San Bernardino County Registrar of Voters Michael Scarpello said he was forced to resign Thursday, July 19.
By Jeff Horseman | jhorseman@scng.com | The Press-Enterprise
Published: July 20, 2018 at 10:46 am | Updated: July 20, 2018 at 6:20 pm
The head of the San Bernardino County elections office is out with about 110 days to go until the November election, but not before raising concerns about what he said was the county’s aging voter system, potential cybersecurity issues related to the office’s website and lack of staff.
Registrar of Voters Michael Scarpello confirmed he resigned Thursday, July 19. Asked if he was forced out, he said: “I think that’s an accurate portrayal.”
He said a clash in management style, specifically with the county’s Chief Operating Officer Leonard Hernandez, led to his departure.
“The county decided to go in a different direction is what they told me,” said Scarpello, who had been registrar since April 2011.
Principal Management Analyst Bob Page will oversee the elections office on an interim basis while the county conducts a national search for a new registrar.
“Mr. Scrapello’s departure had nothing to do with the integrity of election and registration activities during his tenure,” said county spokesman David Wert. “The county cannot provide further details about his departure because of the confidential nature of personnel matters.”
The elections office handles local and countywide elections in a county with more than 910,000 registered voters. Scarpello, who made $154,000 annually, came here from Denver, where he had been director of elections since 2007.
Scarpello said the county’s voting system – used to tally and count ballots – is secure, although it’s very old and in need of replacement. Regarding the voting system, Wert said: “The county is working with the state and looking toward its internal financial resources to secure a new system in the near future.”
Scarpello is less confident about other aspects of the county’s elections infrastructure. He said he just learned the vendor who handles’ the county’s voter registration system might not want to do business anymore in California.
While the system contract runs through June 2020, Scarpello said he’s not sure whether the vendor would try to leave now or stay through the term of the contract. The California Secretary of State’s office did not respond to a request for comment about the vendor.
Wert said there are rumors the vendor might leave California, but nothing definite. “The county sees no need for alarm at this point,” he said.
Scarpello also expressed concern about the vulnerability of the elections office website and its election results page. “We could do everything right and if a Russian meddles with an election results page, it could make everyone look bad,” he said.
Wert said the county’s Information Services Department “was pushing forward” with scans of the registrar’s systems by the Department of Homeland Security and the California Military Department, which includes the national guard.
Scarpello objected because “he didn’t want (information services) meddling in his systems since they are not in the county’s network and are not connected to the Internet,” Wert said.
That’s not true, Scarpello said, adding it was he who got pushback when he sought to enhance security.
Wert said county IT officials had homeland security do “cyber hygiene scans of all Internet/public facing systems including those hosting (the registrar’s) websites These scans were performed regularly and continue to run.”
Scarpello said the cyber hygiene activities described by Wert are different from the security scans he wanted of the election website and results page.
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Scarpello replaced Kari Vergil whose tenure was regularly in question. For instance, she actively engaged in the election of Brad Mitzelfelt to the SB County Board of Supervisors, while acting as the registrar. During the election, Mitzelfelt was seen several times coming out of Vergil’s private office. Scarpello, believed to be an active Democrat, was then hired by the BOS which was predominantly Republican? Hmm… Scarpello had been named in a lawsuit during his Colorado Registrar term along with Barack Obama over an issue of thousands of missing ballots. Will the BOS give us the real reasons behind Scarpello being “…forced out?”
Scarpello was told to resign or be fired because he was verbally and emotionally abusive to his employees to the point where they were afraid to complain. Things came to a head when they began to file complaints and he openly threatened those who complained and anyone who might be thinking about complaining. He was great at running elections, but can’t cope with humans.
Don’t agree with Scarpello being abusive or partisan. I worked at ROV for a time and yes, he was sometimes a slave driver but I never saw him being abusive to the full time staff. If anything, he tried to protect and keep the fulltimers because ROV requires insane amounts of overtime and turnover is high. Most likely, like the article says, somebody higher in the food chain forced him out.
I am an active Democrat. In fact I am 1st Vice Chair of the party. I can verify Scarpello’s political activity at least within out party. Scarpello was not an active Democrat, or active in the party at all. He remained inpartial at every turn. I would know. Other than when he was invited to give a presentation once on voter registeration, he never attended meetings, or made endorsements etc.
Scarpello followed the letter of the law. He was also highly respected by his employees and I never heard of any disdain from county employees in regards to Michael Scarepello.
The comment above made by myself, Mark Wetwood. I am the 1st Vice Chair of the Democratic Party and I think I would know otherwise…Thank You.