We spent many hours yesterday at a joint legislative hearing, at the California State Ronald Reagan Building downtown, where CA SoS Debra Bowen, former L.A. County Registrar Conny “Condoleezza” McCormack, current acting Registrar Dean Logan, who was “greeted…with boos”, and others all testified on the “Double Bubble” Ballot Fiasco. It went on for more than three and a half hours before the actual aggrieved parties (the voters of L.A. County) were allowed to testify for “30 seconds to a minute” each.
Our own Alan Breslauer was also there taping and may have some video here soon (including, perhaps, my quick testimony, and the continuing amusing threats of the Sergeant-at-Arms to throw me out.)
The BRAD BLOG overheard Logan in the hallway, desperately working to be bumped from “acting” to actual Registrar, as he slimed an Election Integrity advocate who had just testified against him. Logan was heard telling the top aide to one of the L.A. Board of Supes that one of the local, volunteer EI advocates was “a pathological liar.” That, just minutes after Logan had attempted to take some responsibility for the fiasco — when the media’s cameras were rolling — during his actual testimony. As we know the EI advocate in question, and know him to be an exceptionally stand-up guy, we informed Logan, and the aide, that he was incredibly out of line, and flat-out wrong. Again.
But it was McCormack who was met with the most derision, by audience and Legislative inquisitors alike, as she dissembled to the panel and attempted to blame Bowen’s “Top-to-Bottom Review” of voting systems for her own failure, disingenuously saying the SoS’s efforts to do the job she was elected to do was the reason that McCormack couldn’t have fixed the problem before it disenfranchised thousands of legal voters again this year…
From the Daily Breeze coverage…
…
“In hindsight, we can see 20/20,” McCormack said. “We don’t sit around thinking, `How many people can we disenfranchise today?’ That’s not what we do.”
McCormack praised Acting Registrar-Recorder Dean Logan for taking steps to resolve the problem. But the audience – largely made up of election protection activists – greeted Logan with boos. Logan has been criticized for initially saying that it would be impossible to count any of the nonpartisan ballots in which voters had not filled in the second bubble.
I’m happy to point to the testimony of CalVoter.org’s Kim Alexander (video below, 6:51), who doesn’t live in L.A., but was allowed to give full-length testimony on the topic anyway. I’m glad she did, because while I don’t always agree with Alexander, who is far too forgiving in far too many instances, she was the only one from among the invited witnesses to really hit the nail on the head: An independent investigation needs to be launched, she said, specifically into the fact that McCormack knew full well that thousands would be disenfranchised by her ridiculous ballot design, since it had happened in several previous elections, as she did nothing about it prior to her quitting her job just one month before the largest primary in recent history, in the country’s largest voting jurisdiction.
We’d love to believe there is an orange jumpsuit with Conny’s number on it, for all of the at least 12,000 legal voters that she knowingly — and with criminal negligence, at best — allowed to be disenfranchised on Super Tuesday. We tried to underscore that point in our own brief testimony before the panel.
P.S. Our hallway confrontation with Logan was, unfortunately, briefer than we would have liked because we had to rush outside to get on the air for our weekly stint — a somewhat notable one this week — on the Peter B. Collins Show. As Logan failed to call us back throughout our weeks-long coverage of the “Double Bubble” mess, we were unable to offer his side of the story beyond quoting his public comments elsewhere. We’d be happy to include his response on any of the above, any time. We’re not out to “get” anyone, and we make every effort to treat folks fairly, even those we disagree with. We will, however, continue to hold folks accountable for wrongdoing, and can’t help it if they don’t have the common sense and/or courage to return our calls seeking comment. Unlike the Washington Post, we are also not afraid to use the word “lie,” when appropriate. Though before we do it, unlike Mr. Logan, we make damned sure we can prove it.
UPDATE FROM THE ROAD: Here’s another angle on the testimony of Logan and Dean…and who’s that handsome lad sending nothing but love and positive vibes in the near background, as seen at bottom-right?… 🙂
UPDATE 3/10/08: Alan Breslauer has now posted my own testimony before the state Congressional panel, along with that of several other Election Integrity advocates on hand at the hearings. Videos here…
CORRECTION: In our originally published report, the person to whom Dean Logan was speaking when he alleged an Election Integrity advocate to be a “pathological liar”, was originally reported as having been the “top aide to the chairman of the L.A. County Board of Supes.” In fact, the aide’s boss is no longer the chair of the Board, since the Board rotates chairmanship. And for additional clarity, that aide is actually that particular Supervisor’s Chief of Staff. The BRAD BLOG regrets the original mistatement.
