Orange County (FL) update

[bailey77]

They give permission to reprint. Here is the link.
http://www.bbvforums.org/forums/messages/1954/1954.html

Orange County, under Supervisor of Elections Bill Cowles, has proven to be particularly stubborn about giving up its public records.

At first, they said they were too busy. Then, they said they had mailed the information in a letter. The letter demanded a deposit, but didn't say how much money they wanted. After repeated phone calls by Black Box Voting investigator Kathleen Wynne, Orange County said it would be too difficult to copy the poll tapes. Margaret, from Orange County, said she wanted to contract it out to a private for-profit vendor, Ikon.

Wynne asked how much the records would be, but it took Margaret over a week to reply. She finally called back.

"Are you sitting down?" she asked. She said Black Box Voting would need to turn over a check for $17,000.

Harris took over. She told Margaret that other ES&S counties had complied, and that the fees charged by Orange County would have to be commensurate with those charged by other Florida counties with similar populations and the same system.

Woody Rodriguez, the Orange County attorney, spoke with Bev Harris. He claimed that it is the position of Orange County that Florida law says that any request that takes more than 15 minutes to copy is extraordinary and they don't have to do it.

"Bull*/!*."

Occasionally one must call turdulent and obstructive statements by public officials by their proper name.

"What did you say?" asked Rodriguez.

"Yes, I used that word," said Harris. The county attorney was surprised, but not as surprised as he'll be when he sees the sudden interest in an in-depth audit of Orange County, Florida.

"This is completely preposterous," Harris explained. "Please cite me the law that says anything over 15 minutes is extraordinary and you don't have to do it."

Rodriguez replied that Orange County was following the guidelines from a court case on public records.

"Please tell me who the judge was and what county or jurisdiction this was in," said Harris.

Rodriguez replied that he'd have to check, whereby Harris told Rodriguez that the behavior of Orange County was obstructive, and explained that such behavior triggers additional public records requests, because it is an indicator of fraud.

Rodriguez later called to say that Black Box Voting can have the records, and that the law actually doesn't say anything over 15 minutes is "extraordinary" nor that the county doesn't have to comply. What it actually says is that the county can charge $10 per hour for labor after 15 minutes.

Harris directed Orange County to proceed with the records request. Rodriguez then said it is up to the county to decide whether to contract the job out to a third party because they don't have time to do the copying.

This allows a profit-making vendor to capitalize on public records. Therefore, additional public records requests from Black Box Voting will focus on identifying any special relationship Orange County has with this vendor.

As it stands now, Black Box Voting will arrange with an Orange County or Volusia County resident to come in and examine the documents which purportedly will cost "$17,000" to copy. Other arrangements will be made to obtain the records, which Orange County claims add up to 56,000 pages.

(Again we say)..."Bull*/!*."

[msongs]

1. they are certainly hiding things....any media cooperation on this?

in the local papers etc, press conferences, democratic party support?

Msongs
www.msongs.com/political-shirts.htm

[bailey77]

3. Some media awareness of the problem...

A reporter from the Orlando Sentinel reportedly attended a meeting of Florida Supervisors of Elections on Feb. 15, where the issue of compliance (or noncompliance) with records requests was addressed.

One can assume that more compliance was urged, because most supervisors of elections became more cooperative with the Black Box Voting FOIA requests after that meeting.

The best and most stalwart defenders of the FOIA and sunshine laws are reporters, who depend heavily on public records.

Do not look for support on meaningful election reform from either of the major political parties any time soon. It will have to come from ordinary citizens demanding transparency the auditing, not party politicians, who traditionally benefit from the holes that allow manipulation of election systems.

[berniew1]

2. Election problems documented in Orange County

http://www.flcv.com/orangeo.html
http://www.flcv.com/EIRSFla2.html
http://www.flcv.com/dirtytrf.html

and the Election Protection Hearing in Orlando on fraud & irregularities
(I have the transcript)
There appears to have been major absentee ballot fraud in neighboring
Osceola County that changed the results of two elections the day after 2 candidates thought they had won.

[Wilms]

4. Stunning. Thanks. n/t