BY BRADEN CARTWRIGHT
Daily Post Staff Writer
The official who oversees elections in Santa Clara County is retiring ahead of the November election.
Registrar of Voters Shannon Bushey’s last day will be June 30, ending a 34-year career that spanned nearly 100 elections, spokesman Steve Goltiao said yesterday.
Assistant Registrar of Voters Matt Moreles will be the acting Registrar of Voters, Goltiao said.
“ROV staff is fully prepared to conduct a successful Presidential Election with the same level of dedication, service and integrity,” Goltiao said in an email.
Moreles will oversee a $50 million budget and 95 full-time employees.
Bushey gave a tearful goodbye at a Board of Supervisors meeting on Tuesday.
“You can do anything in the county if you work hard and you care about your customers,” Bushey said.
Bushey, whose mother and brother both retired from Santa Clara County, started with the county in 1990 working on agricultural weights and measures.
Bushey joined the Registrar of Voters in 1995. She became a supervisor in 1998 and managed the candidate division, where she implemented an electronic filing system, Supervisor Susan Ellenberg said.
Bushey was sued in 2017 by former Judge Aaron Persky, who was recalled after sentencing Stanford rapist Brock Turner to six months in jail.
Persky argued that the Secretary of State rather than Bushey should have certified the petition because he was appointed by the governor.
A judge granted Persky a restraining order to prevent the recall campaign from collecting signatures, but the pause only lasted 17 days until another judge sided with the recall.
Bushey’s office was responsible in April for a high-profile recount that broke a tie for second between Assemblyman Evan Low and Supervisor Joe Simitian. Simitian picked up seven votes from the recount, and Low picked up 12 votes to move on against former San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo.
Some ballots weren’t initially counted because election workers couldn’t verify the voter’s citizenship or their signature, or because workers made mistakes when feeding the counting machine, the Registrar of Voters said.
