Published June 1, 2005

Mystery of missing parcel tax ballots solved

By S. L. Wykes

You'll have to excuse Megan Swezey-Fogarty for the Memorial Day telephone calls. Sure, she could've been out picnicking. But when the campaign for Palo Alto's school parcel tax measure discovered over the holiday that hundreds of voters had failed to receive their requested absentee ballots, there was no time for barbecue.

A similar measure lost by about 200 votes in November, so when Measure A supporters learned that 632 absentee ballot applications were missing, Swezey-Fogarty and others headed to the campaign phone bank.

With Tuesday the last day to request an absentee ballot, they frantically phoned away over the long weekend, urging hundreds of potential absentee voters to fax in another application or trek down to the registrar's office in San Jose to file one in person.

``And now we have to call them all back again,'' said Swezey-Fogarty, the campaign's co-chair.

Their message this time -- never mind.

On Tuesday, Measure A supporters solved the mystery of the missing applications: They were all inside a bulky package that was still at the post office, three weeks after it had been express mailed to the registrar of voters.

Turns out the package was mailed to the wrong post office box -- the one that usually receives completed absentee ballots, not applications, said Elaine Larson, the county's assistant registrar of voters.

Didn't fit

What's more, the package was so bulky it didn't fit inside the post office box, and voter registration workers didn't know it was there when they came to pick up the mail. Most absentee ballot applications collected in bulk are hand-delivered to the registrar's building on Berger Drive in San Jose, Larson said.

To smooth the way for potential ``yes'' votes, Measure A backers have been collecting absentee ballot applications for voters who can't -- or don't want to -- go to the ballot box on Election Day next Tuesday. They collected about 4,300 applications.

Last weekend, Measure A proponents started getting phone calls from some residents asking why their absentee ballots hadn't arrived. The campaign traced the missing applications to a particular package express-mailed to the registrar's office May 9.

The post office confirmed the delivery May 10, but little did campaign workers know the box had only arrived at the registrar's post office box -- not the San Jose office. With no way to check at the post office over the holiday weekend, the only thing to do was call each and every voter whose application was included in that package.

Favorable reaction

For the most part, co-chair Jon Foster said, people's reaction was, ``Thanks for telling me. I've been wondering where my ballot was.''

No one's pointing any fingers. ``We're just happy the package was found,'' Larson said.

All of the applications made the deadline, and the ballots will be sent out today, in time for voters to return them to the registrar by Election Day, which is Tuesday. They must be received that day, not just postmarked, Larson said.

That the Measure A campaign would have gone to people's homes, collected those applications and taken care of the delivery to the registrar doesn't sit well with Tom Ashton, one of the measure's most vigorous opponents.

``We knew the other side was doing this,'' Ashton said. ``It's totally unfair.''

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/living/education/11786156.htm

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Last modified: 06/06/05