Alameda County registrar to take state appointment

By Thaai Walker    KNIGHT RIDDER   14 April 2005

California's new Secretary of State continued to overhaul his office Wednesday, announcing he has named Alameda County's well-regarded elections chief to a newly created executive post that will oversee the state's election process.

Bradley J. Clark, who has served as Alameda County's registrar of voters since 1993, will become the new assistant secretary of state for elections.

The appointment gives Clark broad powers and elevates him over the elections chief, who until now was the highest state elections post. Clark, 52, has been told that one of his first tasks will be to hire a new elections chief.

John Mott-Smith, who has held that job for the past 12 years, will be replaced, according to spokeswoman Caren Daniels-Meade.

The moves are the latest in a series of steps undertaken by Secretary of State Bruce McPherson since being sworn in to replace Kevin Shelley. Shelley resigned in March under a cloud of allegations that he misused federal election funds and created an abusive working environment.

Officials who oversee elections in California's 58 counties were told of the impending changes by e-mail on Tuesday. Many were surprised by the forced departure of Mott-Smith, who is well-regarded and who some feel was caught in an unenviable position as complaints grew regarding Shelley's alleged misconduct.

His removal was not viewed a punitive action in election circles but as another indicator of McPherson's determination to restore integrity to the election process. By hiring one of their own, he signals county election officials that he intends to create an inclusive environment.

Clark, who said he considers Mott-Smith "a true gentleman and a friend," played no role in the decision to let him go. Nevertheless, Clark said, "It's a decision that the secretary has to make on who he wants on his senior staff."

Clark will begin his new post on April 25 but will continue to spend part of his working week in Alameda County until June to oversee two upcoming elections.

Before coming to Alameda County, he served as Monterey County's registrar and was also an elections analyst on the staff of former California Secretary of State March Fong Eu.

In 1999, Clark became the first county registrar in the state to test electronic voting machines when he brought them in to use in an election in Piedmont.

The touch-screen machines that Clark's office contracted with Diebold Election Systems to provide suffered a wide-scale malfunction during the March 2004 election, resulting in hundreds of voters being turned away from the polls. It turned out that the equipment had not met federal standards for reliability, accuracy and security. A county suit against the company recently was settled.