By Tim Redmond
So there are still a huge number of uncounted ballots at City Hall. No surprise there — we knew that was coming on election night.
And in most races, it won’t make much of a difference. But in some, like Prop. B, the outcome might change.
Here’s the problem: San Francisco is rapidly becoming a vote-by-mail town. That’s okay; in Oregon, all ballots are cast by mail. But we are operating as if this were still an earlier time, when almost everyone went to the polls on Election Day. If we are going to be voting differently, and we clearly are, the Department of Elections needs to change with the times.
There’s no reason why absentee ballots can’t be counted as they come in, so that when the polls close, most of those results will be immediately available. It’s not as if DOE is incompetant; the department has made great strides under John Arnst. But the supervisors should put this on the agenda for next year: How do we shift priorities and funding to handle modern elections?
(Oh, and the DOE could run the RCV tally on Election Night, too. It’s not hard.)
(Oh, and will somebody — maybe Aaron Peskin or Tom Ammiano, as a parting gift to all of us as they leave the board — please, please figure out how to get WiFi on Election Night in the North Light Court, where all the reporters are trying to post results and there is no Internet access at all? That room and the Board Chambers. I will volunteer to raise money to buy the router myself, and Alex Clemens has promised he will personally install it. Just show us where to plug the cable in.)