Thursday, 4:30 PM
Consultant gives thumbs down to Boston Election Department
By Donovan Slack, Globe Staff
A consultant’s audit of the Boston Election Department has found that years of understaffing and underfunding have left the department incapable of consistently conducting elections properly.
Even as the demands on election workers increased because of federal voting rights legislation, the city continued to cut the department’s budget, forcing it to operate with a skeleton staff and outdated tools, according to the audit conducted by David King, an elections specialist at Harvard University.
The city will not be able to run elections effectively unless it overhauls the department, reclassifying jobs to create clear areas of responsibility and committing to a "sustained investment in personnel and training" that would increase the size of the department’s staff by more than a third, King said in a 12-page draft of his conclusions released to the Globe.
"There is no effective system for internal training. There is no common library where up-to-date reference materials about election laws are maintained. The computer systems are antiquated and poorly maintained, and even the phone system is out of date," King said in his draft.
The audit was commissioned by Mayor Thomas M. Menino last fall after years of mounting problems culminated with dozens of polling places running out of ballots during November’s election. The shortages prompted Secretary of State William F. Galvin to say that he would appoint an overseer for future elections.
King analyzed city voting records and election laws, and interviewed 59 current and former employees of the Election Department as well as voting rights advocates from Boston neighborhoods. For six weeks, he worked out of an office in the department.
City officials said the mayor, who was briefed on the findings last week, was "delighted" with the report and plans to implement many of the recommendations.
Slack can be reached at dslack@globe.com.
