Guest blogged by John Gideon
Late last night the Arizona Legislature took the steps necessary to pass legislation that will guarantee the voters in the state have more transparency and auditability in their elections. The bill passed the House of Representatives 51-0 then immediately went to the Senate who passed it 25-3.
I received an email that originated from Arizona state Representative Ted Downing last night that says:
SB1557 passed the House of Representatives with a 51-0 vote! Then, it immediately passed the Senate 25 to 3! It is now on its way to our Good Governor’s desk. As planned, it includes the Paton Amendment that I helped draft (see Star description below). Karen Osborn, the Maricopa County Elections Director calls this one of the most significant election reform bills in decades.
This election reform bill is the result of three years of working with the Pima County Democratic Party and the great work of Dr. Tom Ryan, Bill Risner, Esq., our current and former Pima County Democratic Party Chairs, and many, many more dedicated individuals. I want to specially thank each and every one of you for your dedication, your hard work, and your support in working for election integrity.
Now focus on the Governor to make certain that she signs it right away. I am confident she will. It will become law upon her signature, since it contains an emergency provision. We still must await Department of Justice approval which should be expedited because of the emergency provision. At that point, hand counts will no longer be illegal and we will have a first-level audit of the election system. This is, however, just the beginning.
Politics is a team effort. As hard as it may be for many to accept, the East-Mesa Republican Senator Karen Johnson merits thank you emails, (kjohnson@azleg.gov), as does Karen Osborne, kosborne@risc.maricopa.gov (602) 506-7960, and yes, Brad Nelson, brad.nelson@pima.gov (520) 631-3939. Even Rep. Russell Pearce (rpearce@azleg.gov) should be thanked, yes, that’s right and I know its hard, but he fought to assure that our elections are fair. We will continue to disagree on almost every other issue, but he wants a fair count.
I hope each PC will take the time next year to come up to visit the Legislature and witness your legislature at work. Those of you who have tell me that it is not what they imagined.
You are true patriots for protecting our system of government just as those brave men and women did at the founding of this great nation. Thank you and bless you.
Ted Downing
State Representative LD28
tdowning@azleg.state.az.us
Capitol 602 926 5108 toll free 800 352-8494 ext 6-5108 Capitol fax 602
417 3128 Legislative profile:
http://www.azleg.state.az.us/MembersPage.asp?Member_ID=16
professional profile: www.ted-downing.com
The Arizona Daily Star article mentioned in Representative Downing’s email can be found here.
Congratulations to the hard-working people in Arizona who made this possible. Special thanks to Rev. Gerry Strassheimer (spell check?) and John Brakey of AUDITAZ, who has been a giant in the fight against election fraud.
Well, the Republicans lost Arizona (at least).
Excuse me for jumping in with this, Rawstory is reporting that Jeb Bush is saying he can’t be bothered with supplying public records. Recently, an editor for Insider Magazine, who investigated Lemme’s death in Fla. and found out it was murder and not suicide, was asking for public records re. Jeb Bush’s involvement in the 2000 election among other things. The editor was held 12 hours, police tried to engage him in a fight and withheld his nitrglycerin for heart condition. I wish we could somehow support this man. Because he is risking his life for this info. and evidently on to something for Jeb to take this drastic action.
Gladness turn to sadness. 1 down 49 to go!
Comment 3: The Bushit syndicate of criminal lying murderous thugs must go down. Removed from power, dragged into court, and JAILED ASAP.
Regarding the Lemme murder (in Valdosta, GA) I happened to write to the Georgia Attorney General’s office asking for an explanation as to why the case was reopened by Valdosta Police Chief Childress, then immediately shut down at the request of “someone” in the Florida Dept. of Transportation.
That was about a year ago. No response. Also, no response from Cynthia McKinney (D-GA), which is a bit surprising given her antipathy toward cops.
Thank you Arizona,.. all hope for DEMOCRACY is not lost. That is good news,.. for sure.
Sure wish I could read the bill.. see what’s in it. Sure hope there’s no hidden gotchas in it..
From the “sounds” of it, it’s a MAJOR victory for Election Reform. Paper ballots? reversing it being illegal to “hand count”? good stuff. I’d like to see the machines OUT, personally.. but if they have to stay, at least being able to use the PAPER as the OFFICIAL record is a huge step in the right dirction. If the resutls are shown to be sketchy, the paper comes out and the “results” can be determind (as opposed to “guessed at again by the machines).
John: Thanks for the info. It’s heartening to see that something is being done here in AZ.
The email says “This is, however, just the beginning.”
It is good that they recognize that there is more to do. For one thing, in the list of reforms (at link), it appears to me that those are all laws that were in place in other states and yet ignored.
