Monday, February 27, 2006
Diebold Developments and the California Unity Campaign
Diebold stories have continued breaking at a rapid pace, thanks largely to BradBlog.com. I don't have time to comment on it all here so I'm just linking highlights you should know about:
The other main thing I've been focused on is the hand counted paper ballots (HCPB) proposal. I've heard a lot of encouraging words for this project and help has come from some unexpected places. One thing I learned is the legal concept of remedial deterrence. The Harvard Law Review mentions it in this series of articles on voting and democracy. In a nutshell, when facing election administration issues, courts can find a violation but no remedy in which case the plaintiff will sometimes receive no relief. The lesson is to present the judge with the preferred alternative. In this case, it would be ideal to have the HCPB proposal handy when asking the court to prevent use of the machines. Pretty common sense, really. At any rate, there is somewhat of a conversation about this project at Democratic Underground.
A lot of what else I've been up to has been promoting these two projects and finding people with whom to collaborate. On that count, I have a very special, very strong exclusive announcement from a prominent Humboldt community group, which I will release separately Tuesday morning. The announcement responds to and reverberates the call to action laid out by GuvWurld in the campaign to unite California election reformers. This campaign was launched in December and endorsed by VelvetRevolution.us about a month ago.
More recently, Dan Ashby from the California Election Protection Network did an amazing job excerpting and summarizing various GuvWurld posts into a single page that was circulated by e-mail and archived at DeepEndNews.com. Please copy and paste the contents of that page into an HTML formatted e-mail message (to keep the links active) and send that to your lists. Note that the injunction and HCPB proposal are both steps that can and should be taken in other CA counties. It is this mirrored tactic approach that is the hallmark of the unity campaign.
I have been receiving a lot of public speaking invitations lately. Another came Monday from Eureka Mayor Peter La Vallee. I did not realize that he teaches at Humboldt State University. Tuesday afternoon I will get about 30 minutes with his graduate class on legal and political social work. I haven't blogged about it previously but Nezzie Wade and Dan Faulk have also put me before their students, a total of four other times in the past few months (HSU and College of the Redwoods).
In addition, Voter Confidence Committee member Kathryn Hedges has relayed to me a request from the HSU Associated Students Voting Committee. Their next meeting is at the same exact time as the next VCC meeting so we'll have to connect in the near future. For the record, that is this Wednesday at 7pm. The VCC meeting is in a private location though you can contact me for details if you would like to participate.
If you missed last Friday's Eureka Times-Standard (archive), there was a story about the Diebold certification that concluded with a quote a bunch of people told me was pretty good. Humboldt blogger Buhne Tribune picked up on it with a link to GuvWurld and several reader comments taboot. I was also interviewed by the Humboldt Advocate over the weekend for an article presumably due out this coming Friday.
There's more, but it will have to wait...big press release in a few hours...
0 comments
It is starting to feel sickening to keep leading with Diebold developments, so the only further mention I'll make is that while some possibilities have emerged, I'm still seeking an attorney to help me file for an injunction against Humboldt's continued use of the Diebold OS machines. Contact me if you can work pro bono with me on this.Diebold Whistleblower Facing Three Felony Counts Alaska Now Refuses Release of 2004 Election Data Incredibly Bad Press for Diebold CA State Senator Says Diebold Re-Certification in Violation of State Law! Why do Diebold's Touch-Screen Voting Machines Have Built-In Wireless Infrared Data Transfer Ports?
The other main thing I've been focused on is the hand counted paper ballots (HCPB) proposal. I've heard a lot of encouraging words for this project and help has come from some unexpected places. One thing I learned is the legal concept of remedial deterrence. The Harvard Law Review mentions it in this series of articles on voting and democracy. In a nutshell, when facing election administration issues, courts can find a violation but no remedy in which case the plaintiff will sometimes receive no relief. The lesson is to present the judge with the preferred alternative. In this case, it would be ideal to have the HCPB proposal handy when asking the court to prevent use of the machines. Pretty common sense, really. At any rate, there is somewhat of a conversation about this project at Democratic Underground.
A lot of what else I've been up to has been promoting these two projects and finding people with whom to collaborate. On that count, I have a very special, very strong exclusive announcement from a prominent Humboldt community group, which I will release separately Tuesday morning. The announcement responds to and reverberates the call to action laid out by GuvWurld in the campaign to unite California election reformers. This campaign was launched in December and endorsed by VelvetRevolution.us about a month ago.
More recently, Dan Ashby from the California Election Protection Network did an amazing job excerpting and summarizing various GuvWurld posts into a single page that was circulated by e-mail and archived at DeepEndNews.com. Please copy and paste the contents of that page into an HTML formatted e-mail message (to keep the links active) and send that to your lists. Note that the injunction and HCPB proposal are both steps that can and should be taken in other CA counties. It is this mirrored tactic approach that is the hallmark of the unity campaign.
I have been receiving a lot of public speaking invitations lately. Another came Monday from Eureka Mayor Peter La Vallee. I did not realize that he teaches at Humboldt State University. Tuesday afternoon I will get about 30 minutes with his graduate class on legal and political social work. I haven't blogged about it previously but Nezzie Wade and Dan Faulk have also put me before their students, a total of four other times in the past few months (HSU and College of the Redwoods).
In addition, Voter Confidence Committee member Kathryn Hedges has relayed to me a request from the HSU Associated Students Voting Committee. Their next meeting is at the same exact time as the next VCC meeting so we'll have to connect in the near future. For the record, that is this Wednesday at 7pm. The VCC meeting is in a private location though you can contact me for details if you would like to participate.
If you missed last Friday's Eureka Times-Standard (archive), there was a story about the Diebold certification that concluded with a quote a bunch of people told me was pretty good. Humboldt blogger Buhne Tribune picked up on it with a link to GuvWurld and several reader comments taboot. I was also interviewed by the Humboldt Advocate over the weekend for an article presumably due out this coming Friday.
There's more, but it will have to wait...big press release in a few hours...
0 comments
0 Comments:
