Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters' Head of IT Quit on Eve of Election Day

The Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters said the sudden departure of its head of information technology did not impact the workload and fallout of Election Day.

The registrar on Thursday was still counting ballots from Tuesday's election.

IT chief Joseph Le's resignation "had no affect on our processes at all," Registrar of Voters Shannon Bushey said Thursday. Le resigned as head of information technology on the eve of Election Day.

The county said Le's departure is a personnel matter and did not provide further details.

The registrar said it is still business as usual counting the ballots, and that losing one person does not make that much of a difference.

"Our results reporting has been consistent that we are one of the later counties in the entire state to come in," Bushey said.

But observers said losing the head of information technology as people are about to head to the polls does not look good.

"It doesn't pass the smell test, that's the only way to look at it," NBC Bay Area political analyst Larry Gerston said. "We were told this time that the ballots would be rolling out at 8 o'clock on Tuesday night. Now 70 percent of the ballots were in by 8 o'clock Tuesday night. Come 8 o'clock, come 9 o'clock, come 10 o'clock -- a pinch."

Meanwhile, sources within the county said a so-called whistle-blower complaint was made to a county officer's office alleging voting irregularities that could affect the total of the votes.

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