How much is voter confidence worth? Fresno County could spend $4 million or more
Fresno County is mulling hiring a credit check company and even spending up to $4 million to clean up voter rolls in the wake of a presidential election that had many claiming fraud.
Fresno County Registrar of Voters James Kus was charged in February by the Board of Supervisors to find ways to re-instill faith with all of Fresno County voters. Kus has stressed the county has no evidence of anyone rigging elections.
Voters who have moved may get more than one ballot but their votes are never counted more than once, Kus said on Tuesday.
“Have we had people return them a couple times? Yes,” he said. “Does that second one get counted? No.”
The county could spend about $60,000 a year to hire a company that runs credit checks to comb through the rolls and look to expunge any duplicates, according to Kus.
Sending a team out to go door-to-door to try to vet ballots is significantly more expensive — $2 million to $4 million — and carries other concerns. For example, does the team go out in the daytime when many people are not likely home or does it canvass in the evening when it could be less safe?
“Questions of risk and other stuff come into play,” Kus said.
The supervisors did not vote on spending the money Tuesday, but told staff to study it further.
The November election that saw President Joe Biden unseat former President Donald Trump was controversial though no significant voter fraud was brought to light by anyone making accusations.
The controversy has made its way to the Fresno County Hall of Records, where the supervisors meet. Members of the public have repeated unfounded accusations about voter fraud.
One common target is Dominion Voting Systems. The system is one of four used in the state and is used in Fresno County, according to election officials. The system is not vulnerable to hacking because the machines are not hooked up to the Internet, according to Kus.
Dominion machines have also been certified at the federal and state levels separately.
Voter confidence
The Fresno County Elections Office is preparing a campaign to attempt to educate skeptical voters. Where and when those presentations will take place was not immediately clear, but they will also be online after the fact, officials said.
Supervisor Nathan Magsig said he wants the county to hire a third party to audit the process. “To the extent that we can show the public that we are doing everything possible to make sure the appropriate people are voting, I think that is great,” he said.
Supervisor Steve Brandau said he’d support hiring the credit check company and considering using American Rescue Plan money to potentially pay for the door-to-door effort.
“I think we’re losing a lot of confidence from the public,” he said. “Now, some of it is unjustified, but the only way you can repair that is to go to an extent that most would deem a valuable effort.”
