Guest Blogged by John Gideon
Yesterday, according to an article in The Bakersfield Californian, a panel of California state senators held a hearing in Bakersfield to discern what happened in the county during the June 6 state primary. The panel consisted of Sen. Debra Bowen, D-Redondo Beach; Sen. Roy Ashburn, R-Bakersfield; and Sen. Joseph Dunn, D-Garden Grove.
The California Senate Select Committee on Integrity of Elections has launched an investigation into problems in elections in the state. That investigation started in Kern County (Bakersfield) with testimony by County Deputy Registrar of Voters Sandy Brockman, Diebold Election Systems official Mike Rockenstein, and other election workers.
Brockman stood in for her boss, Auditor-Controller Ann Barnett, who was on vacation and not available to answer questions about why some voters were not able to vote in the primary. In fact, the paper reports:
Brockman said Barnett was on vacation.
“She had scheduled vacation time prior to them calling this hearing,” Brockman said.
Later, Ashburn said that “she (Barnett) chose not to be here. I got the impression at several points that Sandy Brockman had to take responsibility for actions that were made by Ann Barnett.”
Ashburn was critical of Barnett immediately after the June 6 election. He called for Secretary of State Bruce McPherson to investigate the county’s election bungles.
The questioning was all about mistakes:
State Sen. Roy Ashburn, R-Bakersfield, asked why touch-screen voting machines failed and paper ballots ran out making voting nearly impossible for as many as 500 Kern County voters.
County Deputy Registrar of Voters Sandy Brockman, sitting in for elections boss Auditor-Controller Ann Barnett, took the brunt of Ashburn’s questions.
Under his questioning, she said Barnett decided not to train elections workers on the use of paper ballots and decided to send only the minimum number of paper ballots to each polling place.
Elections workers testified they were told not to use paper ballots.
But when electronic voting cards failed, the paper ballots ran out and as many as 500 voters could have lost the chance to vote, Brockman said.
The Diebold representative got his turn to answer some hard questions from Sen. Dunn:
Through the negligence of Diebold, Dunn said, hundreds of Kern County voters were turned away at the polls and lost their chance to vote.
If a chance to vote is priceless, Dunn asked Rockenstein, how much would Diebold be willing to pay voters who could prove they couldn’t vote because of the company’s mistakes?
Rockenstein said he had no answer to that question.
The next stop by the panel has been unannounced so far. Could San Diego Co. be very far down on their list?
“If a chance to vote is priceless, Dunn asked Rockenstein, how much would Diebold be willing to pay voters who could prove they couldn’t vote because of the company’s mistakes.”
Man – stick it to them! Beautiful
Near a Diebold TS voting machine,..
want to change the outcome of an election to your
favor,.. find a screwdriver,.. lift a plastic cover,..
flip a switch,.. change the outcome of an election.
New security flaw – Diebold EVM
Digital photos of internals of Diebold TS/EVM
How about this: go right the F*** where she is vacationing and ask her the questions…or…here’s a brainstorm: TELEHONES!!!!!! Or at least, reschedule the same meeting for when she gets back, and make her answer the questions. Personally, I’m for ruining her vacation…
TELEPHONES!!!!!!! I misspelled it above. Anyone else have one? I have one…
TELEPHONES – TELEHONES Whatever –
But I have to feel sorry for her assistant – she’s the one who got HONED!
Reminds me of the time my cousin, a hick at the time, was surprised at the pleasure a certain person had when my cousin throttled him/her for aberrant social behavior.
I tried to explain some of the street facts of life, however, my cousin could not even contemplate the “truth” … much less grasp it … that some people take pleasure in being “beaten”.
Others take pleasure in giving the “beating”. Read this and this and you will see that this game goes way back.
Gives new meaning to “hurts so good” … a song … and a sickness … but “new meaning” is just another word for “pleasure” to some people.
“If a chance to vote is priceless, Dunn asked Rockenstein, how much would Diebold be willing to pay voters who could prove they couldn’t vote because of the company’s mistakes?
Rockenstein said he had no answer to that question.”
I got an answer he could have given. “We were trying to prevent paper jams”
She’s probably on her “telephone” calling someone back home, saying, “Is the coast clear yet???”… I bet she has a telephone…
I think these people WANT these jobs, no one forced it upon them…so I don’t feel sorry holding their feet to the fire…
For anyone who hass the urge to hack an ” unhackable ” Diebold machine , go to :
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/m...t_b_26301.html
Marty Kaplan on a feed tells all with clear instructions.
Of course the Diebolds are one hundred safe as we all know .
Just ask the SD Registrar !!