Buncombe Politiicians to gut Public Confidence in Elections

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

It's a darn shame when a few politicians and a trade organzation
can abuse their power
to override our democracy


If we can't verify our vote, we don't have a democracy.

Buncombe County Politicians declare war on the Public Confidence in Elections Act

On January 20, 2006, Commissioner David Young said that, “by going with paper ballots in May, we can allow the General Assembly time to fix this law and give us more options for November.” Citizen Times (They mean they can scare politicians with the idea of thousands of ballots being hand counted and results being turned in late)

That means that some of the 8 key standards of the law would have to be lowered or removed so that:

voting machine companies won't have to meet 2002 federal standards
voting machine companies won't have to disclose source code
taxpayers, not voting machine companies would foot the bill for the cost of a new election if there is a fiasco
election officials won't have to perform hand-to-eye recounts of the paper ballot to check the computer count
Who else is part of the War against North Carolina's tough new election law? The NCACC's wants to change the law to suit them, read here and here . Their President, Kitty Barnes, is also Chairman of Catawba County, and her county bought voting machines when Gary Bartlett was recommending against it. Diebold would like to help re-write the law to suit them, read here and see what really scared Diebold here

Larry Leake, Chairman of the SBOE attended the January 19, Buncombe County Commissioner's meeting. Is he using Buncombe County as a flagstone county to help derail the Public Confidence in Elections Act?

Leake and other SBOE members have been opposed to the paper ballot law from the beginning. Leake voted with the rest of the SBOE on December 1, 2005 to certify Diebold as a vendor, even though the Diebold had admitted that it could not meet requirements of the law:
Despite Diebold's open admission that it could not meet the state requirements for voting machine integrity, the Board of Elections later agreed to certify Diebold. EFF filed suit against the Board of Elections last week, arguing that the Board had violated its own obligations to perform extensive security-related tests of all of the code on all certified systems prior to certification. The court denied EFF's motion, but Diebold was nonetheless forced to withdraw from the North Carolina procurement process because it did not escrow its code. EFF press release

Leake's support of Diebold is seen by one conservative organization organization as being motivated by his friendship with Steve Metcalf, former democratic State Senator (turned Diebold lobbyist).
"Is it any wonder that the Board of Elections (Chairman Larry Leake is himself under investigation) selected Diebold as one of the three voting machines from which the counties must purchase? The BOE hired a former Diebold employee to “assist them in picking voting machines.” Leake’s buddy to whom he had contributed campaign funds, former state senator Steve Metcalf, who resigned his senate seat after he had disgraced himself, is a lobbyist for Diebold." More on the Leake/Metcalf/Diebold connection here
If standards of the law were weakened, Diebold would be the vendor with the best chance of getting back in, as they probably could post the bond, they just don't want anyone looking at their source code, nor do they want to be charged with a crime if they put uncertified software on machines as they were caught doing in California. Diebold needs a way to save face, after recent departure of CEO, stockholders lawsuits, and discovery in California of some crazy software issues in California.

The NCACC seems upset over Diebold leaving too (never mind Diebold's gigantic failure rate)
Dec 28, 2005 - Paul Myers, an attorney for the N.C. Association of County Commissioners, said counties already didn't have enough time, money or machine choices to put new equipment in place by May. Diebold's decision to withdraw makes the situation worse, he said.

Association officials want state legislators to lift a mandate they added to federal requirements, find a way to increase the number of possible vendors, or give counties more time to comply

Citizens should be outraged at this blatent attempt to gut a law that was passed unanimously by both sides of the Legislature, and that we lobbied so hard for.

Contact these people, here is a sample message, create your own:

Subject (if email or fax) : hands off Public Confidence in Elections Law
I understand that you are calling for the state legislature to gut or weaken the Public Confidence in Elections Law. This law is the result of grassroots lobbying by citizens all over the state, and was voted for unanimously by the state legislature. I support this law 100%, and urge you to do so as well. The law is already working to restore the public's confidence in elections and has weeded out weak and unreliable vendors and the conditions that led up to thousands of votes being miscounted in North Carolina in 2004. Citizens want and need fair and accurate elections. Please do not be part of an obstacle to our democratic process.

Buncombe County Commissioner David Young
Phone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
Email: [e-mail]

Paul Meyer, Lobbyist for the NCACC
Tel: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
E-mail: [e-mail]

Larry Leake,
Chairman of the State Board of Elections
501 BB&T Building
Asheville, North Carolina 28801
828-253-3661 (work)

State Representatives and Senators for Buncombe County
here:
http://www.ncleg.net/gascripts/counties/counties.pl?County=Buncombe

Link to this blog here:
http://triadblogs.com/NCVoter/1522/

[patricia92243]

1. We got a lot of Democrats in office this time. The Republicans will have

to fix that :sarcasm:

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

2. Contact Buncombe's State Senators and Representatives

[e-mail],[e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail]

Buncombe County Representation

House Members
Susan C. Fisher (District 114) (Dem)
Office: 420 Legislative Office Building, Raleigh, NC 27603-5925
Phone: [phone]
Email: [e-mail]
Address: 7 Maple Ridge Lane, Asheville, NC 28806
Phone: [phone]

Bruce Goforth (District 115) (Dem)
Office: 1220 Legislative Building, Raleigh, NC 27601-1096
Phone: [phone]
Email: [e-mail]
Address: 137 Stonecrest Dr., Asheville, NC 28803
Phone: [phone]

Wilma M. Sherrill (District 116) (Rep)
Office: 305 Legislative Office Building, Raleigh, NC 27603-5925
Phone: [phone]
Email: [e-mail]
Address: P. O. Box 18561, Asheville, NC 28814
Phone: [phone]
Senate Members

Tom Apodaca (District 48) (Rep)Deputy Republican Leader
Office: 1127 Legislative Building, Raleigh, NC 27601-2808
Phone: [phone]
Email: [e-mail]
Counties Represented: Buncombe, Henderson, Polk
Address: 214 North King Street, Hendersonville, NC 28792
Phone: [phone]

Martin L. Nesbitt, Jr. (District 49) (Dem)
Office: 300-B Legislative Office Building, Raleigh, NC 27603-5925
Phone: [phone]
Email: [e-mail]
Address: 29 N. Market Street, Asheville, NC 28801
Phone: [phone]

[wishlist]

3. Bunc commissioners said Sequoia can provide paper receipts by May

Earlier this month I read the letter sent by Buncombe County Commissioners to Gov Easley stating that Sequoia, if requested, would be able to provide an add-on mechanism to our current machines to provide paper receipts by May, but not in time to comply with the provisions of new law. The letter requested that Easley petition the legislature to delay implementation so that the county can save millions by getting just the add-on devices from Sequoia instead of totally new machines. This seemed like a reasonable solution. Guess it did not work out?

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

4. Sequoia can't meet all requirements

Sequoia would want the $7 million bond excused, most likely since they could only do business
in probably 1 counties.

92-95 counties of 100 have already gone on with ordering equipment.

We don't want the law revisted just so one county can spend more on retrofitting machines
than new ones would cost.