Guest Blogged by Jeeni Criscenzo
EDITOR’S NOTE: Jeeni Criscenzo is now the Democratic nominee running against incumbent Republican Rep. Darryl Issa for the U.S. House seat in California’s 49th congressional district. In her guest blog below, she speaks about some of the horrendous outrages and other disastrous election administration she witnessed in San Diego County’s Election on June 6th. She was a primary candidate that day, the same day as the now-questionable Busby/Bilbray race which was run on easily-hacked Diebold voting machines sent home overnight with poll workers prior to the election. Those “sleepovers” are in direct contravention of both state and federal laws and regulations implimented specifically in regard to Diebold voting systems. Thus, ignoring those rules and laws rendering them illegal for use in that election.
Criscenzo’s district is split across both San Diego County and Riverside County (who also have their own share of problems with their County Registrar of Voters), so her election was run on the same presumed-corrupted machines as those used in the Busby/Bilbray race.
I spoke with her at some length last night, and I’m happy to see that, unlike so many Democratic candidates — including Busby — she is now more than willing to stand up and raise hell about these very clear outrages. While I have several concerns about her short-term suggested solution of using Absentee Ballots to fight back against the rise of the machines, her perspective is a unique one which deserves to be heard. She makes many points about which I wholeheartedly agree. I’ll let you (and her) discuss any concerns in comments here.
No matter the nuanced quibbles, I’d urge you to support candidates like Criscenzo who are willing to speak out loudly and clearly about what the hell is going on here as we all work to find possible solutions to the ongoing and rapid crumbling of our current electoral system. Her campaign website, for more info or to send your support, is right here. — BF
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Want Voting Integrity – Just Mail It!
by Jeeni Criscenzo
There has been a lot of talk since the California elections last week about the integrity of the vote count, particularly in the run-off election in the 50th District between Francine Busby and Brian Bilbray. It’s not surprising that Busby’s supporters are dubious of the results: polls showed Busby ahead by 3 to 7 points in the days before the election. An apparent Bilbray win is explained away as the result of a last minute blunder by Busby. If you plan to fix an election where the candidate you want to win is behind in the polls, you need to create a reason for the sudden change on election day, and there it was – Voila! – a last minute slip-of-the-tongue blasted throughout the country by the lock-step right-wing media.
As a candidate who won by a landslide (I was unopposed for the Democratic nomination for Congress, CA District 49), I’m in the fortunate position of being able to look into the election process in San Diego without being called a sore loser.
I made some troubling discoveries on Election Day when I visited 37 precincts in Oceanside as a roving poll monitor (or as Carol Hilton, my friend and monitoring partner, dubbed us — “Poll Cats”). So last Friday, I visited the Registrar of Voters office to ask questions and to see for myself how the count was being handled….
I’d started Election Day at 7:00 AM, walking down to my own polling place to vote as soon as the polls opened. My walk and vote were being filmed to use in a video we are creating for the campaign. To my dismay, what was caught on the video is me being told that I couldn’t put my ballot through the scanner. Even though I was only the second voter, the scanner was jammed. Instead, I had to put my ballot in the sealed cardboard box that was used for provisional ballots and absentee ballots.
During the 12 hours that Carol and I checked polling places throughout Oceanside, we saw that many of the scanners were jammed. The problem was that the scanners were nested in a cardboard stand assembled by the poll workers. If the poll worker hadn’t attached the bull clamp on the cardboard tab behind the scanner, the path for the ballot to fall behind the scanner into the box would get blocked by a cardboard flap and the scanner would jam. Based on what I have learned about the voting process, in my opinion those ballots that had to be placed in the cardboard box actually had more integrity because they were probably scanned at the ROV office.
