Santa Clara County’s top election official is stepping down four months before the November election and shortly after her office landed in hot water over a historic recount.
After nearly 30 years leading the Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters through countless controversies, Shannon Bushey will retire Friday for medical reasons, according to spokesman Steve Goltiao. He declined further comment. Bushey also declined to comment through a spokesman. This follows a medical leave that Bushey had taken during a period of time that Goltiao declined to disclose due to privacy concerns. Deputy Secretary Matt Moreles will run the office in the meantime, likely during the impending presidential election.
“This has been a very difficult decision to make, but in the end I decided it is time to focus on my health,” Bushey wrote in a May 9 letter to the county Board of Supervisors. “The last 28 years working at the Registrar of Voters have been exceptionally rewarding both professionally and personally. “It has been a privilege to serve our voters and provide them with the opportunity to make their voices heard through a diversity of voting options, language assistance and accessibility.”
But it hasn’t always been easy for Bushey’s office. A once-in-a-lifetime tie in the closely contested 16th Congressional District race this year forced county election officials to admit human error in April. Registration workers revealed that 19 votes were not originally counted in the March primary because workers pressed the wrong buttons and jammed the tabulation machines. Three votes were counted twice in error. The county also accepted seven challenged ballots.
The result: Assemblyman Evan Low picked up additional votes over Santa Clara County Supervisor Joe Simitian, breaking an unprecedented tie and advancing low to a November runoff against former San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo.
Bushey’s office called it a learning experience, prompting another look at its quality control procedures.
In 2020, Bushey faced pressure to retract his rejection of a labor-backed ballot initiative in San Jose for not gathering enough signatures. Bushey filed a lawsuit with the Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters, seeking to reverse a decision the office made in March when it claimed there were not enough “valid” signatures to place the measure on the November ballot. The measure was disqualified, but labor advocates claimed election officials lost thousands of signatures and vowed to appeal the decision.
Years before that, Low emerged as Bushey’s staunchest critic, frequently referring to the county’s election system as one of the poorest in the state. In 2017, a scathing audit study at the agency, ordered by Low, found that from 2010 to 2016, the registrar administered nearly 30 elections and had 26 errors related to election materials, ranging from incorrect mapping of voting districts to lack of revision.
Low declined to comment for this story.
In recent years, across the United States, the voter registration office has gone from a procedural task to one of the most politicized and stressful, as polarization fuels perceptions of compromised electoral systems. In February, Shasta County lost an election clerk who similarly attributed it to health issues, but faced a significant setback in election results and practices.
In 2016, Bushey’s office had to conduct recounts of two San Jose City Council elections. One of those races in District 8 went through two rounds of recounts. After the runoff, Bushey acknowledged that his office mistakenly counted 31 mail-in votes in the close race, in which Sylvia Arenas, now a county supervisor, defeated her opponent Jimmy Nguyen by fewer than 70 votes, fueling the Nguyen’s public challenge to the certificates. integrity of the results.
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In the District 4 council race that same year, incumbent Manh Nguyen similarly criticized the recorder after paying for a recount that still left his opponent, Lan Diep, in the lead.
Santa Clara County supervisors had nothing but praise for Bushey in response to his announcement.
“I wish Shannon the best as she prepares for a well-deserved retirement after serving the residents of Santa Clara County for decades,” Board President Susan Ellenberg told San José Spotlight. “She has been a constant force over the years, providing consistent leadership, including serving as a member of the Bay Area Coalition of Election Officials.”
Contact Brandon Pho at [email protected] or @brandonphooo on X, formerly known as Twitter.
