So Long Kevin
California's Secretary of State Kevin Shelley finally stepped down yesterday amid allegations of various misdeeds, including financial improprieties and boorish conduct. The L.A. Times has this story on Shelley's fall from grace. Nine California newspapers had called for this resignation, as did I in this post last month.

Once viewed as a rising star in the Democratic Party, Shelley resigns under a cloud of controvesy with hardly any supporters left -- and with a record as California's chief election official that can most generously be described as spotty. He came into office citing the need to improve the state's voting system, but he leaves being accused of having misused HAVA funds for partisan political purposes. The L.A. Times also discusses the State Personnel Board's finding that he was "abusive, humiliating, unreasonably demanding, or demeaning" to members of his staff, and that he circumvented state rules to give a job to the son of a prominent donor.

Secretary Shelley did the right thing early in his tenure by convening an ad hoc task force to look into security concerns regarding electronic voting. The task force produced this report in 2003 which at that time was the most thorough to that date. The task force recognized the advantages of electronic voting while suggesting several measures that could be taken to improve security.

Unfortunately, Secretary Shelley chose to disregard the advice of the task force's majority, and caved into public pressure by mandating that electronic voting machines have the unproven voter verified paper audit trail. He imposed this requirement against the advice of the Attorney General's office, which warned that it might well bring the state into conflict with the Americans with Disabilities Act and other disability access laws. As noted in yesterday's post, the VVPAT has yet to prove workable or effective, and it's becoming increasingly clear that Shelley's decision to impose this requirement was a mistake.

Shelley's actions also had the effect of alienating several county election officials, few of whom had any kind words for him in the end. The strife that developed between the Secretary of State's office and local election officials is described in this Sacramento Bee story. While not all the decisions of state election officials will or should be popular with county election officials, the manner in which Shelley dictated to the counties -- particularly with respect to voting equipment -- made it very difficult for the state and local election officials to work cooperatively, as they must. The resulting distrust was yet another nail in Shelley's coffin.

Shelley deserves some credit for seeing the handwriting on the wall. He has done Californians a favor by stepping down. Let's hope that Governor Schwarzenegger now appoints someone who will execute the important responsibilities of the office with fairness, integrity and nonpartisanship.
- posted by Dan Tokaji @ 7:17 PM