1/29 Meeting Update

["Joe Pezzillo" <jpezzillo@xxxxxxxxx>]

This will have to be brief for now, but I wanted to give folks an 
update. Thanks to everyone who worked so hard to prepare for today's 
presentation.

Despite reiterating how valuable Citizen input has been in the process, 
which includes the research and requests of CVV and many participants 
in today's meeting against such a move, the Commissioners authorized 
the County Clerk to begin contract negotiations with HartIntercivic.

THIS IS NOT A PURCHASE AT THIS TIME, but it is a step closer to a 
purchase and not a commitment to short term use as we'd requested.

We will certainly plan to discuss this on 2/10 at our "Election Reform" 
Meetup, and in the meantime, we will continue our work to prevent any 
purchase and keep folks updated as to additional information and 
actions.

The Citizens have already proven their case, but we'll do it again if 
that's what it's going to take. Furthermore, the Clerk's office has 
clearly been impacted by our efforts.

The Clerk has approx. 30 days to convince the Commissioners to 
authorize a purchase, and we likewise have 30 days to prevent it.

The mobilization effort that we've been undertaking will continue to be 
necessary, but there's every indication that the vast majority of 
public input they're receiving has been in opposition to a purchase, 
and we were also told that our 12/4 presentation is the most popular 
video stream they've had on the County's website.

Many people commented to me afterwards that they felt that it appeared 
that the Commissioners had already made up their minds before the 
hearing today, and were barely acknowledging that there is a great deal 
of extremely well-founded Citizen sentiment against this. I hope that's 
not the case, and that both the Clerk's office and the Commissioners 
will ultimately be responsive to their Constituents.

Although we did not achieve our specific goal of blocking a purchase 
today, we also are not done yet.

Thanks again to everyone who has put in so much effort to ensure that 
we have Trustworthy Elections in Boulder County, we will prevail!

Joe