Friday, April 08, 2005

RCV Presentation Scheduled for Next Eureka City Council Meeting

Eureka's town hall forum on Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) is coming up on April 28 and the Voter Confidence Committee is now into advanced stages of planning. At a meeting Thursday with City Councilmember and forum co-sponsor Chris Kerrigan, it was determined that VCC co-founder Scott Menzies will do an RCV PowerPoint presentation at the April 19 City Council meeting. This is a great opportunity for a very visible dry run through at least a part of the presentation planned for the forum. Other, more guerilla-oriented event marketing tactics were also discussed. Volunteers are needed.

I recently posted about the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors approving the Elections Department's request to begin negotiations with Diebold for the purchase of new touch screen voting machines. It was difficult to hear the Supes make this decision as it appeared they hadn't even heard the concerns or considered the evidence presented by those of us opposed to partnering with a company employing felons convicted of computer fraud, run by executives with extensive partisan ties and notorious for machines that don't work properly.

Well, in just the little time that's past I'd say a bit of perspective has emerged. This is still not a good thing, but perhaps it is not as final a blow as it first seemed. Starting negotiations is not even close to closing a deal. There is still time for the Supes to become convinced that we will all inevitably regret this decision. Here's a new slogan that I can already hear repeated in street rallies: NO DEAL WITH DIEBOLD!

1 comments

1 Comments:

Quite insane of the Humboldt Supes to go ahead and make deals with Diebold (why not ES&S? Not that they're a big improvement, but they don't have the severe stains associated with Diebold. For instance, the CEO of ES&S didn't publicly declare that he would help deliver the vote to a certain incumbent candidate (one already quite famous for getting into office on a major fix.)

Perhaps Mr. Lindsey feels that our federal government has proven itself capable of making all the right decisions, and we citizens should just sit back and enjoy their wisdom?

"..Lindsey has admitted Humboldt County election machines are not stored securely and that employees of the Public Works Department have "unfettered access."
- Well, thats actually not so bad when compared to the invisible, and potentially untraceable tampering that can be enjoyed in cyberspace. If this continues, we'll be referring to the days of lost paper ballots and wildly confusing punch-cards as the "Good ol' days."
Hopefully, the Diebold machines will cough up enough of their usual glitches to prevent certification.

"In rejecting this, am I setting my standards too high?" - NO. You're surrounded by elected officials who seem to continue to lower their own standards (an unfortunate trend in America.)

By Anonymous Anonymous, at 9:24 PM  

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