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SF Supes to meet over Nov. 6 election

Staff
Monday January 07, 2002

SAN FRANCISCO — San Francisco supervisors have scheduled a last-minute committee meeting for Monday to consider what the board should do officially.  

Supervisor Matt Gonzales asked last month that a committee hearing be held on the question.. Several of his colleagues pointed out that one of the measures voters backed on Nov. 6, Measure E, created a new Elections Commission and tighter rules to oversee the troubled department. The implementation of that measure was set to begin on Jan. 1 but has been put off because the supervisors declined to declare the results official. 

On Tuesday, incoming City Attorney-elect Dennis Herrera is scheduled to be sworn in but that could also be held up unless the supervisors act on Monday. Herrera, a former police commissioner, came in first in a runoff election held last month and defeated Jim Lazarus, the man who had been the front-runner on Nov. 6. 

Gonzales has also called for a recount of votes from both November 2000 and November 2001 - matters the Rules Committee is also set to take up on Monday. This fall, a number of questions were raised about the handling of ballots, including thousands moved away from City Hall on Nov. 6 for security reasons, 240 that were counted late and several hundred blank ones that disappeared for weeks when a disgruntled poll worker apparently took them home.