Re: freedom to run our own election?

[kellen carey <kcarey636@xxxxxxxxx>]

Thanks, Ralph, for the clarification. 

 

I'm amazed: Joe, Neal, Al, Evan, you, etc. research for Elections officials; you trouble shoot for them; you arrange public presentations for them.  History over the last 2 years has shown the wisdom of numerous CVV recommendations against Elections preferences (e.g. don't buy DRE, lease a system, look into handcounting systems, bring smart, informed citizens into the process rather than ignoring them, etc.) 

 

What the hell else do you have to do to get these people to do their job conscientiously?

 

kell 

Ralph Shnelvar <ralphs@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> On Fri, 7 Jan 2005 19:06:04 -0700, you wrote:
>
> >Well I stated that the time has passed because even while Alisa Lewis
> >method, the city chose to contract with the county clerk?s office. I don?t
> >know when the city contracted the county clerk?s office, so I am unaware if
> >that was before or after they saw the Swiss Method.
>
> I was there for the (truly excellent) demo that Joe gave to Alisa and Linda.
>
> My recollection is that the city had as yet not contracted with the county
> because that required city council approval.
>
> To be fair to Alisa, there were only four days between the demo and the city
> council meeting. Although she and Linda were very receptive to the system,
> Alisa did not have the political will or the courage to recommend a new and
> untested system after all the documentation (i.e. "Council packets") were
> already
>  prepared.
>
> Nor was this Joe's and/or Neal's and/or my fault. Neal (who was also there)
> had repeatedly tried to contact Alisa a couple of weeks before this meeting.
> Alisa was not available and it was only by luck that I was able to get
> through to Alisa to schedule the meeting that we, finally, did have.
>
> Whether it was circumstance or conspiracy that weighed against us I leave to
> other people to decide. Personally, I lean towards circumstance.
> Nonetheless, had Alisa and Linda had the backbone to say "To hell with the
> packet, this is a better way to do it and this is the time to do it", well,
> we'd be in much better shape now.
>
> I know that our group is justifiably upset. This was the perfect
> opportunity to run this test of the Swiss System. Yet our political leaders
> (Alisa, council, Linda) didn't care enough about elections to do what was
> clearly right. It is clear to me that they care more about ease of
> administration than they do
>  about the fundamentals of democracy.
>
> The city council could have done the right thing but they didn't. Not a
> single council member voted to change from this current Rube Goldberg atomic
> fork with built-in radio (see the Camera article for the allusion) that we
> now have to a simple paper ballot system.
>
> When will our city, county, state, and federal leaders finally learn what's
> important? Oh, I guess when they get voted out of office.
>
> Fat chance.
>
> [snip]
>
> >
> >Paul Tiger
> >
>
>
> Ralph Shnelvar

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