Registrar of Voters should be elected

The position at the County of Imperial of Voter Registrar should be an elected position as it was before the Board of Supervisors made it an appointed position in the early 2010s and appointed a permanent director in 2014.

Just as the supervisors took the power from the voters to elect their Voter Registrar, it should be returned to the voters after years of a failed change they hoped would improve the results of that department. I advocate for a return to an elected position for the primary reason of giving the person in charge of the Voter Registrar the pressure of having to answer to the voting public.

The frustration voters have felt over the performance of the Voter Registrar since it stopped being an elected position is in having extra layers of red tape and protocols to have positive change made. The Voter Registrar became a department head who answered to the CEO of the county, not the voters, and the change is noticeable in the manner the voter’s issues are addressed when they arise and the follow up to those issues. Those issues and the desires of the public in general will be handled with more urgency, in my opinion, if the Voter Registrar has to answer to the public through an election every four years to stay in that position.

I see the younger generations’ movement locally finally to be more involved and part of the solution in regard to elections, and this is another step forward to have more involved in the political process locally. Open the position to the public and allow the voters to decide and review the performance of the Voter Registrar to decide if they want to continue on this path.

—Eric Reyes,

Brawley