Polling place glitch: no roster at one Santa Monica location

SANTA MONICA, Calif. (FOX 11) - A grateful handshake from the LA County Registrar-Recorder when a Fox 11 viewer helped solve the case of the missing Santa Monica voting roster from one precinct.

LA County Registrar-Recorder Dean Logan confirmed it is the official roster. He says they checked the serial number and it matches with the precinct where officials knew there was a missing roster.

The story begins Monday night when Kevin Campbell contacted FOX 11 telling us his brother-in-law discovered the papers strewn around streets in Santa Monica near the St. Paul's Lutheran church precinct while on a bike ride.

"One of my relatives found these on the streets on Idaho and 5th and 6th and 7th and each block had different pieces that were in the gutter and on the curb," said Campbell.

The papers included a 72-page booklet with names and addresses of hundreds of registered voters and other supplemental documents.

Campbell called the Registrar's Office right away after hours and left a message. He called again Tuesday morning and left another message, but no one returned his call.

Tuesday morning, voters at the parish were forced to vote with provisional ballots when the election inspector realized the roster was missing.

"We knew there was a polling place in Santa Monica that had all their supplies, but they didn't have the roster. The inspector reported to us that she thought it was lost in her apartment," said Logan.

"When i walked in to drop off the ballot there was just two women and just a lot of flustered looks," said voter Chantal Carrere.

We reached out the Registrar's Office and made them aware of the roster that had been found and helped connect Campbell to the Registrar Recorder, Dean Logan. Campbell made the drive to Norwalk to personally deliver the documents.

"This certainly solves the mystery here. We're talking to the inspector to get more information but we really appreciate you bringing it by," said Logan.

For Campbell, returning the voting rolls was just part of his civic duty.

"Voting is the cornerstone of our republic...so anything that hampers it is a problem."

Election officials are still trying to figure out exactly what happened, but they don't believe there was any foul play. They believe it may have happened when the polling worker was transporting the roster in her car.

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