Why would I trust the scanners at the ROV office more than those at the polling places? Because poll workers had taken scanners and touch screen machines home with them up to two weeks prior to Election Day! I saw a lot of sloppiness about security at the polling places, but this one issue supersedes all of it. According to Mikel Haas, Director of the San Diego Registrar of Voters, over 6,000 temporary poll workers were hired for this past election. There is no way in the world all of these workers could be properly screened to the point that we, the voters, can feel secure about letting them take our voting machines home with them, to be stored for two weeks in a home closet, garage or even the trunk of their car. How easy would it be for anyone to get themselves hired as a poll worker with the intention of providing access to the scanner or touch screen machine to someone capable of “making an adjustment”?
The folks I met working at the polls all seemed honest enough. There were a few didn’t seem comfortable about using anything electronic. One little old lady complained that she had to park 3 blocks away and lug the equipment all that way. What if she’d dropped it?
There were supposed to be tamper-proof seals on the back and front of the scanners where they met with the cardboard box, to prevent anyone from reaching into the box to remove ballots that had been scanned. In far too many instances the poll workers had put the wrong seals on, using regular paper seals that would leave no mark behind if they had been removed and reattached. In many cases, because the cardboard boxes were collapsing or the scanners had been jammed, the seals had been removed and re-stuck, showing the telltale metal residue. NO ONE seemed to care about these seals. Even the folks at the ROV said they weren’t really that important. My question: Why bother having a tamper-proof seal if no one cares if it’s been tampered with? This is just plain sloppy.
I want to be clear about the people at the Registrar of Voters. From my discussions with them I am confident that they are committed to delivering an accurate election but I think they are trying to fit new technology into old ways of doing things. Mikel Haas doesn’t have any ideas on how to securely distribute electronic equipment to polling places because, by his own words, the concept of drayage is all new to him. Until he comes up with a solution, I suggest that we have no business using machines in our election process.
Haas and his staff were very willing to answer my questions and show me every step of the process. I called back several times this week with additional questions and they were always cordial and helpful. Overall I am very reassured that the procedures at the ROV facility are reliable, which is why I’d like to see our votes counted and processed at the ROV rather than at the polling places.
How serious is this? Just the perception that our election process is not accurate is enough to demolish our democracy. Even if the scanners that were left unsecured in poll worker’s hands were not manipulated, the mere possibility that they COULD have been tampered with is inexcusable and, in my opinion, should invalidate the entire election. The people of San Diego County should be outraged by this breach of security. I call on every candidate on the ballot to voice their objection to this glaring breach in the process and to demand, at the very least, that a more secure distribution and storage process is established before permitting any further elections on electronic machines.
As a candidate, I have been torn about raising the alarm about election integrity. With voter turn-out steadily decreasing, casting doubt on whether or not your vote actually counts hardly seems productive. The mid-term election this November could very well be the most critical our nation has ever faced. So how do we take back control of our election process so we can take back control of our government? How do I empower voters to participate in the process while offering solutions that will restore voting integrity.
I asked Mikel Haas why California doesn’t just vote by mail like they do in Oregon since it’s so successful there. He said that nearly 45% of the votes cast this election were absentee ballots. Then it struck me – we the voters have the power to switch our election system over to all mail, no matter what the Secretary of State says. We can simply use the absentee ballot option, all of us. It’s that simple!
I’m proposing an all out campaign to convince 100% voting by mail in San Diego County. Imagine an Election Day where nobody shows up because everyone has already mailed in their ballot. Imagine those touch-screen machines getting shipped back to Diebold, unused. Imagine not needing all those poll workers and polling locations. Imagine the savings (a 2003 study of Oregon’s all-mail elections showed costs were 1/3 to ½ of the amount required for polling place election). Imagine increased voter participation because of the convenience. Imagine being able to monitor vote counting all in one place – the ROV office. Imagine every vote is on paper and can be recounted.
We are not helpless in this. We don’t have to be at the mercy of the Secretary of State. We the people can make those Diebold machines disappear, simply by mailing our votes. Let’s lose the “absentee ballot” stigma and tell every voter in San Diego County, in California, in the USA: Let’s Vote – Just Mail It!
And please join me in signing PDA’s petition for a hand count of the paper ballots and paper trails in California’s 50th district before recognizing the legitimacy of any announced winner. Go to the VelvetRevolution.us petition here…
Cross posted at DailyKos? Wow, they have certainly changed their tune.
