Is this sort of thing actually necessary? Apparently it is.
While the following 10 items seem painfully obvious, apparently these no-brainer items need to be issued as a “Voter Bill of Rights” by CA Secretary of State candidate Debra Bowen, given the mess we currently face (made possible, in no small part, by the hapless, duplicitous current CA SoS Bruce McPherson)…
2. The Right To Vote.
3. The Right to Vote In A Tamper-Proof Election.
4. The Right To Vote On Paper.
5. The Right To Have Each Vote Counted Accurately.
6. The Right To Have Election Results Properly Audited.
7. The Right To An Open, Transparent, Public Process.
8. The Right To Elections Officials Who Operate Free of Partisan Influence.
9. The Right To Know that Elected Officials Are Free From the Influence of Campaign Contributions From Voting Machine Vendors.
10. The Right To Find Out How Money Is Being Raised And Spent In The Political Process.
Have we mentioned that Bowen’s victory in defeating McPherson is perhaps one the most important elections in the country if we hope to ever see Electoral Integrity in this country again? Sign on to support here…
UPDATE 10:28pm PT: Bowen and McPherson debated today. Video here. Haven’t gotten to watch it yet, but McP would never out and out lie would he? Not before an important editorial board, right?
UPDATE 10:33pm PT: Whoops! Just watched the first five minutes and he already did! Go figure…I suspect there are many more to come.
UPDATE 10/18/06 4:37pm PT: Holy cow! Lies o’ plenty! And more! Full coverage of the debate now here…
I think I found a whopper by his opponent in the early part of her opening statement.
Let’s compare notes.
OT – sorta kinda not really…
AG: Voter warning linked to GOP campaign
SANTA ANA, Calif. – State investigators have linked a Republican campaign to letters sent to thousands of Orange County Hispanics warning them they could go to jail or be deported if they vote next month, a spokesman for the attorney general said.
Surprise, surprise…
Here’s a whopper of a LIE:
Rightwing GOPers are decent human beings.
I own up–Saying that makes me a LIAR!
Gotta’ get a fire extinguisher for my pants!
I guess Brad’s busy, so I’ll start.
“Brad Friedman is an Investigative Blogger …” or so I’ve heard.
He says he’s found Bruce McPherson in a lie, but he hasn’t gotten around to saying what it is quite yet.
Once I started listening to the video of the debate, I ran across something from Debra Bowen that raised an orange flag.
“I am, in fact, running because of the crisis in confidence that we have in this country with regard to our voting systems. According to a recent Pew Research Study, 52 percent of Americans do not have confidence that their vote will be counted as it was cast.”
–Bowen, in her introductory comments
Anything in there that catches the attention of Brad the “Investigative Blogger”?
My mistake: Brad mentioned McPherson’s alleged lies (I haven’t gone over the claims yet) in his latest post.
That’s it, Bryan? Sheesh. Golly, I’m convinced. Now I’m going to vote for Mcpherson… NOT
Chris wrote:
That’s it, Bryan? Sheesh. Golly, I’m convinced. Now I’m going to vote for Mcpherson”¦ NOT
I’ve only heard about a dozen sentences from Bowen. Two of them amount to a fairly impressive snow job on her would-be constituents.
There may be more … and would you even know about this one (let alone discuss it) if it weren’t for my post?
Perhaps we can send you to a hypnotherapist and have the memory erased so you can go to the polls thinking, “Man, am I happy to have a great candidate like Bowen to vote for!!”
Bryan, IMHO, you are full of it, and have been nit-picking and and comparing apples with oranges. Bruce Mcpherson is a lying sack of crap, face it. He has been behaving in questionable ways for years now. Your trite complaints just don’t compare to rediculous things Mcpherson has done. I mean come on! Mcpherson actually instituted his own security check of the machines, which they failed miserably. Then he went ahead and certified them anyways, apparently unconcerned they should have been permanently *decertified* for their complete lack of security. Yeah, that’s the kind of person I want running my elections!
Oh, but keep spinning Bryan! I’m sure no one notices that you are just obfuscating the real issue in this election, that Mcpherson DID NOT DO HIS JOB IN PROTECTING CITIZENS’ RIGHT TO VOTE, and should be tossed out immediately. At least Bowen has been interested in real election reform, in contrast to your ethically-challenged horse in this race. Or should I say horses *ss.
Oh, but keep spinning Bryan! I’m sure no one notices that you are just obfuscating the real issue in this election, that Mcpherson DID NOT DO HIS JOB IN PROTECTING CITIZENS’ RIGHT TO VOTE, and should be tossed out immediately. At least Bowen has been interested in real election reform, in contrast to your ethically-challenged horse in this race.
You’re losing it, Chris.
To repeat, I’m from Florida. I don’t intend to vote in the California election, and my interest in who wins the SoS job is minimal.
I’m more interested in the reporting on the race. I’m mostly here to check up on Friedman to see how well he does what he says he does (“Investigative Blogging”).
The charges he makes against McPherson look trumped-up. I doubt Friedman’s ability to reasonably justify making them (a typical accusation that McPherson lied tracks back to another Friedman blog post claiming on the thinnest of evidences that Friedman lied).
If McPherson is really that much of a rat, then maybe you really are better off voting for Bowen even if she repeats a lie as her rationale for running for the job.
There are other candidates for the job, as I understand it. Maybe you should be considering one of them.
Bowen asks for open source voting machines,…
Link to article and audio of speech.
Bowen/McPherson debate about e-voting,..
Link to article – L A Times.
Bryan, when it does freeze over, give me a call and I will gladly vote to dismantle democracy completely by voting for Mcpherson.