Thursday, December 13, 2007

MEDIA ADVISORY: VCC Renews Call For Release of Public Info

MEDIA ADVISORY: VCC Renews Call For Release of Public Info

Contact: Dave Berman, 707-845-3749 or info@VoterConfidenceCommittee.org

Voter Confidence Committee Seeks Data For Comparison of Electronic and Hand-Counted Election Costs
Election Watchdog Group Repeats Request For Details From Humboldt Registrar

12/13/07 - Humboldt County election watchdog group The Voter Confidence Committee (VCC) hereby makes public a letter hand-delivered to the office of the Registrar of Voters Carolyn Crnich on December 12, 2007. Many of the questions included were first posed to the Registrar in May 2007, just prior to the release of the VCC "Report on Election Conditions in Humboldt County, CA." More recently, this topic was discussed on the Peter B. Collins talk radio show with both members of the VCC and the Registrar. The information being sought will enable the public to determine the viability of the VCC's proposal to hand-count all ballots in Humboldt County elections. A formal copy of this letter is attached to this e-mail and a plain text version appears below.

The VCC Report is archived online here: http://tinyurl.com/29vhhu.

Listen to an .mp3 of the Registrar on the Peter B. Collins show here: http://tinyurl.com/2f9jdj.

# # #

The Voter Confidence Committee
PO Box 5131
Eureka, CA 95502
www.VoterConfidenceCommittee.org

December 12, 2007

Dear Carolyn Crnich, Humboldt Registrar of Voters:

As a follow up to participation on the Nov. 30 Peter B. Collins show and renewing our request for information that you agreed was reasonable when you met with members of the Voter Confidence Committee in May 2007, we respectfully submit the following questions:

1. What were all the costs associated with the use of Diebold optical scanners, the GEMS central tabulator, and the Hart InterCivic eSlate machines in the November 2006 election, including:

a. Depreciation
b. Storage
c. Repair
d. Software updates
e. Ballot printing
f. Ballot definition programming
g. Back-up systems
h. All staff time
i. Contingencies for power failure
j. Legal expenses (i.e. Holder v McPherson)
k. All other costs

2. What were the funding sources to cover the above costs, and who authorized those expenditures?

3. Regarding the 10% manual audit of the November 2006 election:

a. How many hand-counters were hired?
b. What was the collective total paid to those hand-counters?
c. How many total hours of counting were required?
d. How many total contests (cumulative individual voting opportunities) were counted across all ballots in the audit?

4. In the November 2006 election, countywide, how many total votes (not ballots) were counted by precinct-based optical scanners? How many precincts were used in Humboldt County for this election? How many ballots were cast either provisionally, absentee, or mail-in?

5. Regarding the upcoming February 5, 2008 presidential primary:
a. How many precincts and how many physical polling places (excluding mail-in only precincts) will there be in Humboldt County?
b. How many contests will be on the ballot?

We look forward to a prompt and timely written response, directed either to the address above or via e-mail to info@VoterConfidenceCommittee.org.

Sincerely,


Aryay Kalaki, for
The Voter Confidence Committee

CC: Peter B. Collins, Brad Friedman, Humboldt County Supervisors and all local governments, Eureka Reporter, Eureka Times-Standard, North Coast Journal, Arcata Eye, KHUM, KGOE, KSLG, KMUD; (Added after letter delivery: GreenFuse, HSU Lumberjack, Humboldt Sentinel)

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