This is usually heresy at light weight blogs:
(bold added). The answer is we don’t have to prove how easy, all we have to prove is that the chain of custody was broken.
That has been proven by their admissions, and the only thing to do now is to hand count all ballots in CA-50.
“An apparent Bilbray win is explained away as the result of a last minute blunder by Busby.”
Sounds a lot like the behavior at the Wellstone funeral which propelled Norm Coleman into the Senate.
How many consecutive upsets in a row do they think they can give to the GOP before somebody gets suspicious? Or should I ask.. with the odds at one in two to the power n, how many digits does n have to have before we suspect all these upsets ( each coming with it’s own excuse of course ) can the GOP win in a row before we conclude that the system is fixed? It has already gone well past that point for me. Is anybody else out there the least bit suspicious yet?
Wow, We have a candidate who hasn’t been prepaid. This is the election we have to unite behind before Nov. Since the mainstream media has come out in bits and pieces about unfair elections..Kos can allow discussion. Now they won’t be called tin foil hatters. Now for the good news. The front page of Globe”Laura leaves George over Condi.” All the KKK christians have to look at it as they buy their groceries. Wouldn’t it be wild if somebody burned a cross at the white House.
“Based on what I have learned about the voting process, in my opinion those ballots that had to be placed in the cardboard box actually had more integrity because they were probably scanned at the ROV office.”
The ROVE office…LMAO
Good for you, Jeeni Criscenzo! You win the first annual Debra Bowen Award for courage in facing up to the corporate electoral Mafia. If I had my way, I’d force Bruce McPherson to present it to you; the prize would be a plaster cast of a finger, stained in purple.
Jeeni makes an interesting point, that criticizing the integrity of elections could have the effect of further holding down turnout (who wants to vote if the system is rigged?). Is this why so many “defeated” candidates, like Kerry, Hackett, and Busby, have accepted their fates like latter-day Lady Jane Greys? Is this why the DNC won’t touch the issue? If so, funny that we haven’t heard that explanation from anyone.
I love the “Everybody Vote Absentee” idea. Let’s push it, hard. If we don’t buy products from companies we consider bad corporate citizens, why not apply the same standard to Diebold, E.S.& S., etc.? There’s nothing in HAVA that forbids absentee ballots. The states would save millions by sending Diebold’s machines back for a refund. Voters would save money, because a 39-cent stamp costs less than driving to a polling site with current gasoline prices. Vision-impaired people would have ample time to solicit help filling out ballots. And recounts would be easy in the event of close races…not foolproof, but at least Karl Rove would have to come up with a new strategy that would take time to implement.
A little historical perspective…elections were once held over a period of days and weeks in the United States. The idea that everyone must vote on the same day, with the outcome determined within 24 hours, is a modern one. No need for it. It suits the TV networks and their advertisers. It creates a Super Bowl atmosphere and generates excitement. It also suits
election machine manufacturers, but if they refuse to cooperate by making tamper-proof merchandise, we should refuse to patronize their products.
Thanks, Oregon. Thanks, Jeeni. Sometimes the best ideas are the simplest. A boycott with no downside. Wow!
Oregon is NOT perfect, nor the total model for the rest of our Democracy.
100% of ORegon’s mail-in paper ballots are counted on ES&S and Sequoia machines using CONFIDENTIAL code that is not made available to the SoS.
The only thing that has been keeping Oregon from having five Republican congresspeople, two Republican Senators and a Republican Governor is that our Secretary of State is the most honest and “stand up” one in the country.
I like the TALK from Jeeni Criscenzo but I’ll have to see the WALK to believe it. If she gets everybody to vote absentee and then caves on NOvember 8 after losing to the Republican 51% to 49% without even having the absentee and provisionals counted, she’s no better than Busby, though more talkative.
