County Clerk Threatens To Resign Over Diebold Machines

[Syrinx]

After 23 years as Emery County clerk, Bruce Funk will decide this morning whether he will resign because he cannot endorse an election on Utah's new voting machines.

"In no way could I feel comfortable with these machines," Funk said Monday. "I don't want to be part of something that put into question the results that come out of Emery County."

Earlier Monday, state Elections Director Michael Cragun and other state officials and engineers from Diebold Elections Systems met behind closed doors with the Emery County Commission. Their goal was to address Funk's concerns about some of the machines' computer memory that made him suspect they were not new or that something already had been loaded into their memories.

Funk invited in representatives of Black Box Voting, a Washington state-based nonprofit voter rights group, to inspect the machines earlier this month. Black Box has yet to issue a final report on the machines that are slated to replace Utah's punch card system of voting at a cost of $27 million.

*snip*

http://www.sltrib.com/ci_3646075

[MadMaddie]

1. What a battle...he can't even do his job because

of the political interference.....

[RufusEarl]

4. They'll run him off, just watch he'll be gone in a week!

[EFerrari]

5. This is what it's going to take. It's not an easy thing to save

a Republic.

Good man. :)

[Nikki Stone1]

2. Good for him!

:kick:

[EFerrari]

3. Thank YOU, Bruce Funk!

:yourock:

[Bucky]

6. Kick'd and Recc'd

I'm mad, too, Bruce. If only the Democrats were behind this Diebold thing, the whole idea would be dead by now.

[OrangeCountyDemocrat]

7. He's History....

They're just going to let him quit, and sweep it under the rug.

They'll probably Smear him on the way out....make him look like a tin-foil doofus.

Just another example of why it is pointless to vote, and how our democracy has ceased to exist. Every day, I continue to see how we're living in a dictatorship.

[stillcool]

8. If you're interested in sending Bruce an expression of support

here's his contact information:

Bruce C. Funk - Clerk/Auditor
Fax: [phone]
95 East Main
Castle Dale, Emery County
Utah 84513
[e-mail]

[Toots]

9. We need to stage a moden day Boston Tea Party only with voting machines

Throw the damn things in the bay.

[Syrinx]

10. update

The state's $27 million transition to touch-screen voting machines has triggered an ugly dispute between the Emery County Commission and its elections chief.

The commissioners maintain that County Clerk Bruce Funk resigned Monday night after the commission met behind closed doors with state elections officials and representatives of Diebold Elections Systems over Funk's allowing election activists to test the machines.

But Funk, who had no legal representation, says he was emotionally drained by Monday's confrontation when he said he would step down from his 23-year post. "At that point I just wanted out," he said.

But by Tuesday, Funk changed his mind. Instead of confirming his resignation in writing, Funk hired a lawyer and says he will fight for his position.

*snip*

http://www.sltrib.com/search/ci_3649394