Larry Phillips and The Election Center

Larry Phillips, King County Councilman, states that one of his key reforms is hiring "The Election Center". Apparently the council would rather hire "experts" than actually propose real reform.

From the Seattle Times commentary:
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/230260_phillips28.html
"Key among our reforms is the hiring of The Election Center, a non-profit considered the premier organization for professional electoral training, to conduct a top-to-bottom management audit of the elections division. "

Here's the difference between me and the competition, if you are paying attention... My key reform is kicking the corporations out of the system. King County Council though considers hiring a group, roundly criticised for taking money from Diebold and other corporate sponsors, as a "key reform". Once, just once, I'd like to hear a councilman or woman call for Publicly Owned Open Source Software instead of another audit, or a new building.

This is absurd.

Read up on http://www.blackboxvoting.org, and particularly do some searching on R. Doug Lewis, who heads "The Election Center" for more information... here's some links to start with:

And here, from the Seattle Medium, "Selection of The Election Center team is the result of legislation sponsored by Councilmembers Julia Patterson and Bob Ferguson and approved by the Council last month. "
http://seattlemedium.com/News/article/article.asp?NewsID=57535&sID=4

Bob, what's up? Why is it that the Open Voting Consotium, or any of the ideas proposed by citizen activists the nation over aren't on the top of the list for voting reforms we need here in King County?

Also from the article, "“Our election process is too important to be held hostage by politics,” said Councilmember Ferguson. “The Election Center will provide us with a detailed, independent review of our Elections office and a road map for reform. Because they are independent, no one can argue with the results.”

Well, that all depends on if the Election Center is truly independent? Independt of whom? King County? The charges laid out in Bev's Harri's Book is that the Election Center, and R. Doug Lewis, these people are taking money from the same companies that are making millions off our voting equipment.

Here's what VotersUnite.org says of the independence of The Election Center:
http://www.votersunite.org/takeaction/alert061905.htm

Here's Soundpolitics pointing out the backscratching The Election Center provides our election officials:
http://www.soundpolitics.com/archives/004789.html

And as I'm getting tired, here's a good site for a whole mess of information:
http://www.scoop.co.nz/features/usacoup.html