I need a PLEDGE that she won’t concede until EVERY vote has been counted by hand — EVERY ONE. I need a PLEDGE that she will be in court to challenge every single removal of a voter from the roles illegally. I need to know she’s not just another in the line of Kerry, Mondale, Cleland, Hackett, and Busby who TALK a mean game, but roll over and play dead when the going gets tough.
Nothing personal, but the time for TALK has long ended. She should be in court. She has STANDING.
Charlie L
Portland, OR
You have my promise. I will not concede until every vote is counted, and if the race is close, I will insist on a hand count. I’ll be damned if I work this hard to give away my election. Charlie, ask anyone who knows me, I’m cut from a different cloth. The ONLY reason I’m running is because I know that someone has to get into Congress with the guts and the integrity to stand up for the people – EVERYTHING we value is on the line. If I don’t have the spine to do the right thing now, why bother running?
Oregon’s system has been well accepted so far, but it is still vulnerable to ballot tampering and rigged or inaccurate vote counting machines. Random sampling hand counts are needed. Exit polling is still an essential check.
Thanks to Brad and thousands of committed people like Ion Soncho, Harri Hursti and Ben Harris, the issue is now front and center. Lou Dobbs and PBS have taken it up on the media side. Debra Bowen and Jeeni Criscenzo have spoken up from the California legislature side. The issue has left the realm of “conspiracy theory” and has entered the mainstream.
We’re winning. In football terms (which the Republicans certainly understand) we were behind 24-7 at halftime, now we’re ahead 31-27 in the fourth quarter. The game isn’t over yet, but we’re winning.
Jeeni Criscenzo Thank you for taking a stand. I wish you well in the Nov. election and hope it puts you on the path to help clean up this mess.
We should all applaud Ms. Criscenzo’s courage in pointing out the problems inherent in touch-screen voting, and in polling place elections in general.
Oregon’s system of Vote By Mail is indeed a superior option in terms of access, security, and voter convenience. According to a 2003 study of Oregon voters, more than 80% prefer Vote By Mail to polling place elections.
Yes, Oregon’s ballots are initially counted by machine – it would be onerous for any state to do their initial counts by hand. But all recounts in Oregon, whether requested by a particular campaign or randomly conducted to verify accuracy, are done entirely by hand, and are open to inspection. That means that in any race with a disputed outcome, such as California’s 50th, the true results – as evidenced by the voters’ own paper ballots – would be known with certainty.
That doesn’t leave much opportunity for machine error or software-driven corruption of the process.
The Vote By Mail Project, of which I am Executive Director, has been launched to provide both education and advocacy around the entire continuum of VBM options – no excuse permanent absentee registration (as they have in California,) city and county-option Vote By Mail, and statewide Vote By Mail. Further, we are dedicated to finding and making known Best Practices in the administration of elections with large-scale absentee balloting.
Vote By Mail works in Oregon because, when administered effectively, Vote By Mail works. Yes, we have a terrific Secretary of State in Bill Bradbury, and he is a tireless advocate for the system. It is telling, though, that his three predecessors in that office, two democrat and one republican, have been and remain staunch VBM advocates as well, and that county elections officials in both Oregon and Washington support Vote By Mail.
In California, bills have been introduced in the past two legislative sessions to allow certain counties to run their elections entirely by mail. And earlier this year, California’s registrars called for all-VBM elections precisely because they had little faith in electronic voting machines.
California, just a short time since instituting voter-choice absentee registration, will soon be a majority VBM state, if it isn’t already. And with brave and honest candidates like Ms. Criscenzo leading the way, the citizens of that state will soon make polling place problems a thing of the past, registering in overwhelming numbers as absentee voters (as happened in Washington and Oregon before it) making California a Vote By Mail state with or without further help from their legislature.
Thank you Ms. Criscenzo for urging that the people of San Diego do just that.
It’s the Schmidt-Hackett 51%-49% GOP victory on e-vote machines in a GOP stronghold. 51%-49% GOP victories in GOP strongholds tell me the Dem won. Also, it tells me they disenfranchised Republican registered voters, voting for the Dem. They’re disenfranchising BOTH of us, now. Hope they realize this.
I myself have voted for Republicans over Dems, and I would be livid if I found out Dem operatives disenfranchised my vote for the GOP candidate.
Santorum 51%-Casey 49%, with pre-election polls showing Casey consistenly with a double-digit lead, leading up to the election. If you don’t prove e-vote fraud in the Busby election, you’ll prove it in the Santorum 51%-49% election.
Don’t forget, Pa., the exit polls said Kerry won Pa. by 9% (landslide)…the final count was 3% Kerry…but, that’s a helluva lotta stolen popular votes, towards Bush’s 8-million “swing” from the overall exit polls vs. the e-vote “final count.” They’re doing it in Pa., too. (and I am not a Kerry fan)
Jeeni,
People like you give me hope. When I retire, I plan to work for the honest, liberal candidates.
Regards,
Truth Seeker
There is another way to vote by mail, and you can still go to the voting booth in November.
Simply take a sheet of paper with you, write down all of your choices as you choose on screen, then as you leave the poll station, seal the results in an envelope, go to the post office and certify-mail it back to yourself.
You have a written document of your vote that no one, not even a court of law, can contradict. Just TRY to get a Republican vote from me in November. I dare the RNC to try to find a loophole to this too. There is none. My vote WILL count in November, and it’ll be correct.
If not, I’m sure my local media here in Ohio will be VERY interested in a certified letter I have.
You go, Ms. Jeeni Criscenzo!
I think it’s time for the whole country to be made aware that we gotta demand paper ballots even if the states don’t provide them, as here in TN…
All y’all fair election advocates; please help us come up with a plan to save the Nov. ’06 elections. We know the people want a Dem. congress; yet we keep seeing Pub wins – despite polls telling us they will lose – of 51 – 49. As someone asked, how many more such “wins” do the Pubs get before America understands?
What can we do? Thanks Ms Criscenzo, for giving us hope. I assume you have contacted all other Dems running for Congress around the country and shared your views. If not, please send them the above letter ASAP.
Has any Dem won in an “upset” in years? Anybody know?
And RLM, I look at it more like we’re behind by two TDs with six minutes left. Better start throwing some long balls.
shw
Kudos Jenni! It is good to know of a DEM with a back bone. Mail in ballots are still counted by proprietary software in machines frequently made by our “friends” at ES&S and Diebold. I believe that most of the races “lost” by DEMs 51% to 49% were a result of shifting votes from Democratic candidates to Republican Candidates. from #12 “the exit polls said Kerry won Pa. by 9% (landslide)…the final count was 3% Kerry” Lets see, 3% from Kerry to Bush puts Kerry down by 6%( 3% up by Bush, 3% down by Kerry makes a total of 6% ) Yup that makes winning by 3% about right. EXIT POLLS are accurate. They have been for decades up until BUSH and Co started taking over our voting systems through proprietary software.
So now for Busby, from Jenni “Busby ahead by 3 to 7 points in the days before the election 48.5% to 51.5%” Let’s see if we give 3% to Bilbray (51.5) and take away 3% from Busby(48.5%) Assuming a 3 point spread, that leaves her losing by 3%. If we have a 4 %lead, 48% to 52%, and if you take the 3% from Busby(49%) and give the 3% to Bilbray (51%), she is still losing it. But what if she actually had only a 2%lead. 49% vs 51%, if you take 3% from Busby (48%) and add 3% to Bilbray (52%). But the independents and libertarians got about 4% spread evenly between the two we have 46% Busby and 50% Bilbray. Gee that is an interesting number. Anyone know what the final count is yet?
The answer is that in addition to being on paper ballots, the software and the counting process MUST be transparent and open to all observers. NO PROPRIETARY SOFTWARE and ideally hand counted with independent observers.
1. I live in the heart of the conservative Central Valley by Modesto. The GOP in control DOES NOT represent the conservatives I know at all.
…..with that being said…..
