When an elections worker’s on the ballot

Before Lucinda Jackson decided to run for office, the candidate for city council candidate for Eureka’s Ward 2 met with County Clerk/Recorder Kelley Sanders to discuss if a candidacy would even be feasible.

Jackson, an employee at the Humboldt County Office of Elections, wanted to be sure that her job could be restructured in a way that would ensure there would be no conflict of interest with the upcoming Nov. 3 election.

Sanders — whose job as county clerk comes up for election every four years — has first-hand experience at ensuring a fair election process for an election’s office employee running for public office: She’s run for her position twice now and had to make necessary adjustments to her role in the election process.

So when Jackson and Sanders met, they reached an agreement broad in scope which keeps Jackson removed from any elections tasks dealing with the city of Eureka. It keeps Jackson removed from most elections tasks in general.

On Wednesday, the TimesStandard reported on a human error within the elections office which caused Ward 2 candidate Kati Moulton’s candidate statement to be left out of voter guides sent to voters earlier this month.

Moulton’s candidate statement, and a letter from the county with an explanation and apology, was mailed out in a supplemental letter to Ward 2 voters on Friday.

Large stickers with her statement will be affixed to voter guides in every single second ward voting center, as well as new voter guides which will be sent to voters who have registered since the first guides were sent out — all on the county’s dime.

“It was human error, and certainly not Ms. Jackson’s error,” Sanders said. “We’ve taken extra care to ensure she is separated. We have a lot of experience with the separation of duties when someone at the elections office runs for public office. Everyone who works in my office has the highest integrity.”

Jackson has no role in creating voter guides. She’s not responsible for programming voting machines, nor is the candidate tasked with scanning and tabulating ballots. She has no role in creating ballots, and she has no hand in counting provisional ballots for Eureka or preparing election certificates for the city.

Jackson is not tasked with counting any votes my mail, and she will not act as a public relations liaison during the election season.

In short, she has no role in the Eureka election other than sending the final results onto California’s Secretary of State. Jackson will assist with a few election tasks at the county level. “The values I have are accountability, transparency, and integrity,” Jackson said. “I can appreciate those are qualities that voters want to ensure their candidates and council members have, we need more of it in public office. If I was a voter, and I didn’t know me, I would wonder too (after a candidate’s statement is inadvertently left out). It’s natural.”