Petition to the CA Secretary of State
A complaint has been filed with the office of the CA Secretary of State requesting there be an investigation of elections in San Diego. Over the course of this past year, it has become increasingly obvious that there are flaws in the system that need to be addressed if we are to have full faith in our election process. The complaint documents numerous problems in the election system here in San Diego, and asks Debra Bowen's office to investigate the issues associated with "sleepovers", violations of the chain of custody, poor auditing procedures, and the undermining the ability of voters to choose paper ballots.
The Help America Vote Act pushed inadequate and wholy inappropriate technology into our elections. Electronic voting machines (particularly the touchscreen DREs) are prone to error, easy to manipulate, and do not produce a paper ballot. It has been proven time and again that they are not only hackable, but the potential exists for a person with nefarious intent to completely change the results. The software is propriatary (owned by the manufacturers of the voting equipment) which means it is secret and not available for public inspections, despite the fact that our elections should be nothing less than fully open and transparent. This situation forces us to put our trust in the private corporations that now control our elections. We can't see our vote. We can't count our vote. We have stepped into an age of faith-based voting, and that is not acceptable.
Adding fuel to this fire, the San Diego Registrar of Voters office has stonewalled efforts by citizens and election integrity activists to bring transparency to the election process. They have also violated the required chain of custody and security measures that the state has put in place to protect our vote, by allowing these hackable machines to be stored in the homes, cars and garages of poll workers for weeks at a time before election day. Security issues were ignored or minimized, In addition, the required post-election audit was compromised by the fact that it was not truly random since the precincts to be audited were known before the votes were counted.
The registrar also made efforts to avoid informing voters about their right to vote on paper ballots, and in court they opposed a voter’s request to ensure that sufficient quantities of paper ballots be made available and to require that notices be placed at the polls informing voters that they could vote on paper ballots. It seems the San Diego Registrar of Voters views the public as an impediment and an inconvenience, when elections really belong to US. Elections are the method by which citizens confer power our government. It is not a gift from them to us. We own it, and it's time to take it back.
Please take a moment to review the complaint and/or sign the petition Petition to the CA Secretary of State.
We, the undersigned, believe that citizens of a democracy are self-governing. Because citizens are the source of all government power, we demand that our government be responsive to our concerns and answer our questions.
We are concerned about the conduct of our elections in San Diego County as reported in the Complaint to California Secretary of State And Petition from San Diego County Citizens to Investigate Compliance with Election Laws filed regarding the November 7, 2006, election.
We hereby petition the California Secretary of State to exercise the authority given to her by the citizens of this state to investigate and report on the issues raised in the complaint.
The petition
The Complaint
The Help America Vote Act pushed inadequate and wholy inappropriate technology into our elections. Electronic voting machines (particularly the touchscreen DREs) are prone to error, easy to manipulate, and do not produce a paper ballot. It has been proven time and again that they are not only hackable, but the potential exists for a person with nefarious intent to completely change the results. The software is propriatary (owned by the manufacturers of the voting equipment) which means it is secret and not available for public inspections, despite the fact that our elections should be nothing less than fully open and transparent. This situation forces us to put our trust in the private corporations that now control our elections. We can't see our vote. We can't count our vote. We have stepped into an age of faith-based voting, and that is not acceptable.
Adding fuel to this fire, the San Diego Registrar of Voters office has stonewalled efforts by citizens and election integrity activists to bring transparency to the election process. They have also violated the required chain of custody and security measures that the state has put in place to protect our vote, by allowing these hackable machines to be stored in the homes, cars and garages of poll workers for weeks at a time before election day. Security issues were ignored or minimized, In addition, the required post-election audit was compromised by the fact that it was not truly random since the precincts to be audited were known before the votes were counted.
The registrar also made efforts to avoid informing voters about their right to vote on paper ballots, and in court they opposed a voter’s request to ensure that sufficient quantities of paper ballots be made available and to require that notices be placed at the polls informing voters that they could vote on paper ballots. It seems the San Diego Registrar of Voters views the public as an impediment and an inconvenience, when elections really belong to US. Elections are the method by which citizens confer power our government. It is not a gift from them to us. We own it, and it's time to take it back.
Please take a moment to review the complaint and/or sign the petition Petition to the CA Secretary of State.
We, the undersigned, believe that citizens of a democracy are self-governing. Because citizens are the source of all government power, we demand that our government be responsive to our concerns and answer our questions.
We are concerned about the conduct of our elections in San Diego County as reported in the Complaint to California Secretary of State And Petition from San Diego County Citizens to Investigate Compliance with Election Laws filed regarding the November 7, 2006, election.
We hereby petition the California Secretary of State to exercise the authority given to her by the citizens of this state to investigate and report on the issues raised in the complaint.
The petition
The Complaint
Labels: election reform, electronic voting
posted by Terry at 6:56 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home