San Diego Still Hates Clean Elections, Sues Bowen

Back in August, Secretary of State Debra Bowen announced that she was disallowing the majority of DRE voting machines made by Diebold and Sequoia. Part of her move in August was to require that 10% of votes in a close election (less than one half of one percent) be counted by hand. As a result of the potential "logistical nightmare" of having to count so many votes by hand, San Diego County has been pushing hard for people to vote by mail. But apparently that wasn't going quite well enough. So now the Deborah Seiler, the San Diego County Registrar of Voters, is suing Debra Bowen over the issue.

The suit claims that counting 10% of votes by hand would create delays and extra work (boo hoo) and threaten the registrar's ability to complete the tabulation during the 28-day canvass period after the February 5 election. San Diego County asserts that Secretary Bowen lacks the authority to mandate such a change without providing the funds to pay for it, although Bowen spokesperson Nicole Winger says the law "clearly" gives Bowen that authority.

So what, you may wonder, makes this a particularly big issue in San Diego County? Well, it could be that Ms. Seiler is a former Diebold saleswoman who participated in the sale of Diebold machines to San Diego in 2003? Her deputy is confirmed election corrupter Michael Vu, who presided over illegal practices during the 2004 Ohio elections. On top of that, once you start having to verify all these darn votes, you might have problems with letting volunteers take voting machines home overnight. Even though having random people be granted unfettered access to voting machines seems safe.

It's really gotta be embarrassing for folks like Deborah Seiler to be complaining about votes being counted. Given that her job is to count votes. Wait, you want me to potentially count more than 1% of the votes? Who do you think I am? The Registar of Voters or something?

Cross posted from Calitics

SD Ethics Commission Hearing on Public Financing

Issue: Clean Elections
Action: Show your support by attending the Ethics Commission Meeting
Date / Location: Today, December 13th, 5pm at 202 C Street, 12th Floor

Today, December 13th, Neighborhoods for Clean Elections will be participating in the monthly San Diego Ethics Commission hearing. This public session will focus on Public Financing, and the group will be presenting their initiative and supporting information, and answering questions posed by the Commissioners. In coalition with California Common Cause, a long-term Clean Elections partner, they will explain how Clean Elections will work in San Diego and why the Ethics Commission should recommend it to the City Council. Join Neighborhoods for Clean Elections today at 5pm.