For instance, if a law requires “random” sampling of districts to check if the counts between machine and paper match, what do we do when someone (like Blackwell) chooses the “random” districts that are already known by the hackers to be “unadulterated”?
In other words, I hope that the legislature here in AZ has provided for true enforcement of the laws. Otherwise, it’s just another shell game, more slight of hand.
But, I am happy that this issue is being addressed seriously by our elected officials.
Arizona. Huh, who’da thunk it?
Looks like a victory to smile about 🙂
Off topic again but thought I’d post this link to “Save The Internet”.
It’s probably been posted before but is vital to America’s and the western worlds number 1 issue of Democratic Rights.
Help? To post a link can I simply click link and type it in, then OK. Probably not cause it didn’t work. Do I have to click “code” before inserting any type of code? Really I have no clue. Apologies re the mess above.
While I like this legislation, I can tell you that it won’t matter a bit unless we stop the Democrats’ fast, hot rush to concede elections.
Yet another example of Demos paid by the neo-cons to take a fall for them.
This is good news but I must agree with Mr BlueSky.
The Dems are nearly a complete walkover. They can become the Dormattcratic party. They need to take some lessons from Brad in how to “Stand Up”. Yes I think they desperately need his help at present and should be putting him in charge of their efforts which are currently just futile to say the least. Dems get RFK and others like Bev Harris who all know how to do what you cannot or will not.
Sally
The simplest way to post a link is to copy it from your browser including the http:// part and paste it directly into your message – long links will now be shortened in the display.
If you wish to associate a word or phrase with the link, copy as above, but then click the “link” button and paste into there. Then click the OK button. Then behind the link which has now been added to your comment type your word or phrase – no space after the link – then click the “Close Tags” button.
Your comment will then display the word or phrase as the link.
Thanks Bluebear2
I’ll keep a copy of your directions incase I forget.
There’s no question that Democrats have been too quick to concede suspicious elections. What’s especially frustrating is their explanations…more accurately, the absence of them.
Kerry: “There weren’t enough provisional ballots to change the outcome (in Ohio).” As if this were the only issue; no mention of other states, flipped votes, disenfranchised voters, unfair allocation of voting machines, impossible discrepancies between exit polls and tabluated votes, the Warren County lockdown, thousands of votes for Bush appearing out of the ionosphere, and no request for a recount.
Busby: “I conceded, but if the Secretary of State declares me the winner, my concession is invalidated.” Right, and McPherson is about to embarrass himself and destroy his re-election campaign for the sake of declaring you the winner. Not likely, Francine.
Hackett: No comments about obvious irregularities in his race with Schmidt, even though that district had been at the center of controversy in 2004.
Clueless, really. Mr. BlueSky and Sally are exactly right. Democrats act like “good sports,” meanwhile the illegal nonsense continues unabated. When Democrats ask for our money (several times a day), they cite every issue except honest elections, almost as if they think it’s toxic.
#17 Robert,
You wrote:
“…When Democrats ask for our money (several times a day), they cite every issue except honest elections, almost as if they think it’s toxic…”
Yes, you’re right. I’ve gotten more calls than usual lately from various Dem organizations wanting contributions, and I always use the opportunity to bend their ears about the election issue. It’s often surprising (and disappointing) to learn how much they’re unaware of.
Sometimes they’re very receptive (seemingly, anyway) and I’ve had long conversations with a few of them. I always refer them to Bradblog, too.
Sally & BlueBear2,
I didn’t do the link thing the way you described, BlueBear…at least, I didn’t ever hit the ‘Close Tags’ button…hope I did it right…it seemed to work.
When I first tried it, I didn’t delete the “http://” (that’s in the address bar when you hit the “link” button) before I pasted, and it linked to the wrong thing; on the second try, I deleted the “http://”, then pasted the URL & hit “OK” and typed the word “link” after, and it worked ok.
Why are you supposed to hit “Close Tags”? Sorry…I’m still learning this stuff!
Each button switches to the close form after you open it, but if you have a bunch of tags, or you’re prone to forgetting to close your tags, hitting the “Close Tags” button at the end of each comment, saves the whole thread from coming out with the tags left open on your comment. If you leave bold open, the whole thread turns bold from there. Same with italics.
Yes,.. I can attest to that,.. don’t forget to close your tags,.. or it will gum things all up. Brad is not too happy about unscrambling the mess that results.
It is too bad,.. when you activate one of the tag boxes
that the box does not turn red until it is deactivated,.. this would make it easier not to forget
to close the tag box. But maybe the program will not allow that ? It would be handy though.