Registrar working with city clerks to cope with error

The Registrar of Voters (ROV) is working closely with several city and town clerks to explain to local candidates an error that led five office-seekers to believe they had qualified for the Nov. 5 ballot when they had not.

On Friday, after the candidate filing period closed, the ROV discovered a clerical error that affected the evaluation of nomination petition signatures for city candidates. To ensure each candidate met their nomination petition requirement, ROV staff reevaluated all petitions for the city candidates. As a result of this reevaluation, eight candidates were determined to be impacted.

This affected candidates in the cities of Highland, Rialto, Hesperia, Ontario, Rancho Cucamonga, Twentynine Palms and the Town of Apple Valley.

Five of the eight candidates did not meet their nomination requirements, and therefore, did not qualify as a candidate for the ballot. The ROV immediately communicated this change of status to these city clerks. These five candidates may file a legal challenge to request relief from the courts. Any legal challenges must be resolved by Aug. 29, after which no changes can be made to the ballot.

Three of the eight candidates had the opportunity to obtain additional signatures due to the extension of the candidate filing period through 5 p.m. Wednesday. These deadlines were extended because the incumbents in those contests had not filed candidacy papers.

These findings were promptly addressed by performing subsequent audits to confirm the findings. In the future, these additional audits will be added to our candidate filing processes and our petition signature review processes.

The mission of the ROV is to conduct the County’s elections in a fair, accessible, secure, transparent, and efficient manner, upholding the highest level of election standards and accuracy, while always providing excellent customer service to the diverse population it serves.

The Registrar of Voters values its partnerships with the city clerks and continues to provide its assistance throughout this process.

Additional County Update News – August 15, 2024