incompatence in this county but that doesn’t surprise any of us who work for the county.
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