FWIW – Logan has posted a pdf of his opening statement at the Registrar’s web site
http://www.lavote.net/VOTER/PDF..._TESTIMONY.pdf
Could you please write more on the Supervisors- what their questions were – how they grilled Connie etc.
Did they ask any questions of Kim Alexander? Was there testimony from anyone else?
Was this going to be the only hearing? Was there any discussion of next steps?
Is there need of a letter writing campaign, esp. with Connie’s attempt to blame Bowen for something that has been happening for 6 years?
Thanks,
Michelle
ah yes … neoConnie McElections … and here spawn … keeping Amurka safe from democracy …
Sounds like it was quite a drama. Looking forward to the video.
Who was it that Logan called a pathological liar? Is he going to get away with that? Doesn’t that comment make him for-sure unsuitable to serve the people of LA County?
The 30-second to 1-minute comment time allotment is typical for long hearings like this. Did Bowen ask that citizens contact her directly about his, outside of the hearing with its time constraints?
Michelle, the Supervisors were not present, although they probably should have been, on the witness side, to explain why they have signed 4 long-term multi-million dollar election contracts in the past 30 days, even though a new Registrar is poised to be hired within the next month or two. The hearing was led by Senators Ron Calderon, Jenny Oropeza, Mark Ridley-Thomas, Dean Flores, and Assemblymember Curren Price. It was called a Joint Informational Hearing to gather info on election problems in the state during the Feb5 election. Most of the time went to speaking by and questioning of Debra Bowen, Conny McCormack, and Dean Logan. Ms McCormack was actually booed and hissed at by the public, as she said she just didn’t have enough time to check the efficacy of the ballot design. And again when she said that there was noone she could have asked for help, since her people, are the only persons with the qualifications to oversee ballot design in the County. (Answering Senator Oropeza, who asked whether she requested outside help from anyone when she knew she would be unable to fulfill her duties.)
There were also 6 other short speakers, and 38 citizen activists and citizens who were allowed a minute or two each at the very end. The hearing went on for 4 hours, with much valuable information, especially from the public. Brad is on the road right now and asked for some of us who were there to let you know more till he is able to blog.
Michelle,
There was no discussion of next steps, but keep your eyes tuned to bradblog, where there will surely be discussion of next steps, and yes there will be letter writing. It’s in the works.
I don’t know that our friend, “called a liar”, needs to be named. Logan is “unsuitable to serve the people of LA County” anyway, for many more serious reasons. He has a history of running bad elections in Washington State, which he brings now to LA. This past election, he disenfranchised large numbers of voters with the bubble ballot, last minute precinct consolidation, eliminating over 600 precincts from the LA map! they didn’t even notify the precincts themselves until jsut before the election. Voters were removed from the rosters, and the nmber of provisional votes went up from 10% of the electorate last election, to 14% of the votes this election! Voters found their parties switched. Other voters were sent sample ballot booklets with the wrong addresses on them. One group of voters on Wilshire Blvd found themselves at a boarded up bank, no precinct in sight, and sign telling them the address was wrong.
So calling people names is not, I think, what will get Mr Logan fired! Remember, this is the man who said he wasn’t going to count the bubble ballot votes because ‘ a non-partisan voter may have walked into a republican booth and meant to vote for a republican, therefore we shouldn’t count any of the votes, because the voters’ intents might be misunderstood.”
Unfortunately there is not much Secretary Bowen can do. She can only ask the state attorney general to open investigations, and he has only done so once for an election related complaint. I think it may be up to the citizens to come forward and speak up. The Supervisors are responsible for the Supervision of the elections. They chose Dean Logan even after hearing about his past. they continue to funnel millions of dollars to diebold corporations for election contracts even though the county is not supposed to do business with any company with a questionable reputation. As they said to Dean Logan last month when they asked him to count some of the votes, the only thing they do not want to see is voter outrage in LA County!
The other REALLY impressive thing (to me, at least) about the hearing:
Mark Ridley-Thomas, Dean Flores, and either Ron Calderon or Curren Price (I’m not sure which was which) were gone by the time the whole thing ended, and missed much – or all – of the public testimony; McCormack and Logan were LONG gone – they pretty much gave their testimony and then split immediately. And Jenny Oropeza arrived maybe a half-hour late, due to a doctor’s appointment.
