Election Center: The Fox Guarding the Henhouse Updated

[Wilms]

Election Center: The Fox Guarding the Henhouse Updated

The Election Center Wants To "Improve" Democracy - And The Profit Margins Of Their Corporate Sponsors

Contributed by Joyce McCloy, NC Coalition for Verified Voting

January 15, 2006

They are back at it again, the ethically challenged Election Center. They have a new web-page, nice layout, though many of the links still don't work. Amazing that they are first to recommend electronic solutions for voting and registration, yet they can't design a working website. I am sure these broken links are just "glitches" that happen when skeptical computer scientists try to perform time travel! But while the Election Center may have a new website, the mission is the same: promote expensive unreliable and unverifiable voting machines and the vendors that make a profit from them.

snip

Just how much does the Election Center cares about Democracy? Take a look at the Election Center's List of Election Legislation - nowhere do you see even a negative reference to HR 550, considered the "Gold Standard" by the Verified Voting Foundation, and strongly endorsed VoteTrustUSA, Common Cause, Working Assets, MoveOn, Electronic Frontier Foundation and voting integrity organizations across the country. HR 550 has more co-sponsors than all the bills listed from both chambers combined. But then HR 550 might actually help ensure verifiable elections and wouldn't provide a windfall for the voting industry - no reason for the Election Center to even mention it!

The Election Center is offering a Special Workshop in Albuquerque, NM Feb. 22-26 With a welcome by Diebold along with some classes and workshops. These workshops are reminiscent of how those Home Improvement stores give classes on how to use the merchandise that you are going to buy from them (hint hint) - kind of like product placement, or a flat out endorsement of that technology.It must be safe and reliable, since the Election Center recommends it. and Diebold must be good, they are hosting the Welcome Reception.

Just where does the Election Center's funding come from. As a non-profit corporation, their tax reports are supposed to be filed and available for public view. But their 2004 reports are still unavailable. I guess they are reluctant to release them after activists used their previous returns to embarass top state election officials such as the North Carolina Elections Chief, Gary Bartlett, who was also a member of the Election Center Board of Directors.

snip

http://www.votetrustusa.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=741&Itemid=26

[Wilms]

1. .

[Melissa G]

2. where does the Election Center's funding come from?

"As a non-profit corporation, their tax reports are supposed to be filed and available for public view. But their 2004 reports are still unavailable. I guess they are reluctant to release them after activists used their previous returns to embarass top state election officials such as the North Carolina Elections Chief, Gary Bartlett, who was also a member of the Election Center Board of Directors. "

Oh Please, pretty please.. let them come out so we can embarass them again! I love to see these stories unravel!

[AmBlue]

3. A good portion...

...comes from the machine vendors. They won't say exactly how much, of course. They tout themselves as a clearinghouse of election technology info for SoEs. But you know what else they do? They spare no expense to wine and dine our SoEs... with dinner cruises down the Potomac, and remember that four days of fun in the sun for our SoEs in Beverly Hills last August? And they didn't even have the decency to do it over a long weekend! BTW, isn't it illegal for SoEs to take gifts from machine vendors? They also post private sector jobs for our SoEs looking for a change of career scenery. Isn't that nice? It's all very cozy and chummy... just a regular full-service, one-stop SoE's dream come true.

[Melissa G]

4. Oh this sounds worthy of a good article or letter we can blast...

Do you have a link to your info so we can show verification?