It is good news that we have election officials like Carolyn Wilson Crnich and Ian Sancho.

Other election officials take note. It does not take a lot to make peace with voting rights activists.

All we are saying is give honest and open elections a chance. It is something everyone everywhere can do in the same language!

Hi Brad, hows the weather up there ?

Don't forget to check out them new campsites if you get a chance

Been trying to behave (don't know how well THATS going yet)

Have fun and don't forget to change your underwear (mommy party joke)

Hi Brad, hows the weather up there ?

Don't forget to check out them new campsites if you get a chance

Been trying to behave (don't know how well THATS going yet)

Have fun and don't forget to change your underwear (mommy party joke)

Oops, internet fart

Glad to hear from ya! I wish we could ALL use the Vote Pad System.

Carolyn Crnich is one of the 'good guys'. On Thursday I got a call from her #2 in the Humboldt Co. RoV office. They are on our sides and feel that their voters need the protection of vvpb. He asked about audits because they are going to go above and beyond what the state requires just so they have the satisfaction of knowing better that their machines counted accurately.

On the subject of taking home the voting machines a day or two prior to the election. Hey, it doesn't surprise me one bit because it happens everywhere especially in rural counties. The polls open at 7AM. You don't want poll workers on the road at 3AM to go to the county to pick-up their machines so they can drive back to their poll sites and set them up. You especially don't want that in November, in a mountainous county where there is likely snow or ice problems.

Sorry but I just don't see that as a big problem because it's nearly a necessity.

"Sorry but I just don't see that as a big problem because it's nearly a necessity."

The "problem" is, we're dealing with invisible trickery at work (potentially). That is, if you had a "regular machine", it could be set up at the polling station in advance.. Kind of hard to "rig" a table (if we get rid of all the electronics). The ballotts could be sent home with the worker too.. I mean, if they aren't clean and unmarked, voters wouldn't use that ballot, they would toss it and get a clean one. The "vote box" could go home too because it would be inspected in the morning, at the polling station, and locked and sealed. Verifying there are no ballots inside first should be easy, right?

There you have it. Poll workers bringing stuff home and no worries about "tampering".

Though, you talk about bringing home machines and you have the ability to hook that machine up to the internet and download new software on to it.. no one would know.. or use the IR port and a palm-pilot and load it up with malicious code.. no one would know.. Get the point? We're not talking about "simple" here, we're talking about something that can have it's security totally circumvented and "no one would know". That, to me, makes this a "big problem".. not because the workers are "taking something home", but because of the nature of what it is that is being taken home.

Great work, Brad, and thanks, John, for the update. It's good to know that Crnich and her #2 are taking these concerns seriously.

Savantster's right about the unacceptable risk of voting machines being taken home by poll workers. That would be like sending safe deposit boxes home with bank employees. It just shouldn't be done under any circumstances.

Some other solution has to be found that does not involve a compromise to election security.

Savantster #7 -

Absolutely. Paper ballots are THE ONLY SAFE WAY TO GO.

Re #6
I'm astounded. Thought I couldn't be anymore.

".... You don't want poll workers on the road at 3AM to go to the county to pick-up their machines so they can drive back to their poll sites and set them up. You especially don't want that in November, in a mountainous county where there is likely snow or ice problems..."

This is what constitutes an insurmountable problem? One that necessitates poll-workers taking the machines home, with no security possible to insure they're not tampered with?
And this is ok because it's "nearly a necessity"?!

I can't believe what I'm reading. That is very, very troubling, John.

Savantster is 100% right. Jeezus Christmas!
As Catherine intimated, if these were Bill Gates' safe deposit boxes going home with people at night--with the keys jingling in their pockets--I suspect old Bill might be a tad upset!

I can't help thinking that somewhere, in some very cushy, comfortable room filled with cigar smoke, some folks are chuckling into their brandy snifters.

Pat Vesely at BBV has an outstanding post where he explains how ballot security should be similar to the security we give to bank notes.

See this post here:
http://www.bbvforums.org...amp;post=18711#POST18711

I hope we go to a system your happy with because I cant wait to hear what excuse you have for losing next time.

"....When Rep. Christopher Shays, a Connecticut Republican, agreed to subpoena records of funds transmitted to Iraq, his House Government Reform Subcommittee learned that nearly $12 billion in US currency was shipped to Iraq from the Federal Reserve Bank in New York, much of it with little accountability...."

The above is a snippet from a recent Newsweek piece by Michael Hirsh, "Breaking the Silence" ....
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/032406C.shtml

The article is about Andrew Natsios, the "longtime director of America's foreign-aid program" and a lifelong Republican, who is speaking out about his frustrations with the Bush administration's handling of Iraq, but that $12 billion thing kinda caught my eye.

I dunno where that particular $12 billion went, or the other $8 or 9 billion that reportedly went missing from Iraq for that matter--maybe it was the same billions, who the hell knows! like it was the same vase, according to Rummy, that was looted over & over in that video we all saw---
But doesn't it just seem ludicrously pitiful that our government, which falls all over itself misplacing billions left & right, evidently can't manage to fork over enough cash to put together a decent, sane, standardized voting system?
One where we don't need to have our sleep-deprived poll workers driving their pick-ups through the snow & ice over treacherous mountain roads in the dead of night with our fucked-over voting machines rattling around in the back?

