Guest Blogged by Emily Levy
Claims that electronic voting equipment sleepovers are just peachy sound mighty defensive in an issue paper titled “Voting Equipment ‘Sleepover’ Practice” issued July 27, 2006 by the California Association of Clerks and Election Officials (CACEO).
It may come as no shock that the president of the CACEO is none other than Conny McCormack, Registrar of Voters from Los Angeles County, pictured here on a Diebold brochure. San Diego RoV Mikel Haas is on the Board of Directors. Despite the CACEO not being a government entity, it has an important job to do. Why, its motto is even “Officium populi, office of the people.” But wait! In their bylaws we find, under “Objects and Purposes”:
And the populi aren’t invited to become members, in case you were wondering.
Stop for a minute and imagine what your life would be like if you had an organization of elected officials dedicated to promoting your welfare! The places you’d go! Start applying for those grants now!
You can relax,
Did I hear anything about the necessity of a basis for that confidence?
Yes, Conny, the sleepovers are transparent all right. We See Right Through Them. And You. (And by the way, how come your CACEO letterhead and website list current officers as having terms that ended last year?)
Sleepovers are efficient, too– if you don’t count the minor detail that sending hackable electronic voting systems home with pollworkers renders the equipment uncertified and illegal to use! What could be more efficient than spending millions on election equipment that can’t legally be used to conduct elections, I ask you?
The July 27 issue paper details the “safeguards” the CACEO claims “ensure that the integrity of the elections process is maintained.” These include pollworkers having taken an oath (you mean like the one GWB took to uphold the constitution?), pollworkers having comprehensive training (that’s three hours, in case you were wondering), and the infallibility of those “tamper-evident seals” on the machines.
As Congressional candidate Jeeni Criscenzo blogs of her visits to polling places on June 6,
It’s a good thing the CACEO trusts the pollworkers. You know, that group of people made up mostly of people unwilling to commit felonies? I’m a pollworker myself. It’s nice to be trusted. Election officials like to be trusted, too. Tony Anchundo of Monterey County, for example, who said on the Peter B. Collins Show, “There is obviously going to have to be some trust and faith in the elections official, or in this case, it’s me.” Please note that that was before his indictment on 43 criminal charges. On the issue of trust and elections, I echo the words of Ion Sancho, Elections Supervisor of Leon County, Florida: “Trust no one. If it can’t be verified, it can’t be used.”
But does the CACEO trust pollworkers, as it claims?
In their own whitepaper, California Election Officials Proclaim Need for Major Election Reform, created in mid 2004 and then reviewed/updated spring 2005, the CACEO declares:
“The state’s elections have become…far too complex for pollworkers (who are volunteers recruited from a cross-section of the general public) to administer.”
This statement was written before the 2004 election and anticipated the following problems, among others:
-Pollworkers who do serve on election day not adequately trained.
-Replacement pollworkers pressed into service without any training at all.
-Insufficient and untrained pollworkers who administer elections in an inconsistent and possibly illegal manner.
These irregularities will call into question the outcome of elections that are won by narrow margins.[emphasis added]
They sure will, Conny!
Attorney Paul Lehto, of the Busby/Bilbray election contest lawsuit filed last week, points out that the list of burdens on pollworkers “does not list sleepover/machine custody/security of computer forensic evidence as an additional duty adding complication, but surely it does (if it were a duty taken seriously).”
The CACEO whitepaper expresses “concern amongst California’s election officials that they may no longer be able to conduct elections within an acceptable level of error, and therefore, the integrity of the voting franchise in the state will be seriously compromised.” But the problem, as they see it, is not the corporatization of our elections nor the riggable, hackable electronic voting systems themselves, nor the partisan efforts at massive voter disenfranchisement.
From the whitepaper again, “The single greatest threat to the democratic process in California is the lack of volunteers to serve as pollworkers on election day.” Again, that was written two years ago. Maybe offering pollworkers the opportunity to rig the whole election has sweetened the pot to the point that getting enough volunteers will no longer be a problem.
I don’t have a comment; I think the post speaks for itself, i.e. for corrupt officials, there is never a problem with the machines. So lets get to work electing some honest officials. I am reposting my prior note, and will continue to do so from time to time to make sure all Bradblog readers in the Seattle area see it:
Florida’s whislteblowing hero, Clint Curtis, who is running for congress, is coming to Seattle. He will be in Seattle Aug 17 for a campaign fundraiser. We will also be showing his new documentary film. Come support Curtis. If he wins the primary election on Sept.5th, he will be running against Tom Feeney the very man that hired Curtis to create vote flipping software to “control the vote” in Florida. The fundraiser will be at the Seattle Labor Temple, 2800 First Ave. in Belltown Seattle at 7:00 pm. Please join us and support this patriot and help him to unseat corrupt congressman Tom Feeney.