2. I am a registered NON-Partisan Absentee Voter.
As such, I can ask for the ballot of the party I feel like supporting in any given primary and I can vote for whomever I want in the mid-term and general elections.
…..this way I am what is referred to as a “swing voter”……
3. Next I DRIVE MY BALLOT 45 MILES to my registrar of voters office and I PERSONALLY WATCH THEM PUT MY BALLOT INTO THE BOX.
4. I then call to make sure that my vote has been counted!
This process takes me hours and the with today’s gas prices it costs $20 in gas per election.
5. If you can’t go to these lengths, mail it in, but CALL TO MAKE SURE YOUR VOTE WAS COUNTED, ALWAYS!
Is it worth it? ABSOLUTELY! I consider it the one of the best and most honorable days of my life.
P.S.
In California we have a Republican SOS who hastily certified Diebold machines, before his own report was complete! Need I say more on that?
The GOP have overthrown the government here already, with the Davis recall and by inserting the governator.
The republicorruptions want this state and they want it BAD.
Well, they have messed with the wrong electorate.
Actual candidates speaking out about dubious elections. I’ve been waiting SO LONG! Thanks Jeeni Criscenzo!
Sure hope RLM’s optimism is founded. It’s about time somebody besides the Republicans start to win these darned “football games” so we can start playing DEMOCRACY and forever rid ourselves of the post hypnotic “conspiracy theory” trap.
We still have work to do, Larry. But look how far we’ve come in the last six months.
The Hursti/Soncho test in Leon County, Florida showed how easy it is to hack a machine, forcing even Jeb Bush to express “concern.”
Diebold’s C.E.O. resigned in disgrace, in the same week of the Hursti/Soncho test and the filing of three class-action suits against Diebold for fraudulent misstatements about their machines going back to 2003.
Many states have refused to certify machines, placing themselves in violation of HAVA.
Lou Dobbs, PBS, and now even The New York Times (!!!) have addressed election fraud issues.
RFK, Jr.’s article in Rolling Stone has drawn wide attention, even if for the wrong reason (his name).
Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) has said she agrees with RFK, Jr. that the 2004 election was stolen and apologized for having ignored the matter previously.
Blogs that once avoided election fraud, like Daily Kos and HuffingtonPost, now discuss it regularly.
Brad is now a regular guest on radio and TV, proving that we are no longer “conspiracy theorists” or “sore losers,” but concerned citizens with a valid case.
Corrupt Ohio Republicans are facing the music in court.
All of this is great as attention to election integrity is getting some much deserved recognition. Even still, how is it that these voting machines, with their known vulnerabilities have not been “recalled”.
For Lildoggy: They have been recalled in some states. Why haven’t they ALL BEEN RECALLED? Because under HAVA, the federal government set deadlines for states to conform to its requirements (such as making machines that blind people could use). A state could ignore the deadline and decertify a machine, but then the feds could hold back on the promised financing. That created a dilemma for state officials who needed the federal money because of budget shortfalls at home.
Bottom line: The men who passed HAVA (Chris Dodd, Bob Ney, Steny Hoyer and others) 1) didn’t anticipate the controversy over hackable machines, or 2)were perfectly content to allow the same thing to happen in 2004 that happened in 2000.
As Ney’s corruption vis a vis Jack Abramoff and David DeStefano becomes more widely recognized, it should be clear to everyone that Ney falls into the second category.
First of all, I loudly applaud Jenni for taking Charlie’s honest election oath! I cannot tell you how important this is to me as a citizen.
Just want to bring up one problem with absentee voting; There is NO audit. not even the 1% audit the other votes get. At least not in LA county. So there is absolutely No security at all. Even less than with machine voting, unless there is a hand count. Paper is verifiable, but only if we verify. Which is why CA-50 needs to be verified NOW!
Yes, Jeeni has standing, cannot be considered a sore loser, and should be demanding a recount. Jeeni has written elsewhere that there is nothing more frightening than a Diebold machine going home with a GOP computer programmer. Among the 6,000 unvetting pollworkers in the June 6th election, there were probably at least a few GOP programmers.
