Alameda County civil grand jury: Registrar of Voters does an impressive job

Alameda County's recent election ran smoothly, but civil grand jury is calling for more transparency; Civil grand jury eviscerates Oakland in three separate investigations involving tax measures

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☕️MORNING BUZZ

—Alameda County Registrar of Voters Tim Dupuis earned praise for its execution of the November General Election, but a new report from the Alameda County Civil Grand Jury also added there's still significant room for improvement—particularly when it comes to transparency and public trust.

While the 2024 election included high-profile and potentially contentious local races, including recall efforts against Oakland’s mayor and the county district attorney, the process unfolded without major incident, the civil grand jury wrote.

It’s an assertion that even Dupuis’ fiercest critics acknowledge.

The civil grand jury, which took a close look at how elections are conducted in the county, found the Registrar’s office largely capable and professional in managing the logistical complexity of the election.

Yet, the civil grand jury’s report found that public visibility into the process was lacking, citing experiences where attempts to observe ballot processing—either online or in person—were met with poor video quality, vague explanations, and unclear updates.

It’s criticisms that many of Dupuis’ fiercest opponents have long voiced.

One of the most pointed criticisms in the civil grand jury report, however, involved the Logic and Accuracy testing—a standard procedure to verify that ballot scanning machines are functioning correctly.

The report described testing sessions were difficult to follow and lacked transparency. Observers were not given enough access to meaningfully verify that the equipment was tabulating votes correctly.

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—More inside:

• CIVIL GRAND JURY: The Alameda County Civil Grand Jury report is historically been all about Oakland’s ineptitude, but this year’s report exposed the cities poor fiscal health and its inability to find solutions.

• CIVIL GRAND JURY: Oakland’s inability to issue infrastructure bonds amid credit downgrades and ignored budget warnings risks insolvency and threatens vital services like road repairs.

• CIVIL GRAND JURY: Despite voter-approved funding, the city’s fragile finances and administrative failures have halted repaving efforts, leaving deteriorating roads and millions in unchecked expenditures.

• Oakland is preparing exactly what its fair share of Measure W funds might entail. Plus, San Leandro officials “want theirs, too.”

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