It’s good for these organizations to exist. It provides clear and concise lists of those people who need to go up against the wall when the revolution comes.
There will be no compromises when the day comes. There will be no excuses. Those who served evil will pay the ultimate price.
Yeh, I have come to realize that there really is a big pack of neocon/elitist corporatists out there who really are evil. They want to undermine democracy, they care nothing but for their own class of dirty wealthy or dirty wealthy wannabees…..
The wall? If they committed treason by tampering with the vote then……
#1 Elizabeth, “So lets get to work electing some honest officials.” And just how do you DO that if you don’t have honest elections? Voters can cast 99% of their votes for “Honest officials,” but if the count shows “Dishonest officials” got 51% of the vote, you’ll never have honest officials in office.
My main motive to live a good life is to go to heaven and find out how many elections were really stolen by computer voting and counting machines. I think it will be astounding.
“They want to undermine democracy, they care nothing but for their own class of dirty wealthy or dirty wealthy wannabees”¦..”
What these elitist/corporatists don’t realize is that in democracies where everyone has a relatively even footing and some of the pie, that the pie becomes much bigger for everyone. Sharing it around in ways that assist the general populace to grow financially means there are more people who are able to build wealth instead of just subsisting. Hence you get a bigger wealthier market for everyone, with everyone able to contribute and buy . More competition but also a bigger market. These guys are cutting their own throats. As the pie shrinks, the corporate elistists will be fighting each other for a shrinking market.
Look around the world and see that democracy is associated with wealth.
American voters must reject these machines put in place to control our vote. What does it take to get a national referendum for mail voting with verifiable paper ballots? This witch speaking out in favor of the hackable voting machines which helped give the neo-con Bushit/Cheney scumbag warmongering destructors their 2nd stolen victory. Connie needs to look up into the sky and see Diebold raining on her like a gift from her neo-con god. You are beoch face to go with ze master plan to rig our elections and ruin our country and world huh. You got the media but we know who you are. Jail will be calling you and your fascist criminals friends stealing the vote of “we the people” in one of the darkest periods of U.S. history.
i suggest the ole Timex test at the front of your house. 1st spray paint a big white marker on your sidewalk like the one they put in front of the Pentagon to mark where the Shrub missile should hit on 9/11. Then a helecopter will drop diebold electronic voting machines from 200-300 feet up in the sky onto the designated target at Connie McCormick’s place randomly throughout the day and see if she can take a hint. Since you support machines payed for by the American taxpayer to keep the Bushit reign of terror in place, Diebold electronic voting machines you speak so highly of are gonna rain on you.
I am trying to be optimistic here and to rally support for Clint Curtis who is a patriot and who is making this issue a cornerstone of his election. If we give up and say we can’t get a good guy elected, then they have won. They have us where they want us.
Hence, lets at least show some enthusiasm for Clint Curtis and if you live in the Seattle area, come to his fundraiser and contribute to his campaign
“The California Association of Clerks and Election Officials (CACEO) recognizes that distributing secured voting equipment to poll workers prior to Election Day is an efficient, accountable, and transparent practice that contributes to the orderly and secure conduct of elections.”
Reminds me of the telephone company “spokesman” in “The President’s Analyst”.
Meaningless PR pablum. Seems the PR and propaganda people have discovered that they can say anything -absurdity, meaninglessness with a smile – a few choice words for the unattentive will “promote public confidence in the administration of elections.”
What a joke.
Please post whether an official is a Republican or a Democrat. I always wonder, when it’s not mentioned.
Actually, it’s populus. Populi is the genitive case thereof.
Hmm… Looks like we got under Jim Tragesser’s skin at the NC Times earlier with our comments here and on his site then on the CA 50 election lawsuit efforts.
He’s at it again now, and we need some good feedback on his latest piece which really tries to marginalize us and accuse us of being partisan in our efforts. This comment here is a clear indicator of how he either still doesn’t understand our position or is continuing to try and misrepresent it.
“This tactic of refusing to accept the results of an election loss is civic poison. If enough influential people continue to claim that the elections are fixed, no fairer than a professional wrestling match, then the public’s faith in the vote will necessarily be diminished.”
I love his one:
“The CACEO association [sic] is committed to promote public confidence in the administration of elections”¦”
Note that CACEO is NOT committed to promote legal or fair elections, just the appearance of public confidence. In other words, it’s pure PR. Verisimilitude paraded in the public arena as truth.
Who exactly is the CACEO? I know it was created in 1908, but are its members limited to clerks & election officials? It may very well be a legitimate organization, but is there any way to check to see if it now has Diebold money behind it? Have there been massive pushes over the last 30 years to fill the positions of clerks and election officials with corporate cronies? Its obviously a lobbying organization, but on behalf of whom?
The Republic is dead, King George rules over the cowering masses. Get in line, knave! Long live King George!