Monday, January 28, 2008
VCC Plans Poll-Watching Operation
The Voter Confidence Committee today announced intentions to organize Humboldt County poll watching during next Tuesday's California Primary Election. Within mere minutes of e-mailing the press release (shown in full at the bottom of this post) I received voice mail from Thadeus Greenson at the Eureka Times-Standard and Terri Klemetson from KMUD radio news.
I called back a short while later and had perhaps a 15 or 20 minute discussion with Greenson. His December 24 article was the subject of my most recently published opinion piece. We did swap one e-mail each at that time, but did not fully engage. Last week Greenson exchanged words with the VCC's Bob Olofson, who published this letter in Friday's T-S.
So with all this recent history, I was very pleased that Greenson had so many questions for me today, demonstrating curiosity about the most recent framing efforts by the VCC. Namely, let's talk about tangible numbers for a hand-count so the community can objectively judge the viability of this option, without regard for unsubstantiated opinions from elections officials.
I will even give Greenson a bonus point for asking about the December 12 letter hand delivered by Aryay Kalaki of the VCC to Registrar of Voters Carolyn Crnich requesting various public data. To this day, the request has not been met and no media have backed up our call for the information or mentioned the Registrar's unwillingness to comply. While I'm on the subject, I'm sorry to have to report that new Election Manager Kelly Sanders has also failed to meet a VCC request for information submitted first by voice mail last Thursday and then via e-mail on Friday. We are seeking information to help us plan the poll watching operation.
Meanwhile, when I called back KMUD's Klemetson I think it was our first conversation. She asked me for an appointment to speak by phone tomorrow to record an interview for tomorrow night's news. I really should have pushed to have her interview me then to appear on tonight's news so that discussion of the VCC poll-watching planning meeting could possibly bring out some people. But no, we'll talk at 9am tomorrow.
On thing not mentioned in the press release below is that the VCC website now has a page with an outline of what a poll-watcher should watch for.
PRESS RELEASE: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Dave Berman, 707-845-3749 or info@VoterConfidenceCommittee.org
Election Watchdog Group Seeks Community Volunteers
January 28, 2008 – Humboldt election watchdog group the Voter Confidence Committee (VCC) will be organizing community volunteers for a poll-watching operation on Tuesday, February 5, the day of California's Presidential Primary Election. Those willing to help monitor the election can attend a VCC planning and training session this Tuesday, January 29, starting at 6pm at Old Town Coffee & Chocolates, 211 F Street in Eureka.
"The Voter Confidence Committee has repeatedly and clearly stated our concerns about privatized and secret vote counting," said VCC co-founder Dave Berman. "To the extent that we are able to see how our elections work, we believe the community has a responsibility to carefully watch what happens on Election Day."
Volunteers need not attend the training to participate and can obtain a list of things to watch for at the VCC website, www.VoterConfidenceCommittee.org. Even citizens not intending to participate are encouraged to contact the VCC with reports of anything unusual. A special Election Day hotline has been created at 707-633-4130, or via e-mail at integrity@VoterConfidenceCommittee.org.
The VCC will be coordinating activities on Election Night from a temporary base of operations at 332 Grotto Street in Eureka's Henderson Center. Members of the public are welcome to drop in.
Permalink:
http://wedonotconsent.blogspot.com/2008/01/vcc-plans-poll-watching-operation.html
Labels: Aryay Kalaki, Bob Olofson, Carolyn Crnich, Eureka Times-Standard, Kelly Sanders, KMUD, poll-watching, press release, Terri Klemetson, Thadeus Greenson, Voter Confidence Committee
Tuesday, December 25, 2007
Eureka Times-Standard: As primary fast approaches, election offices are in turmoil
Monday's Eureka Times-Standard has a front page story that continues on the back page called "As primary fast approaches, election offices are in turmoil" (archive).
This article describes some of the fallout experienced by elections departments throughout CA in the wake of Secretary of State Debra Bowen's Top To Bottom Review. Humboldt is depicted as being on relatively stable footing, and though that may be the case, no mention is made that there has still been no Election Manager named to replace Lindsey McWilliams, who left in June. The last hiring update I got was at the Nov. 20 Election Advisory Committee meeting when Registrar of Voters Carolyn Crnich told us she was checking references on three candidates and didn't have a time frame for making a decision. She also emphasized that she was not feeling desperate because current staff is performing great. So none of that was in the article.
T-S reporter Thadeus Greenson does paint a very favorable picture of the Humboldt Transparency Project, including referencing David Dill, Bev Harris, and Harri Hursti. There was not even a hint of irony in describing Hursti "who famously hacked into Diebold voting machines." Excuse me, but it wasn't just Diebold voting machines, it included the exact equipment we use here in Humboldt. No criticisms of the Transparency Project were included, though I have detailed several on many occasions, as recently as Saturday. That may get recycled into the letter to the editor or My Word column this will prompt me to write.
As with many previous T-S articles, this one contains false balance. This is probably the biggest issue I have with this story. While there are no quotes from VCC members our group is mentioned:Still, some feel Bowen's decision didn't go far enough and the optical scan vote counting machines are also inaccurate and susceptible to hacking.
This is false balance because the Registrar offers an opinion with nothing to back it up. How do I know? Because the VCC has asked, repeatedly, and the Registrar does not have data comparing hand-counting and optical scan counting for cost, accuracy or anything else. Yet her dismissive opinion is supposed to balance the VCC recommendations, which come backed by our report (and many others), and tangible projections that will allow the community to judge what is practical. Naturally our ability to take the discussion out of the range of "he said/she said" was left out of the article.
The Voter Confidence Committee of Humboldt County released a report on voting conditions in the county that called for a complete transition to hand counting for all ballots. While Crnich said this would put a tremendous strain on poll workers and the election office, she isn't convinced it would be any more reliable than the machine counts and hand-count audits are in place.
"It's just not a practical solution," Crnich said.
But Humboldt's committee is far from the only ones calling for hand counting, which they say is both practical and more accurate than machines counting.
Earlier this month, the committee and 30 other election integrity groups joined an amicus brief in the suit brought against New York State by the Department of Justice. The brief argues hand counting paper ballots is compliant with the Help America Vote Act, and asks the court to order the two federal races on the state's next ballot to be hand counted.
Meanwhile, the Humboldt Committee is busy recruiting Humboldt voters willing to hand count ballots come election day. But Crnich said no such hand counting will take place. She said the procedures are simply not in place, but visitors are welcome to observe election-night happenings according to Bowen's guidelines.
One more bone to pick. This article refers to a lawsuit brought by San Diego County to push back against Bowen's new guidelines. But it does not mention the memory cards that disappeared from a FedEx shipment last week en route from Sacramento to San Diego. If its balance ye want, I'm just sayin'...
Permalink:
http://wedonotconsent.blogspot.com/2007/12/eureka-times-standard-as-primary-fast.html
Labels: Carolyn Crnich, Debra Bowen, Election Advisory Committee, Eureka Times-Standard, Harri Hursti, Report on Election Conditions, Thadeus Greenson, Top To Bottom Review, Transparency Project, VCC
