BBV: Citizens ask Riverside elections official to recuse herself

[BevHarris]

This is a follow up to the story we have been breaking at http://www.blackboxvoting.org.

Here is the summary of the original story and the discussion on DU:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x1325187

Los Angeles Times:
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/politics/cal/la-me-registrar2apr02,1,1106405.story?coll=la-news-politics-california (you have to sign in, sorry)

Riverside County officials were urged Thursday to place Registrar of Voters Mischelle Townsend on paid administrative leave until conflict-of-interest allegations filed with the state's Fair Political Practices Commission are resolved.

It is now impossible for citizens to discern whether she is speaking on behalf of the county or on behalf of Sequoia in regards to electronic touch screen voting…. The integrity of our voting system requires nothing less than your immediate attention to this vital matter," Lucsko wrote to the Riverside County Board of Supervisors.

And from the San Jose Mercury News http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/local/8337366.htm

Voting activists alleging irregularities in the primary election have asked California Secretary of State Kevin Shelley to impound the electronic voting system used in Riverside County.

``The secretary of state definitely needs to come down here and do an investigation,'' said Brian Floyd, campaign manager for Linda Soubirous, a candidate for the county board of supervisors who lost by 49 votes, or one-tenth of a percent. Soubirous is seeking a recount.

And this is from something I started, oopsy:

"A press officer for (California Secretary of State Kevin) Shelley said the office is reviewing complaints about the Riverside election.

After reviewing my notes on the interview, and the law, I started to feel like this was Georgia all over again. What did he put on that machine, when Eddie Campbell of Denver, who doesn't work for the county, put something on the central tabulator while votes were being counted? In Georgia, the evidence has been wiped clean and here we are a year and a half later, still talking about it. I decided to call the California Secretary of State's office to report this, and they then took a complaint from witnesses. I have no idea if they'll impound the machines.

What is clear is this: Putting that card in the machine, then leaving the state with it, is absolutely outrageous and certainly not the bulletproof security procedures that registrars like Townsend have been promising us.

Andy Stephenson (http://www.andystephenson.com) has pried a few answers loose. Apparently Sequoia will be issuing a press release about this whole mess today, and apparently after Stephenson asked a few questions of Riverside County, they decided not to answer anything else unless he submitted it in writing.

Also, Townsends' missing conflict of interest statements seem to have showed up, Stephenson was told, they had been missing because they were misfiled. However, they are date-stamped for Wednesday and Thursday this week, (Wednesday was the day I made seven unsuccessful calls to ask Townsend to answer questions, and the Los Angeles Times asked her where her statements were). The one dated Thursday, April 1 2004, which was for 1998, had a note on it to the effect of:

sorry, didn't know you were missing this, I couldn't find my copy so I made a new copy

Now, as for the allegation that Townsend took illegal travel money from Sequoia (Los Angeles Times, yesterday) -- we revealed a link submitted to us that showed this was not for a news show, as she claimed, but for a paid ad for Sequoia. Here's what Sequoia's Alfie Charles told the Los Angeles Times in today's article:

"the company might have paid to produce the program but said he could not find out Thursday how much."

I'm sad to say that Townsend is not happy with me: She wrote, while not answering any questions, the following:

``I cannot tell you how disappointed I was in reading what was posted on that site. (http://www.blackboxvoting.org) It is so replete with misrepresentations, false statements and misleading information that I am going to have to put out a statement,'' Townsend said Thursday evening.

Alfie Charles, of Sequoia, has these comforting words about the two guys from Denver who were doing something on the central tabulation computer:

"Sequoia employees do not have user IDs or passwords for Riverside County's election system and did not conduct any sort of programming of the central tally system during the recent election. Sequoia staff were available on election night for technical support and to help the county utilize a separate program, which is not part of the central tabulation system, but which is used to generate separate reports of data for transfer to the state website on election night. It appears some observers of the vote-counting in Riverside have confused the program used to generate separate reports with the central tally system."

OK. But guess what? I called Art Cassel, who witnessed this, to ask him if he was certain that the computer they were accessing was the same one that Riverside was uploading ballots into. Absolutely positive, he said, and provided several corroborating details. So, if they were using a different program, that's also against the rules. No extra programs are allowed on the central tabulator computer, and neither are people who aren't certified and qualified elections officials, no matter what they are doing.

As far as Sequoia employees not having user IDs or passwords -- well, that's apparently true. What I reported was that the Sequoia employee accessed the vote-counting computer using someone else's password. Sequoia employee Eddie Campbell signed himself in as Riverside employee Brian Foss.

And as far as Sequoia's PR firm, O'Reilly public relations -- apparently this firm O'Reilly Public Relations, wrote letters on behalf of Townsend that were mailed to political reporters throughout the nation.

It is not considered ethical for a PR firm to represent both sides of the fence. In this case, they'd be representing Sequoia, the vendor, and Townsend (the county, the customer).