But Debra Bowen, who testified first, starting a bit before 1:30 PM, was there to hear it all. She finally left at about 5:30, missing only the last maybe five or six public witnesses. Over four hours of her time, but she hung in there ’til almost the bitter end.
(As for the 30 seconds, minute or two, etc, for the public witnesses: that’s what Caldron or Price said he wanted, but many of the public witnesses were allowed to go for longer – five minutes, or maybe a bit more.)
Something that’s buggin me…according to [a comment at] Kim Alexander’s article no audio or video equipment was allowed at the hearing. At this critical point in such a botched system, the general public don’t get the chance to judge for themselves (sight and sound) who is being truthful and who’s squirmin like a toad…hmmm?
If it isn’t for dedicated people like Alan, people don’t get to see for themselves. It just seems too convenient for those who are to be held accountable!
Oh yeah, did any local news channels run taped segments on it, folks?
Robin Gibson #5,6,7
Thank-you for your thorough explanations. So it sounds like this is really an issue that LA County’s citizens need to take up locally, and not something that state-wide citizens can address with Bowen. Right? Or wrong?
Hey Folks,
It’s Sheri Myers here. I testified, too, about the extraordinary amount of outsourcing of our (previously) county-run election systems to Diebold and or Diebold partners. We are looking into who can jump start an investigation – where to send our emails and calls, once we mount a campaign. As I understand it, if we can pressure the members of this Senate Committee to call for an investigation, perhaps that will go to the State AG, who will turn this sort of investigation over to the County AG.
I don’t know if this is just a local issue. After all, LA County is the largest County in the US, and accounts for 40% of all CA Dem votes. Now, I realize we are all nonpartisan, but that’s alot of votes that are vulnerable!
Y’all may have experience and/or advice here. We need to get the ball rolling this week.
By the way… if you got to our workthevotela.org site, and click on the Dean Logan Dossier, you will see a wealth of material that we have accumulated about our lame interim Registrar.
This was an absolutely historic hearing. The chairs of THREE very important legislative committees in CA took testimony for over five hours in what was booked as a 3-hour “Joint Informational Hearing – Discussion of Problems Faced by Voters at the 2008 Presidential Primary Election.”
VIDEO CAMERAS WERE ALLOWED THROUGHOUT THE HEARING.
The three democratic legislators who all expressed very, very strong concerns regarding election integrity were:
1. Assemblymember Curren Price, Chair of the Asembly Elections and Redistricting Committee
2. Senator Ron Calderon (who had to leave early due to a prior committment), Chair of the Senate Elections, Reapportionment, and Constitutional Amendments Committee (formerly chaired by Debra Bowen when she was a senator) and
3. Senator Jenny Oropeza, Chair of the Senate Select Committee on Integrity of Elections.
Two other senators, Mark Ridley-Thomas and Dean Flores rounded out the elected state officials there to find out what the heck is really going on out in the trenches.
Invited speakers were from the well-known organizations such as the California Association of County Elections Officials (CACEO)- President Steve Weir, League of Women Voters, Common Cause, California Voter Foundation, and Los Angeles and Contra Costa Counties.
LA County former ROV Conny McCormick and current “acting” ROV Dean Logan were there to do some “‘splainin” about the double bubble trouble and other voting issues.
I must agree with Brad that Kim Alexander of California Voter Foundation gave incredibly passionate and razor-sharp focused comments on what is needed before the June 3 state primary election.
SOS Debra Bowen, as usual, showed her acute awareness of the issues and was warmly embraced by the panel and the audience in general. She actually missed about the last dozen or so activists to testify, including me.
Please go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5s-3L5ETcTE and leave your comments. This is just one of nearly 50 individuals who testified. In this case, it is a video of Tom Courbat.
There was general agreement among the senators and assemblymember in attendance that there is need for significant legislative change, possibly on an “urgency” basis, to clean up a number of electoral issues that continue to plague the system. Strong statements by Senator Jenny Oropeza indicated there is a likelihood of passing “urgency legislation” that would take effect immediately.
After appearing before legislative bodies (including the Board of Supervisors) on many occasions, I must say this session left me with the most hope that there actually WILL be action taken to protect our elections.
My compliments to Secretary of State Debra Bowen for staying nearly the entire session and listening intently to all speakers, including many many Election Integrity Advocates who were relegated to speak last under “Public Testimony”.
