The commission chairwoman, Rosemary Rodriguez, said she received a letter from North Coast Congressman Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena, early this month alerting the commission that Humboldt County had certified inaccurate elections results due to a programming error in its version of Premier Elections Solutions software that led to almost 200 votes being dropped from the county's final results.
”(Thompson) definitely asked the EAC to follow up on this information and to try to work to support California's elections officials in their attempts to get to the bottom of this and resolve this matter,” Rodriguez said.
But, unlike the Federal Aviation Administration, Rodriguez said the EAC doesn't have the authority or capacity to launch independent investigations. So, Rodriguez said her commission is currently awaiting reports from Humboldt County Registrar of Voters Carolyn Crnich and California Secretary of State Debra Bowen detailing the error and how it was discovered.