Thursday, July 12, 2007

Eureka T-S Notes VCC Report

The Eureka Times-Standard (archive) on Thursday published an unbylined piece about the Voter Confidence Committee (VCC) Report on Election Conditions in Humboldt County (.pdf).

Voter Confidence Committee issues report on November election
The Times-Standard
Article Launched: 07/12/2007 04:14:10 AM PDT

EUREKA -- A report from an election reform advocacy group analyzing the election of November 2006 outlines several issues with the system and potential improvements.

The report by the Voter Confidence Committee, addresses its biggest beef with the county election system -- the use of Diebold ballot-counting machines, which the committee says can't be trusted.

"Under current conditions, vote counting is done in secret, using proprietary voting equipment that requires the public to accept election results with 'blind trust,'" says the report. "While a perfect voting system may not yet exist, it will be clear to readers of this report that many practical election reforms can still move us closer to the realistic idea of establishing a basis for voter confidence in election results."

More...(archive)
Overall, that intro--and the entire brief article, for that matter--uses welcome frames for presenting this report. The rest of the article mentions a variety of topics addressed with recommendations in the report.

After finding the article online this afternoon, I left a message for T-S editor Rich Sommerville, thanking him for the article and asking if he would be willing to meet with a few of the group members to discuss some of the proposals we make. The report is straightforward in offering suggestions for improved media coverage of elections, much of it previously appearing at WDNC or GuvWurld. In the coming weeks and months I look forward to setting up pow-wows with the editorial board at each of our local newspapers.

Oh, and we're active on other fronts too. Next week a few of us will be meeting with County Supervisor Bonnie Neely.

100th WDNC post

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We Do Not Consent, Volume 1 (left) and Volume 2 (right), feature essays from Dave Berman's previous blogs, GuvWurld and We Do Not Consent, respectively. Click the covers for FREE e-book versions (.pdf). As of April 2010, paperbacks are temporarily out of print. Click here for the author's bio.

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"Dave Berman's work is quietly brilliant and powerfully utilitarian. His Voter Confidence Resolution provides a fine, flexible tool whereby any community can reclaim and affirm a right relation to its franchise as a community of voters."

— Elizabeth Ferrari, San Francisco, Green Party of California

"This is an important collection of essays with a strong unitary theme: if you can't prove that you were elected, we can't take you seriously as elected officials. Simple, logical, comprehensive. 'Management' (aka, the 'powers that be') needs to get the message. 'The machines' are not legitimizers, they're an artful dodge and a path to deception. We've had enough...and we most certainly DO NOT consent."

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