Originally published: . Volume 5, No. 9. Source pages: 1, 7, 8.
Votes for a five-year position on the Louisiana State Board of Examiners of Psychologists were finally counted on Saturday, April 26, in a snake-bit election that has included three rounds of ballots having to be sent to state psychologists, and a fourth round still a possibility.
Dr. Constance Patterson captured 116 votes, 77 were cast for Dr. Joe Comaty, and Dr. Robin Chapman received 20 votes. Patterson’s and Comaty’s names will be sent to Governor Jindal’s Office for him to name his appointee. Ballots were counted in an open meeting at Touro Infirmary, New Orleans, beginning at 8 a.m. Conducting the vote counting was Louisiana Psychological Association (LPA) President Dr. John Fanning, assisted by Council members Dr. Paula Zeanah, Dr. Carolyn Weyand, and Dr. Lucina DeGrange who videotaped the proceedings. Attending for the Louisiana Board of Examiners of Psychologists was Dr. Phil Griffin. Public members attending were candidate Dr. Joe Comaty, Dr. Claire Advokat, and Julie Nelson from the Times.
The hotly-contested election was fraught with both quality problems and concerns by some of ballot and election tampering, together making it one of the strangest elections in memory according to some sources.
On December 31, 2013, candidate Joe Comaty emailed Executive Director Kelly Parker voicing his concerns about the security of the ballots and his views about conflicts of interests with some in LPA who were conducting the election. He also wrote Boards and Commissions Assistant Director Holly Robinson, listing 5 issues, including his view that one of the other candidates had a direct conflict of interest. (See related story, page 8.)
Quality problems also plagued the election process, apparently fueling tensions and fears about vote tampering.
Ballots are typically sent on colored paper, but the LPA Executive Director and his Texas firm printed the first round of ballots on plain white paper. During the second mailing, a cover letter that explained that this was a second ballot, was left out of some of the packets. A request by LPA to the psychology board to send a reminder by email, was rejected, and so a third ballot had to be sent.
However, things still did not go smoothly. Several sources noted that David White opened a number of the ballots before the Saturday vote counting procedure, when the plan was to leave them all sealed until Saturday. One source told the Times that White reported that he had also somehow misplaced two of the ballots.
On the Friday afternoon before the Saturday public vote count was to take place, LSBEP Executive Director Kelly Parker emailed LPA President John Fanning a letter from Dr. Marc Zimmermann, Vice Chair of the LSBEP, and medical psychologist, concerning the integrity of the election.
“I am writing to inform you that the Board has concerns about the integrity of the election process in lieu of the recent reports involving the ballots for the election,” said Zimmermann. “Specifically, prior to the official count the ballots have been opened which raises the concern of the security of the entire election process.”
The Times talked with Dr. Zimmermann who said, “We have concerns about the whole election process.” He explained that the board’s decision to send the letter had been made sometime during the day, while the board held its monthly meeting.
Dr. Kim VanGeffen, who attended the board’s meeting said, “I was rather surprised to see the letter from Marc given that there was no indication at the Public Hour that LSBEP did not expect the vote count to take place or that they had any concerns,” VanGeffen noted to the Times. “In fact, there was very little mention of the vote count and only joking about the latest drama,” she said.
“I thought we [the LSBEP] talked about it in the open meeting,” Zimmermann said, “maybe in a joking way,” but he could not recall exactly when during the day that the decision was made to send the letter or if it was discussed in executive session.
It is not clear how serious this last matter may become. The Times spoke with retired LPA Executive Director, Connie Stigall, who said that it was “… customary for executive directors to open association mail,” not knowing until it is open which are ballots and which are other types of correspondence. And she said, much of elections have been primarily on the honor system.
The Times asked Dr. Joe Comaty if he intended to challenge the election, and no reply was returned.
The current election is part of an on-going struggle over control of the psychology board, with the powerful political group, Louisiana Academy of Medical Psychologists-Political Action Committee, who has been effective in helping medical psychologists be appointed to the board. Those who oppose Act 251, have pushed for regular psychologists to serve, but so far have been unsuccessful in obtaining a majority.
Currently the LSBEP includes three medical psychologists serving of five positions. Medical psychologists are not required to hold a state psychology license in order to practice psychology and make up only about 5 percent of those holding a license in psychology. However, medical psychologists hold 60 percent of the board’s positions.
LPA will officially support Patterson’s appointment, based on a policy put into place by the association to support the person who has received the most votes by their peers, regardless of affiliation.
This article is part of a historical newspaper archive. Read the original issue for its original layout, photographs and graphics.