Those guys in that smoke-filled room with the brandy are not just chuckling, they are goddamn rolling-on-the-floor-laughing-their-asses-off, or would be if they could do that without spilling their brandy.

They've got us right where they want us, the evil bastards.

I guess I am still oh so s-l-o-w-l-y waking up to the dismal fact that the whole shootin' match is a sham. It's very sad & difficult to swallow & takes some getting used to.

Not that I think we should give up. It's just that Goliath is a wee bit larger than I'd imagined.

#11
Catherine,
Thanks for the link to that excellent post by Pat Vesely. Hope everyone reads it.

#9
Peg,
I absolutely agree. Paper ballots, #2 pencils & lots of eyes watching.

I recently saw the film in which Bev Harris talks with poll workers who were nonchalantly & routinely given custody of voting machines with no security measures whatsoever.
Our "system" as it stands now is a joke & a disgrace. And undoubtedly a laughingstock in the world.

#12
Ricky,
So if all this is fine with you, how about giving me your checkbook to hold? I promise I'll take good care of it.
Got a safe deposit box? Give me your key, ok? You can trust me, sweetie.

"I hope we go to a system your happy with because I cant wait to hear what excuse you have for losing next time."

Problem is, pRicky.. that according to all the evidence, we didn't lose. The elections were stolen. Not that you give a shit, but..

So, when the "proper system" is in place and NO ONE can "rig" or "steal" the election, and we're sure the results reflect the will of "the people", then -I'll- be happy when the Pugs "win" and continue destroying this once great country. Then I won't be blaming the politicians, I'll be blaming the stupid people that let morons like you sway their thinking because they can't be troubled to think. But, your corporate masters like it that we can't think.. makes it easier for them to lie to us and get us to piss away our hard earned money on things that aren't needed and don't live up to the "hype", and with your Pugs in office, you can't sue them for lying to and essentially stealing your money.. Good job pRicky! Your team is the BEST!

Hey pRicky, looks like you might be in a bit of trouble there, eh?

Don't know this woman, nor anything about her, but I know Norcal, and Humboldt.

She is probably a person educated, open-minded. Maybe not.

But she is in a county that has marijuana as it's largest cash earner.

Think it is a republican stronghold?

no.

Re JohnG's remarks; in San Diego, the 'precinct captain' is given the voting machines(AccuVote-OS precinct version) after 'training' by the ROV office; this may occur up to 3 weeks before an election.
Additionally, the ROV does NO background checks on ANY poll worker.
Both statements are from a 'security procedures' response submitted by the ROV to the SOS per requested survey by the SOS.

Ricky the Silly Troll accidentally said something substantive:

I hope we go to a system your happy with because I cant wait to hear what excuse you have for losing next time.

That's exactly the point, Ricky. Like the Conservative Republican Supreme Court Justice who just lost in TX by ridiculous numbers from hackable voting machines (scroll a few articles back in BRAD BLOG, no time on the road to go get the link), this matter effects everyone.

Including you.

You should join those of us in favor of transparent, secure, recountable voting systems if ONLY so that folks won't be able to question the legitimacy of your corrupt candidates when they "win".

Glad to have you on board.

JOHN GIDEON - As you know, I respectably disagree with your general lack of concern about machines being sent home with poll workers. Just wanted to get that on record

Glad to hear there may be some positive movement in that regard, however, at least in Humboldt since posting this article. Hopefully you and I will be able to report on some of that movement soon (at least after I'm back on the job, and off my "vacation" if you can call what I'm doing such a "vacation"

I am shocked to find some issue, if only one, that I agree with Savantster, Brad, and others. I also don't want counties allowing poll workers to take the machines or ballots home with them the night before an election. I'll agree that transparency is the only way to have an honest election.

Now Savantster, if you and others would please stop whining about the 2000 election (as well as your language), you would sound more mature.

I have some advice for you liberals still whining about the 2000 election: go to Tennessee and whine to the voters there.

There would have been no need for arguments on the butterfly ballot, polling place access, hanging chads, dimpled chads, re-vote, or even the highway patrol if Al Gore Jr. had been able to win his own home state of Tennessee. That's eleven electoral votes, people. Simply one state of
four or more electoral votes in Gore's column would have won it for him.

But how many of you Gore supporters would have expected him to lose his home state? If the people in his home state, whom he represented in the US House and Senate, didn't want him to be President, then what good is he for you to whine about? The people of Tennessee saw something in him that they started to dislike during his time as Vice President. So a majority of Tennesseeans deceided not to vote for him as President.

YES, Gore supporters, it IS a big deal. Please let me tell you why: Go back to 1984 when Ronald Reagan defeated Walter Mondale. The people of Mondale's home state must have known that Reagan would win, but they voted for him anyway. Mondale's home state had the courage to vote for him even in the face of Reagan's huge victory. So Mondale received the electoral votes from that state..... and no others.

Reagan defeated Mondale in the landslide victory 49 to 1 of the states. Now that's pride for Mondale's state (Minnesota) to vote for him knowing that he would lose. Tennessee had no such pride in their Vice President home boy.

So if you want to whine, I suggest you go to Tennessee and whine to the residents there who voted for Bush! And go to Arkansas too while you're at it!

Nashville Tennessean

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

Have a nice day!