In October of 2005, just prior to the Monterey County, California, November election with their new Sequoia touch-screen voting systems, Registrar of Voters Tony Anchundo and I had an exchange on the radio.
I asked him how discrepancies would be handled, if any where found between the machine-reported results on the county’s new systems and their planned audit of the so-called “paper trails” from those unreliable systems.
The 13-year election official told me, “There is obviously going to have to be some trust and faith in the elections official, or in this case, it’s me.” (Audio of full interview here, text transcript here, Court TV’s Catherine Crier picked up on our reporting of this in a video editorial here.)
In July of 2006, Tony “Trust Me” Anchundo was charged with 43 criminal counts, including charges of forgery, misapplication of funds, embezzlement, falsification of accounts, and grand theft of nearly $80,000 of county money.
And finally, yesterday, Anchundo pleaded “no contest” to all 43 criminal charges. His plea deal may help him avoid any jail time at all. He was facing a possibility of some 12 years in prison.
Anchundo is the response to any election official, politician, or voting machine company spokeshole who tells us that we must have trust in our election officials that they will do the right thing, that they’d never do anything untoward, or game an election…despite their insider access to voting equipment which can be tampered with to allow a single person to steal an entire election without a trace left behind.
Trust them? Not bloody likely. Our country and constitution were not founded on trust, but on checks and balances. The disgraced and disgraceful Anchundo is the object lesson in that regard for all time.
Truly honest elections officials will be the first to tell you they should not be trusted. Leon County, Florida Supervisor of Elections Ion Sancho said in a speech last May, “Trust no one. If it can’t be verified, it can’t be used.” Yolo County, California Registrar-Clerk Freddie Oakley wrote last June in response to many of her colleagues, “They also argue that, ‘We have to trust our poll workers…’ To this I can only say…only if they are incorruptible.”
MORAL: Trust no one when it comes to your elections. Especially those who tell you they should be trusted.
It would be a huge mistake to give this man a get-out-of-jail free card.
Penalties for disrupting elections and disenfranchising voters do are absurdly light. Most of the time the felons are rewarded. They are wrongfully awarded public office and given more opportunities to betray the public trust.
Until we have serious penalties for election fraud, we can expect more criminals in the halls of power and more blatent tampering.
Twenty years wouldn’t be too long. He should be denied the right to run for public office or participate in any more elections the rest of his life.
If we are locking up people for recreational drug use and turning a blind eye toward those that undermine one of the basic tenents of the United States Constitution, what does that say about our country?
Voters should insist that their rights are protected by serious consequences for those who interfere with the voting process.
http://resetnow.blogspot.com
Never trust ANY politicians OR the corporate mainstream media. So when is Bush going to bomb Democracy NOW!??????????
Of course we need to have trust and faith in him… he’s “The Counter”, just like we need to go along with whatever Captain Queeg decrees cause he’s “The Decider”.
We need to follow his carieer in the future.
Personally I think he deservers the death sentence for violating the oath he probably took when he attained office.
If Bush pushes this country into a civil war he will probably get that at the hands of some vigilanties.
Just look at this guy. There HAS to be a way to get him on a trumped up drug charge.
I saw the honorable Alberto Gonzales on TV today. He seems to have to same top priorities for enforcement that Ashcroft had. Drugs and pornography.
The American people are out of control and it has to be stopped. Build more prison$.
What, you mean we could stop pornography by going after VISA and MASTERCARD?
What, you say “Big Pharma” sells dangerous drugs like Oxycontin?
someone should “plant” a joint on him ,he’ll do more time for that than for stealing elections.
mick
p.s. MERRY Christmas from New Zealand to all Bradbloggers and visitors.
Merry Christmas, Mick, from balmy Prague! How the hell are they gonna justify letting this creep walk without doing any hard time? When I lived in Texas, if you got caught with a joint it was better to just shoot the cop and eat the joint, because your sentence would be much shorter for that! If you steal a bajillion bucks the worst you get is a few years at a country club lockup. It’s time for some serious reflection.
If you’re not going to trust anybody in elections, then you need to set it up to where the voter can be his own champion. You need to give the voter a ballot copy that is legally binding, as he votes, or you’ll see the same sh*t that went on in Ohio, because if you can’t be certain that they’re going to follow the law, this is the last point at which anybody (who can be trusted) has seen that vote.
Whatever cheat has been attempted, it only needs to last out the challenge period (and not even that, if some bozo in the secretary of state’s office will fax their own private certification in), and then you get stuck with the bozo that was cheated for.
Haha hah. “Spokeshole.” Classic. Yah got that one right.
Before the Tony Anchundo conviction fades into history the good people of Monterey County would be wise to ask for a special prosecutor to put a spotlight on and investigate the Pebble Beach Company’s Measure A ballot count. I’m just sayin’ its bad enough that Clint and his posse have the majority of the Board of Supervisors completely in their pockets they now have Governor Ahnold on board with a surprise appointment to the California Coastal Commission whose vote could insure the destruction of Jeffers Forest, the last old growth coastal Monterey Pine Forest inside the gates to Pebble Beach.
For all the sordid details Brad’s readers can visit the website for the county’s fearless Concerned Residents of Pebble Beach and Monterey County – http://www.cr-pb.org
Correction to my comment #10: The 20,000 endangered old growth Monterey Pine forest that Pebble Beach Company desperately want to destroy for another 18-hole golf course and resort is adjacent to and borders the beautiful Jeffers Forest.