[courtesy of Blog for America]

From Richard Holober emaill on June 4, 2008.

Greetings!

We are waiting to learn how many absentee ballots were turned in at polling places on Election Day. County elections officials will count these late absentee votes over the next couple of days. They will likely reflect the same candidate preferences as Election Day voters, who gave Jerry Hill a narrow edge over me. It is certain that these uncounted late absent votes will not erase the 2400 vote gap that separated me from my opponents among early absentee votes.

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Debra Bowen
California Secretary of State

Each election, Californians see snapshots of what makes our democracy tick. Candidates. Initiative measures. Campaign commercials. Voter registration drives. Ballots and the machines that count them.

One crucial element that’s often overlooked is the contribution from the state’s largest one-day volunteer work force: the 100,000 men and women who serve on the front lines of democracy as poll workers.

Teenagers and senior citizens, professionals and retirees, people of all backgrounds come together to ensure all of the more than 23,000 polling places across California are staffed on Election Day. Poll workers make voting easier and they protect our ballots until they are delivered to county election officials.

For their valuable service, poll workers take home modest stipends. But they walk away with so much more – a sense of community, a chance to reconnect with neighbors and friends, first-hand experience with democracy, and personal satisfaction.

We couldn’t have made the February 5 presidential primary a success without poll workers. And now we need their help again, and yours too.

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Frank D. Russo
Based on information from the Kennedy Library

Our Secretary of State Debra Bowen, who led the nation in challenging the reliability of electronic voting systems, has been named as one of three individuals who will receive the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award. Bowen will be presented with this award by JFK’s daughter Caroline Kennedy and his brother, Senator Edward M. Kennedy, at a ceremony at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston on May 12.

Jennifer Brunner, Secretary of State of Ohio will also receive this award and a special Profile in Courage Award for Lifetime Achievement will be presented to former Mississippi Governor William Winter for his leadership in championing racial equality and educational opportunity in Mississippi.

Announcement of the award was accompanied by the following statement about Bowen from the Kennedy Library:

by Brian Leubitz [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

A few weeks ago, Lucas wrote about a lawsuit filed by San Diego to block a more thorough random hand-count of ballots for the February 5 primary election.  Well, Debra Won!  Goooooooo Bowen!

Basically, our incredible SoS told registrars that they needed to hand count 10% of the ballot when the vote was close, instead of the standard 1%. San Diego really, really didn't like the idea of doing all that work just for the sake of a clean election. Of course, it doesn't help that they are still mad about Bowen decertifying some of Diebold's machines, either.

San Diego had argued Bowen overstepped her authority in deciding that county elections officials will have to recount 10 percent of the precincts in close elections battles this year. San Diego Superior Court Judge Patricia Cowett disagreed.

"She felt the Secretary of State had the authority to impose the requirement," said Kern County attorney Steve Sanders.

***

"In June and November things could be much more difficult," Barnett said. "We anticipate that we could be hit really hard."(Bakersfield California 1.29.08)

read more »

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Michelle Gabriel

Good people, many of them county elections officials, ask why election integrity advocates don't trust vendors and elections officials. There are many reasons and examples.

The statement by the Sequoia Voting Systems official after California Secretary of State Bowen’s hearing on Monday on the reports by computer experts on the vulnerability of electronic voting machines is just one example. In Alameda County we tried for months to get a real attack test on the Sequoia equipment prior to it being purchased. Sequoia and the county elections officials blocked it. There was even law suit to get some real testing done!!! But the Board of Supervisors backed down and listened to the Registrar of Voters. Instead, we once again had people sitting in a room examining documents and thinking about possibilities. Even this study came up with a number of serious security issues.

Yet here is what the Sequoia representative said:

by juls [courtesy of Calitics: Soapblox California - Front Page]

Sounds like recipe for disaster to me.  South and Rob Stutzman along with GOP Attorney Tom Hitachk and Rick Claussen have teamed up to create a proposal in case Arnold and the legislature can't come to terms. Salladay:

Broadly, the new initiative would require the state's Fair Political Practices Commission to create a citizens commission that would draw legislative lines (one version excludes Congress, another includes federal districts.) The five-member commission would hire six other people to create an 11-member panel.

Those additional panelists would include one member from academia with experience in redistricting, one attorney with the same type of experience, and four city or county elections officials - two from high-density areas and two rural. The membership would have to be balanced between Republicans and Democrats.

As Salladay points out, the FPPC is woefully underfunded as it is and would have a hard time administrating this.

Perata may be concerned that there are no other relatively minor sweeteners along with the term limits, but its just South who is teaming up with the Republicans to push redistricting.

But it doesn't appear the FPPC option would make it to the February ballot - time is running out to collect signatures.