Elections Chief (Sancho) gets vote of confidence

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

March 15, 2006
Sancho gets OK to seek a deal
Elections chief gets vote of confidence
By Julian Pecquet
DEMOCRAT STAFF WRITER


He came in prepared for a grilling, but embattled Elections Supervisor Ion Sancho left the Leon County Commission chambers Tuesday with a unanimous vote of confidence.

The commissioners gave Sancho a green light to pursue a deal with a Louisville, Ky.-based company to provide voting equipment for disabled people. The company, IVS, was the last option on the table that would make Leon County compliant with federal elections law come the September primaries.


The motion drew sighs of relief from more than a dozen Sancho supporters who had come to the workshop worried that Sancho would come under attack from certain commissioners for his failure to sign a contract for voting equipment for the disabled, a delay that has already cost the county about $500,000 in withheld state funding.

Be sure to go to the website to read rest of article:
http://www.tallahassee.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060315/NEWS01/603150336/1010


Also, don't miss viewing the video and also listen to the audio also posted at the same
website.

There are two media items at the Tallahassee papers website.

A short video which I highly recommend:

Leon County Commission meeting on compliance federal election laws

http://www.tallahassee.com/assets/wmv/CD21997314.WMV

An audio taped interview of Ion Sancho responding to Tallahassee newspaper about the widespread problems with voting machines, that there is no perfect voting machine solution, the national issue, etc. Ion describes his struggle to find a suitable voting system to purchase to count Leon County votes. He discusses that during this search, he found many problems with many machines! Leon gets to the heart of the problem that all states are facing.

The Audio is essential listening, would be great if we could get the transcripts:


Ion Sancho's complete editorial board interview

http://www.tallahassee.com/assets/wma/CD21965314.WMA

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

1. Principled County Commissioner hit by blow back

County Commissioner Cliff Thaell's standing on principle against the forces that would subvert our democracy has drawn a very strong Republican, Chamber of Commerce backed opponent to his reelection.

[windy252]

2. Forgive me for asking an ignorant question

but is the equipment Sanco agreed to use going to be reliable for having a fair election?

[Wilms]

4. Probably no worse than going with the big companies.

Especially if they use that device without hooking it up to a phone line, which is possible, but for some dumb reason, not mentioned on the IVS website.

[Wilms]

3. K&R n/t

[NYC]

5. Reply I received re Sancho:

Excerpt:

I know Ion Sancho to be a patriot. His actions are a
model of courageous public service and I am behind him 100 percent.
Rest assured that I will oppose any attempt to meddle in the business
of our respected elections chief who has defended our liberty for the past
18 years.

Thank you for writing, and for standing up for democracy.

Sincerely,

Cliff Thaell
Commissioner At-Large
Leon County Board of County Commissioners
301 South Monroe Street
Tallahassee, Florida 32301

[retread]

6. When one of the repugs on the commission was lecturing and

hectoring Sancho, Commissioner Bob Rackleff was glaring at him and finally couldn't restrain himself any longer. Interrupting, "This is outrageous! Are you claiming you know more about running elections than the best Elections Supervisor in the United States??"

[NYC]

7. That's wonderful.

Sancho has the support of people who are not trying to steal elections.

[DoYouEverWonder]

8. Glad to see the Country Commission is backing Sancho up

Someone needs to tell Jeb to stick it where the sun don't shine. He seems to like it there anyway.

[Lochloosa]

9. My Hometown. Sancho is the MAN!

[Peace Patriot]

10. This is great news--that a hero of democracy like Ion Sancho, who

put his career on the line for honest elections--got backing from his commissioners! I am so glad to hear it!

Anyone know why Sancho didn't just go back to paper ballots hand-counted at the precinct level the old-fashioned (and most reliable) way? Diebold and ES&S tried to box him in, by denying him ANY voting machines--an act for which they ought to be in jail!--and he seemed to think he HAD to go with machines. But HAVA does NOT require electronic voting--that's one of the "myths" that www.votersunite.org's pamphlet "MythBreakers" explodes.

Floridians? Anyone close to the situation? Why not paper ballots?

Kudos to Ion Sancho, a great patriot and truth-teller!

:patriot: :applause: :patriot: :applause: :patriot: :applause: :patriot: :applause: :patriot:

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Some resources:

www.votersunite.org (MythBreakers - easy primer on electronic voting--one of the myths is that HAVA requires electronic voting; it does not.)
www.verfiedvoting.org (great activist site)
www.UScountvotes.org (monitoring of '06 and '08 elections)
www.solarbus.org/election/index.shtml (fab compendium of all election info)
www.freepress.org (devoted to election reform)
www.bradblog.com (also great, and devoted to election reform)
www.TruthIsAll.net (analysis of the 2004 election)
Sign the petition (Russ Holt, HR 550, great bill-has 169 sponsors). http://www.rushholt.com/petition.html
www.debrabowen.com (Calif Senator running for Sec of State to reform election system)
www.votepa.us (well-organized local group of citizen activists in Pennsylvania, where important legal issues are at stake, including state's rights over election systems)

Also of interest:

Bob Koehler (-- four recent election reform initiatives in Ohio, predicted to win by 60/40 votes, flipped over, on election day, into 60/40 LOSSES!--the biggest flipover we've seen yet; the election theft machines and their masters are now dictating election policy!)
www.tmsfeatures.com/tmsfeatures/subcategory.jsp?file=20051124ctnbk-a.txt&catid=1824&code=ctnbk

Amaryllis (Diebold, ES&S, Sequoia lavish lobbying of election officials - Beverly Hilton, Aug. '05)
www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x380340

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Throw Diebold, ES&S and all election theft machines into 'Boston Harbor' NOW!

:think: :patriot: :woohoo: :patriot: :think: