Tuesday, January 15, 2008
KHUM Humboldt Review Review, EAC and Ron Paul Too
The .mp3 archive of last Thursday's KHUM Humboldt Review finally became available yesterday but I didn't have time to listen and thus no blog post. Having listened now, I can accurately quote the top highlight, by far, which was my introduction, now a permanent part of the WDNC blog template*:"Dave, you're like the conscience of our electoral process."
I was on the show for two segments, the first starting about 20:34 into the .mp3 above. Hoover's great compliment is around 27:35. Click here and look for Arcata's 150th/Voter Information Day to see the rest of the guests. If you aren't here in Humboldt this may give you a few distinct flavors of our community, including celebrating the start of a year-long 150th anniversary for Arcata, and the hot button rail/trail issue. Hoover also interviewed Registrar of Voters Carolyn Crnich. It was so pedestrian that I don't have any other comment on it.
--Kevin Hoover, Editor, Arcata Eye; Host KHUM Humboldt Review
On the other hand, tonight the Registrar convened the monthly meeting of the Election Advisory Committee. The top story there was the announcement of Kelly Sanders as the new Election Manager, effective 1/1/08, filling the position vacated by Lindsey McWilliams last June. The Registrar said this promotion for Sanders, who has worked in the Humboldt Elections Department for years, most recently as Administrative Analyst, is known to other election administrators in the state, but not yet in the local media. A rare scoop here for WDNC.
With Supervisor Jimmy Smith present, the Registrar described two pieces of equipment she said she hoped she could buy from the County General Fund. First is a new DIMS server, which she said contains voter registration info. She also described the regular office scanner as being near death, slyly suggesting that perhaps its replacement would be suitable for the Transparency Project. Acknowledging it could be costly, the Registrar gave a maximum cost of $60,000. I think there was an audible gulp from Smith.
Also of note, I thought, was the approximate number 100 - absentee ballot requests per day. Early voting began on 1/7 with paper ballots and one eSlate available at election department HQ. There is a need for about 8-10 more pollworkers, and the Registrar recommended anyone interested use the application contained in their sample ballot and bring it to HQ.
Another budgetary matter that came up was the Governor's reneging on his promise to reimburse Humboldt County for this February's primary. This was held up as an example of an unfunded mandate. I jokingly suggested we refuse to hold the November election just to spite Arnold.
More seriously, the Registrar said she would be on a conference call tomorrow morning with other Registrars and Secretary of State Debra Bowen. One topic for that call is the "trusted build" program that Bowen implemented following the Top To Bottom Review. According to the Registrar, this involves wiping old memory cards and newly programming them with code supplied directly by Bowen.
The last thing I'll mention from the EAC meeting is the observation panel the Registrar said she wanted to form. If you are interested in this, I think you want to drop by HQ, perhaps Monday at 2pm when the Logic and Accuracy (aka Smoke and Mirrors) dog and pony show will be conducted.
Finally, right after I got home, David Kaftal, my Ron Paul contact, wrote to invite me to talk about election integrity at an "emergency meeting" the local Meet Up group has called for Thursday night at 6pm at the Humboldt Bay Municipal Water District, 828 7th St., Eureka. More details at the link above.
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* Karen Renick, co-host of Vote Rescue Radio also just added a sweet new permanent testimonial to the WDNC left sidebar: "Ultimately, we MUST change the way our votes are being counted - or not counted - and Dave is one of those individuals who is making this a reality."
Permalink:
http://wedonotconsent.blogspot.com/2008/01/khum-humboldt-review-review-eac-and-ron.html
Labels: Arcata Eye, Carolyn Crnich, David Kaftal, Debra Bowen, Election Advisory Committee, Jimmy Smith, Karen Renick, Kely Sanders, Kevin Hoover, KHUM, League of Women Voters, Lindsey McWilliams, Ron Paul
Thursday, June 14, 2007
Advocacy Journalism Resumes
Last night's post about the new vacancy in Humboldt County's election department was quite likely a scoop for WDNC. I'm not expecting to be back on the advocacy journalism beat with the intensity and posting frequency of the past, at least not for a little while longer. But following the news I broke last night, it calls for an update based on a few things I did today.
Around midday I called Registrar of Voters Carolyn Crnich to inquire about the Election Manager job description and qualifications. She was rather non-plussed to be hearing from me about this and mentioned that she knew I had "gone to the media" with the news already. I didn't ask for clarification but I thought of three things she might have been referring to.
First, after publishing last night's post to WDNC, I also circulated it to various election integrity e-mail lists. This is the advocacy of it all. I'm publishing news of a job opening and saying I want to help find some possible candidates. I also put the announcement on Democratic Underground and Daily Kos. This seemed the least likely of the three things Carolyn might have meant.
