Fresno Co. sends out registration cards with the wrong date.

By John Ellis The Fresno Bee

(Published October 25, 2000) A little more than two months ago, Carey Schock and his fiancee moved from Virginia to Fresno. One important item on their "to do" list was registering to vote.

Time slipped by until they found themselves at Harvest Fair in Santa Rosa, a few days before the deadline and still not registered. The League of Women Voters had a booth at the fair, so they took a few minutes to fill out the forms.

When they got their registration cards in the mail, however, it said they were eligible on or after Nov. 8 -- the day after election day.

"I was pretty shocked," Schock said. "I didn't understand why it said the eighth."Election 2000

He was sure he had registered in time. He double-checked the calendar to see that election day was indeed Nov. 7.

As it turns out, the late date was created by a computer glitch in the Fresno County elections office.

Kathy McClue, Fresno County program coordinator, said registration usually closes 29 days before election day. This year, that date fell on a state holiday -- Columbus Day. To compensate, the close of registration was moved back a day, to Oct. 10. That is 28 days before election day. The county's computer program, however, was not altered to reflect the change.

Because of that, anyone who registered Oct. 10 got a registration card saying they weren't eligible to vote until Nov. 8.

For Schock and his fiancee, the story was a bit different. They registered four days before the deadline, but it took the League of Women Voters that long to get the cards to Fresno.

"We didn't discover it until the cards went out, and it was, 'Oh-oh,'" McClue said.

The mistake affected about 5,000 people who registered on that final day, though if someone doesn't look closely at their registration card, they won't notice it.

The bottom line, she said, is that those people can vote: "Yes, they are eligible. Their names will be on the roster. They will get a sample ballot telling them when to vote."

Schock's fiancee had called the elections office and was told about the glitch. That was good news for Schock: "I just wanted to make sure I could punch the ballot."

http://www.fresnobee.com/localnews/story/0,1724,206774,00.html

-- Doris (reaper@pacifier.com), October 25, 2000