In future hearings, should they be held, I believe there is a good chance the Election Integrity Community will be listed as “witnesses” and not just allowed to speak at the very end under “Public Comment”.
I hope others who were there will report on their experience as well. I am still in awe of the interest and focused attention of the team of Senators and an Assemblymember.
Hey 99, thanks for the edit (assuming it was you), but it doesn’t make clear my distinction between audio video web cast (I assume those holding the hearing would have been responsible for) and observers recording. Not trying to be picky, but it does make a difference.
{Ed Note: You’re welcome, but I wish you’d try to read the preview before posting a little more often…. I’m back here battling the dreaded spawn of Satan [spammers] again and I can’t make heads or tails out stuff when my brain is boiling. –99}
Sherri Myers (#12)~Hmm. I really don’t know about an investigation, Sherri. We’ve had one or two here in Sarasota, the latest being the big GAO investigation of the performance of ES&S’s iVotronic paperless touchscreen machines in the botched CD-13 Election of 2006.
Their interim report was officially inconclusive. It was titled (and I kid you not): “ELECTIONS- -FURTHER TESTING COULD PROVIDE INCREASED BUT NOT ABSOLUTE ASSURANCE THAT VOTING SYSTEMS DID NOT CAUSE UNDERVOTES IN FLORIDA’S 13TH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT”…
..yah. They must charge the taxpayer by the WORD.
Five months later their final report concluded that it couldn’t conclusively conclude anything.
Even though the testing methods they used were incomplete, and the machines they tested were hand selected by our STATE CHIEF OF BUREAU OF VOTING SYSTEMS and CERTIFICATION, DAVID DRURY (along with Supervisor of Elections Kathy Dent). Let me tell you, these two just LLlluuuuuuvvve ES&S. (They’ve drawn up contracts to prove it in a court of law and everything!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFEgYIHsM8w
“Kathy Dent Denies Ties to ES&S/ REVISED with NEW LIES…”
On the very first day of the GAO test/”independent investigation”, we drove down to where the machines were being sequestered to see how they would be delivered and (I kid you not)at “BIG JIM’S STORAGE AND WINE CELLAR”. There we filmed DRURY himself loading up the truck with ripe machines for an good ol’self-regulated, self-inflated, self-exoneratin, ol’ fashioned investigatin’. (Actually, as a STATE CHIEF of voting systems certification, he didn’t appear to be doing any of the heavy lifting…just some nodding and some bobbing and some ducking our camera line. More like he was “supervising” the selection and transport of the very machines the GAO would be testing in what is supposed to an “independent investigation that should include an investigation of DRURY’s STATE PROCEDURES if this test is really an independent test in the first place…right?)
so…
in spite of MOUNTANOUS EVIDENCE that these machines are at best-junk, at worst–the modus operandi of a criminal, corporate cabal using them to hijack our goverment (tomaayto, tomaaahto),
I don’t know Sherri, I’d much rather see this L.A. “double-bubble” McCormack loopiness go STRAIGHT to a GRAND JURY HEARING in the great state of CALIFORNIA.
Damn.
Wouldn’t THAT be GRAND?…
Wait a minute, Sherri–CA has the great LOWELL FINELY!~ Aww…that’s great! I bet he’s working his genius mind full-time to help Bowen out on this one.
Google him. He’s amazing.
Heeehehehe…oh, CALIFORNIA’s gonna be a battleground of epic proportions! And in CA, I dunno, the bad guys just might be outnumbered AND outsmarted!
In My opinion (as always) the “hearings”, “courts”, “subpoenas”, and “decisions” are not able to keep up with the corruption that rigged elections which travel at 3e8 (lightspeed/the speed of electricity) are able to spew out.
This needs to be changed.
Your VOICE can’t keep up with the speed of an invisible electronic tabulator!
(speed of light vs. speed of sound)
Magically though, the fascist network broadcasters can keep up with the resulting winners.
(speed of fascism vs. reality)
i dunno what the fuck else to say..
The “bigger scarier picture” is that we have a runaway suspect elections system with the LA County supervisors asleep at the wheel, apparently immune to citizen complaints, insights and research about the security, validity and viability of our balloting. The privatization and creeping secrecy of our most basic public expression of democracy is tragic. We can get rid of all the front-persons one after the other and still get rolled over by a corporatization of our voting systems, contract by contract. If the supervisors are not invested in this paramount duty of their office…we are going to sink into the muck.