Another step I took last night was to forward the news to Peter B. Collins, with the suggestion that he interview Carolyn on his radio show to get the news of the job opening to some potential candidates. I did not hear back from Peter B. and so I do not know either way whether he or his producer had contacted Carolyn.
Now, before I mention the third possibility, it is worth noting that Carolyn spoke about the people who already work for Humboldt County and have responsibility for filling job openings. She did not particularly welcome my interjection into the process, though surely it won't surprise her that I, and no doubt the Voter Confidence Committee, will be closely monitoring the hiring process and hoping to see an agreeable candidate win the position. Carolyn was intentionally vague and not helpful when I asked how to find the job description and qualifications. That's ok. A very basic search led me to this page displaying all County job openings, and this .pdf describing the now vacant Election Manager position. The date on that description is December 2002 so I imagine it will soon be updated.
To explain the third possibility I imagined about Carolyn's "gone to the media" reference, I have to mention stopping at the Eureka Reporter this morning. Since submitting my most recent opinion column to them, which they published with the most fabulous of names, No Wonder We're Ready For Revolution," I have been wanting to share two suggestions with Managing Editor Glenn Franco Simmons. I've met with him a few times prior, and while conveying my recommendations to him in a series of "off the record" e-mails, we had both been hoping to meet once again to talk in more detail. Unfortunately, Glenn has missed a lot of work lately and I have yet to catch up with him.
For no real reason, I chose to drop in unannounced at the paper today. Glenn was once again unavailable but I was fortunate to get a few minutes with Assistant Managing Editor Diane Batley. She received my first idea better than I could have possibly imagined. I told her that I understand newspapers don't have the manpower to fact check every letter to the editor, yet it is clearly in the interest of the paper to keep "false facts" out of print as much as possible. For example, the bogus claim that the American military "surge" (escalation) has reduced the death rate in Iraq was one of the reasons I wrote that recent column linked above. I proposed (and have been for saying for a while) that newspapers ought to require letter writers to document and source their claims. Diane opened today's paper and showed me that the instructions for submitting letters now include requiring this evidence. She said it was appearing this way for no more than a month. I had already gotten my way once before opening my mouth today. I think that's pretty effective advocacy, though I admit it is possible others have been pushing the same idea.
The second idea I gave to Diane built on the first. Clearly, a newspaper's reputation and credibility must be protected through proactive measures. A "false fact" appearing in a letter to the editor still leaves the newspaper in the position where any reader might later cite this misinformation and attribute it to the paper thereby damaging its credibility and reputation. In other words, it is no more acceptable to have a factual error appear in a letter than it is in an article written by a staff reporter. In each case, a correction notice is warranted. In the example above, my response was not a sufficient proactive protection of the newspaper's credibility after publishing a letter writer's inaccuracy. This so-called "self-correcting mechanism" does the further harm of leaving readers to determine which "fact" to believe. This is not a difference of opinion and the paper has no need to adjudicate if it were. But this is a question of fact/fiction and is exactly how we wind up with what I have so often called the rift in the perception of reality.
I will not venture to guess how persuaded was Diane, but we can now watch to see if the Reporter institutes a policy of running corrections for factual errors in letters to the editor. If it happens, you will know it is because somebody's been doing some advocacy work. Having delivered my two brief points in no more than ten minutes, I stood up to leave. Then I remembered to ask, had she heard about Lindsey McWilliams leaving the elections department? That's when I figured I probably had the scoop last night. Friday's Reporter has this feel-good piece about Lindsey, including many quotes from Carolyn that were likely obtained between the time I had "gone to the media" and called her about the job description.
Permalink:
http://wedonotconsent.blogspot.com/2007/06/advocacy-journalism-resumes.html
Labels: Advocacy Journalism, Carolyn Crnich, Eureka Reporter, Lindsey McWilliams, Voter Confidence Committee
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
Election Manager Needed - Humboldt, CA
According to Aryay Kalaki of the Voter Confidence Committee of Humboldt County, long-time County Election Manager Lindsey McWilliams has left his position as of Monday and will soon take a similar position in Solano County, California. I won't say I'm celebrating but I have been calling for McWilliams to resign for a long time. What I will say is that this is an opportunity. Aryay also reported that Registrar of Voters Carolyn Crnich seems a bit stressed over having to fill not one but four vacancies in her elections department. Are there qualified members of the Election Integrity Community who I should encourage the County to recruit?
Permalink:
http://wedonotconsent.blogspot.com/2007/06/election-manager-needed-humboldt-ca.html
Labels: Carolyn Crnich, Humboldt County, Lindsey McWilliams, Voter Confidence Committee