======================

My favorite part:

Thursday, state Sens. Don Perata, D-Oakland, and Ross Johnson, R-Irvine, the chair and vice chair of the Senate Committee on Elections and Reapportionment, introduced urgency legislation that would ban the use of all touch-screen voting machines in California until they can produce backup paper ballots.

They aren't talking about 2006, folks. They are talking about NOW!

Bev Harris

[redqueen]

1. Oh, be still my heart!

People are starting to get it!

Thanks mostly to YOU, Bev!

:loveya:

:yourock: :yourock: :yourock: :yourock: :yourock: :yourock: :yourock: :yourock:


THANK YOU SO VERY, VERY MUCH, FOR BEING THE TRUE PATRIOT YOU ARE!

YOU ARE STILL MY HERO!

[LittleApple81]

3. In large part? in MAJORITY part. I have not seen anybody work

as hard as she has on this issue. Thanks Bev!!!!

[redqueen]

4. You're SO right!

Mea Culpa!

Now to go edit!

[maddezmom]

2. thanks for all your hardwork, Bev.

:)

[SoCalDem]

5. Months ago, when I called the registrars office (Riverside)

Cannot say it was Mischelle (couldn't her mom even spell??)But....

this is from the archives..

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=271754

---

SoCalDem (1000+ posts) Wed Sep-03-03 03:29 PM
Original message
"Well What about Florida, when Gore tried to steal the election?"

Edited on Wed Sep-03-03 03:29 PM by SoCalDem
I just called the registrar's office to see about absentee ballots..

We leave for Tahiti on Oct 2nd, so we will be gone for the recall

She was pleased as punch to tell me that we could vote early and would not even need the ballot..

I told her we actually WANTED the ballot because it was one small way that we might get our votes to count, that way.. She went off on me about how trustworthy the touch screens were..

I told her that since the republicans so blatantly cheated in Georgia and Diebold put their code online, and how they are financially connected to the corrupt administration,I might have bought that excuse,but since that happened,I would prefer paper.. She shouted at me..

Well what about florida when Gore tried to steal the election.?? That was worse.... Then she hung up on me


Made my day!!!

[BevHarris]

6. Well, Time Magazine has a piece coming out shortly.

And here are two things we need to be getting across, because I'm still hearing "we can't do anything by November."

Last I checked, you can still buy pencils in America.

and...

If we do not fix this by November, it will be Florida all over again -- but this time, the whole country will be Florida.

I will tell you exactly what I have in mind: At BlackBoxVoting.org, we need to assemble some volunteer coordinators. For November, we need to secretly target at 10 "hot spot" counties and attempt to get a poll worker or election judge into every precinct. That will require about 1,500 people. Then, we should shoot for another 1,000 in other counties.

We now have a much better list of "what to look for." (Who would have thought you need to put stuff on the list like, "report it if your machines report zero votes after people have been voting on them all day", or "report it if the touch screen reports completely different numbers than the printout from the same machine" or "report it if stuff is left off the ballots, or the machines create the wrong ballots") But all those things happened, on March 2.

We need to man some hotlines for called in reports. If we'd been Johnny-on-the-spot on Super Tuesday, the California election would have had a court order not to close the polls in the late-starting areas, therefore, not to report results on schedule, which would have called a lot of attention to the issue.

We need litigators waiting, and a steady feed to reporters.

Or, here's a better idea: Let's fix the problem BEFORE the election!

Bev

[mountebank]

7. Had to write Mischelle another snide e-mail....

I wrote her one back in November after she criticized Kevin Shelley's decision to go to paper ballots in 2006 because of the cost of paper. My question at the time: What is the price of democracy? She replied with her usual "I'm sorry you don't understand our extensive system of checks and balances...."

It was pretty sweet to reply today (Subject heading: follow-up to our correspondence):

"I assumed my question, What is the price of democracy? was rhetorical. But now I know! It's a couple thousand bucks for a paid advertisement."

[Andy_Stephenson]

8. I'm sorry...

Mischelle Townsend is on paid Administrative leave...or soon will be.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA :bounce:

[BevHarris]

9. It's that Townsend tone of voice that offends so many voters

you just don't understand our extensive system of checks and balances.

From a woman who called security three times when all we did was show up to observe an L&A test. Once, because Andy had the audacity to attempt to videotape a public meeting (and Townsend claimed that her own policy forbids videotaping -- even though, as we later found out, California law says you can). Once again, because I signed in with my married name. When she found out my maiden name, and pen name, is Bev Harris, she called security for "giving a fake name." However, California law says that in such public meetings you cannot even demand that citizens give a name at all. And once again, because Andy and I were leaving the building (as was everybody else).

The security guard was pretty nice, though. Just smiled at me and said "I'm just doing my job, you know. Have a really nice trip while you're here!"

Bev

[Generic Other]

10. Yes! Go Bev and Andy!

Paper ballots! Paper ballots!

[althecat]

11. This is not the same source code?

http://www.wired.com/news/privacy/0,1848,61014,00.html

It doesn't seem to be VBA in this story...