Yesterday, the King County Council voted 5 to 4 to move to Forced Vote By Mail and Diebold Touchscreen Voting Machines.
The only council members who spoke against the proposal to do away with the polls and bring in Diebold's Touchscreen Voting Machines were Republicans. Republican Kathy Lambert actually raised questions regarding the Diebold's TSX system and the potential for fraud when these machines are used. Living in King County feels more and more like Cook County, Illinois every day.
The last few weeks have been truly eye opening. On the national scale, I was a Dennis Kucinich Delegate in 2004, because he helped confront Diebold, by posting the infamous Diebold memos on his Congressional Website. But in Washington State, I have never found much help in the Democratic party concerning voting reform. Rank and file Democrats all over are pulling out there hair over this issue, but the Washington State Democratic leadership does not give a rats ass about opening the process, and addressing the concerns we as voting activists raise, loudly, daily, and perpetually.
With a very partisan vote, and with much disrespect shown to the multi-party coalition of activists working to save “Poll Place Voting” in King County, the County's Democrats showed that in the face of overwhelming public testimony, and what the Democrats kept calling, “valid concerns” throughout the June 5th public comment period, that the Democrats were willing to ignore those concerns and push this vote through.
Let's make it clear that the people that are voting to continue to support bringing in Diebold's Touchscreen Voting Machines, forced vote by mail, and doing away with poll places, virtually guaranteeing unverifiable elections procedures, include:
Bob Ferguson
Larry Gossett
Larry Phillips
Julia Patterson
Dow Constantine
King County deserves better than this.
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4 comments:
Gentry,
I also attended this June 19th meeting. I did not realize this was going to be a vote without public input not having got involved with the process until late.
But I cannot seem to find any reference to Diebold with respect to this ordinance. I read the ordinance PDF and there is no mention of Diebold. How can one find out what is exactly being proposed here with respect to Diebold hardware? Call the Elections Dept?
The reason I ask is that I want to have all of my facts straight before trying to contact Larry Phillips as a KC constituent. I believe that I sent him a PDF regarding electronic voting awhile ago so I want to understand why he went forward with this.
I'll find the info and post it. It is part of the elimination of poll places, and the few that stay open will need, according to those who push this misinformation, Touchscreens to be HAVA compliant. Obviously this is not true to those who have read HAVA, but it's a lie told so often that it is spoken like truth.
Kathy Lambert's office might be able to point you to the correct info faster than I, as she spoke against the machines at the June 19th meeting. However, I will also track it down when I have a spare minute or two.
I believe the relevant section is the following:
C. The executive has transmitted and the council has approved by motion a plan with cost estimates for regional voting centers and ballot drop boxes. The plan shall be filed in the form of an original and ten copies with the clerk of the council, who will retain the original and will forward copies to each councilmember and to the lead staff of the committee-of-the-whole. From Ordinance 15523
Now the challenge will be to find this plan... Not always an easy task in King County.
Thanks for the follow-up.
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