Acting Registrar Lies to the Board of Supes, Former Registrar Lies to the Joint State Legislative Panel
Independent Criminal Investigation Called For...
By Brad Friedman on 3/8/2008, 2:25pm PT  

We spent many hours yesterday at a joint legislative hearing, at the California State Ronald Reagan Building downtown, where CA SoS Debra Bowen, former L.A. County Registrar Conny "Condoleezza" McCormack, current acting Registrar Dean Logan, who was "greeted...with boos", and others all testified on the "Double Bubble" Ballot Fiasco. It went on for more than three and a half hours before the actual aggrieved parties (the voters of L.A. County) were allowed to testify for "30 seconds to a minute" each.

Our own Alan Breslauer was also there taping and may have some video here soon (including, perhaps, my quick testimony, and the continuing amusing threats of the Sergeant-at-Arms to throw me out.)

The BRAD BLOG overheard Logan in the hallway, desperately working to be bumped from "acting" to actual Registrar, as he slimed an Election Integrity advocate who had just testified against him. Logan was heard telling the top aide to one of the L.A. Board of Supes that one of the local, volunteer EI advocates was "a pathological liar." That, just minutes after Logan had attempted to take some responsibility for the fiasco --- when the media's cameras were rolling --- during his actual testimony. As we know the EI advocate in question, and know him to be an exceptionally stand-up guy, we informed Logan, and the aide, that he was incredibly out of line, and flat-out wrong. Again.

But it was McCormack who was met with the most derision, by audience and Legislative inquisitors alike, as she dissembled to the panel and attempted to blame Bowen's "Top-to-Bottom Review" of voting systems for her own failure, disingenuously saying the SoS's efforts to do the job she was elected to do was the reason that McCormack couldn't have fixed the problem before it disenfranchised thousands of legal voters again this year...

From the Daily Breeze coverage...

McCormack, who retired in January, argued that her office was so consumed with the effort to recertify the InkaVote system as a whole that it did not review the nonpartisan ballot design.
...
"In hindsight, we can see 20/20," McCormack said. "We don't sit around thinking, `How many people can we disenfranchise today?' That's not what we do."

McCormack praised Acting Registrar-Recorder Dean Logan for taking steps to resolve the problem. But the audience - largely made up of election protection activists - greeted Logan with boos. Logan has been criticized for initially saying that it would be impossible to count any of the nonpartisan ballots in which voters had not filled in the second bubble.

I'm happy to point to the testimony of CalVoter.org's Kim Alexander (video below, 6:51), who doesn't live in L.A., but was allowed to give full-length testimony on the topic anyway. I'm glad she did, because while I don't always agree with Alexander, who is far too forgiving in far too many instances, she was the only one from among the invited witnesses to really hit the nail on the head: An independent investigation needs to be launched, she said, specifically into the fact that McCormack knew full well that thousands would be disenfranchised by her ridiculous ballot design, since it had happened in several previous elections, as she did nothing about it prior to her quitting her job just one month before the largest primary in recent history, in the country's largest voting jurisdiction.


We'd love to believe there is an orange jumpsuit with Conny's number on it, for all of the at least 12,000 legal voters that she knowingly --- and with criminal negligence, at best --- allowed to be disenfranchised on Super Tuesday. We tried to underscore that point in our own brief testimony before the panel.

P.S. Our hallway confrontation with Logan was, unfortunately, briefer than we would have liked because we had to rush outside to get on the air for our weekly stint --- a somewhat notable one this week --- on the Peter B. Collins Show. As Logan failed to call us back throughout our weeks-long coverage of the "Double Bubble" mess, we were unable to offer his side of the story beyond quoting his public comments elsewhere. We'd be happy to include his response on any of the above, any time. We're not out to "get" anyone, and we make every effort to treat folks fairly, even those we disagree with. We will, however, continue to hold folks accountable for wrongdoing, and can't help it if they don't have the common sense and/or courage to return our calls seeking comment. Unlike the Washington Post, we are also not afraid to use the word "lie," when appropriate. Though before we do it, unlike Mr. Logan, we make damned sure we can prove it.

UPDATE FROM THE ROAD: Here's another angle on the testimony of Logan and Dean...and who's that handsome lad sending nothing but love and positive vibes in the near background, as seen at bottom-right?... :-)

UPDATE 3/10/08: Alan Breslauer has now posted my own testimony before the state Congressional panel, along with that of several other Election Integrity advocates on hand at the hearings. Videos here...

CORRECTION: In our originally published report, the person to whom Dean Logan was speaking when he alleged an Election Integrity advocate to be a "pathological liar", was originally reported as having been the "top aide to the chairman of the L.A. County Board of Supes." In fact, the aide's boss is no longer the chair of the Board, since the Board rotates chairmanship. And for additional clarity, that aide is actually that particular Supervisor's Chief of Staff. The BRAD BLOG regrets the original mistatement.

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