I have the same reservations that Brad and others have about voting by mail.
If we don’t dump the Diebold contract now in San Diego, we’ll be going to unauditable touchscreens in November, which will also be used in 2008.
My guess is that if Jeeni demands a recount of this election, the result will be to learn that a full recount, with all procedures open to public observation, is impossible. What they’ll probably do is let the machines do the recount and machines always say the same thing they said the last time. Only a hand recount of the paper ballots, in full public view, would be acceptable, and I strongly doubt that this would be permitted.
We’re always doubting the previous election and saying that next time we’ll challenge the results. But for various reasons, we never can. We have to challenge the previous election in order to have any control over the next one. If we wait until November, we’ve lost 2008 to Diebold.
Here’s a quote from Greg Palast’s new book, Armed Madhouse:
Greg goes on to point out that millions of Democrats mail their ballots in because they don’t trust elections officials, but it is these same officials who decide whether or not to count your vote on the basis of whether or not they like “your signature, the envelope you use, the pencil size or the postmark or your ZIP code.” In 2004, says Palast, his team has calculated from official reports that HALF A MILLION (526,426) “absentee ballots were recieved but not counted. And that’s just the ones they acknowledge receiving.”
Palast continues:
In the November election, party observers were allowed to watch the central tabulator screen on election night, but nobody was allowed to watch the counting of the votes that determined the election: the early and absentee ballots, which were counted secretly. Strangely enough, the votes counted publicly tended to be for Frye and against Arnold’s initiatives, but the votes counted secretly tended to be for Sanders and in favor of Arnold’s initiatives. The explanation given was that early and absentee voters are more conservative than everyone else, but most of those I know who voted early or absentee are very progressive.
We need a full recount of the Busby election. If we don’t get it now, the November election will be run on unauditable machines. And so will 2008.
I love Jeeni, I dream of Jeeni for Congress, I’ve donated to Jeeni’s campaign, and I think Jeeni is one of the best candidates in the country right now. But mailing in ballots won’t solve anything and might make things worse.
I apologize for not proof-reading my post and letting all those typos slip in.
Fortunately, most people will know what I’d intended to type. One of the things that experts have pointed out is that people do make mistakes, and when it comes to voting machines it doesn’t always take ill intent to alter an election — a simple mistake could do the trick.
I too have concerns with absentee voting. I live in Sonoma county , Ca . and voted absentee in the 2004 election. Upon recieving my ballot , I noticed that my party affiliation was on the outside of the envelope (as in theresa lepore’s county ) .I called my county registrar to complain about the lack of secrecy and the invitation to fraud that having the voter’s party written on the envelope would present . The registrar told me that they needed to do that in order to put the correct ballot in each person’s envelope . I pointed out to her that that was not necessary because this was the general election and everyone would have the same ballot in each locality .I then expressed concern that someone who has access to the mail could simply remove the envelopes from a particular party so that the candidate of that party would be at a disadvantage . The registrar then told me (the stock diebold answer ) “i don’t know anybody who would do that ” . So Jeeni needs to be a little less naive in thinking that voting absentee will solve the election fraud problem .
When will some balance be allowed on this blog? It’s all the same stuff over and over. Does anyone here know that electronic devices are required by law for the blind and handicapped? Does anyone here believe that if Gore had won by Florida in 2000 by 50 votes that Bushites wouldn’t have come up with at least 50 names of people who voted who weren’t citizens? Isn’t this just more politics as usual? Fingerpointing and more fingerpointing?
How much longer do we have to be patient while you waste time on the glamor topics? I am still waiting for the real debates about improving elections to begin?
Austin
I think I’d be more inclined to take your comment seriously if I felt like you had taken the time to click the links on the side bars of this page, find out more about the history of this blog, and the facts to be found here. You might still have a similar complaint, but your tone would be a lot different. If you just dropped by to make nasty, mission accomplished. If you are truly concerned, there are links to follow all over the page itself and in the comments to the posts. Do some homework, and THEN bring us your gripes. Thank you.