COUNTY MISSES ELECTION DEADLINE.

Byline: Jennifer Klein Staff Writer

VENTURA - Superior Court Judge Henry Walsh had not ruled on challenges to the Measure O ballot statements by Tuesday, causing the county elections office to miss its deadline for the printer.

However, because the Reform Party still has not submitted a candidate for president, all the ballot printing presses have been placed on hold until the secretary of state intervenes Thursday, officials said.

``I don't think it (missing the deadline) will cost us any money, but it will cost me some gray hairs and a lot of antacid tablets,'' said Assistant Registrar of Voters Bruce Bradley.

Bradley and County Clerk-Recorder Richard Dean have been in and out of the courtroom this summer, reminding the judge the elections office faced stiff printing deadlines to get the voter information booklet and ballots ready in time.

Bradley said he submitted ballot material to the printer Friday and Monday - deciding that if Walsh ruled the statements needed to be changed, it would be better to recall only those portions rather than put the entire ballot on hold.

Walsh had said Friday that he was aware of the elections office's deadline but needed to take the time needed to make an accurate ruling.

Community Memorial Hospital-sponsored Measure O seeks to divert roughly $250 million in tobacco settlement money to private care. It has faced a number of legal obstacles since more than 38,000 petition signatures were submitted to the elections office in May.

First, the Board of Supervisors in June refused to place it on the November ballot and then sued to have it declared illegal, saying it violated the state's constitution and Budget Act.

Walsh ruled in late July that the measure belonged on the ballot but did not rule on its legality.

Challenges to the ballot statements came earlier this month. Kathryn Woodburn, of the Citizens Committee to Safeguard the Tobacco Settlement, filed a petition Aug. 16 challenging the county's impartial analysis, fiscal impact report and ballot description of the measure. She charged that the statements were biased and were intended to influence voters not to vote for Measure O.

Two days later, Woodburn filed another petition challenging the argument against the measure submitted by the Coalition Against Measure O that was to appear in the voter information pamphlet.

That same day, the coalition filed a petition against CMH's argument in favor of the measure, claiming among other things that CMH's statement that private hospitals care for 46 percent of the county's uninsured and poor is artificially inflated.