Ralph, et al...
I am going to give you a very short answer to your questions below about
the usefulness of the ERC work that has been going on...
Neal and/or Joe may care to add more...
I believe that there is a better than 50-50 chance the ERC will recommend
that Boulder County dump, repeat dump, the Hart Intecivic system that
the County bought.
This ERC group is not a rubber stamp for anyone...
You should especially attend the meeting this Friday, 18 March.
I has been discovered there were problems in the 'PS' file... see email
below from a member of the ERC group, which may be why Eagle Direct had
the printing problems they had, through no fault of their own...
Bye, Peter Richards
I think maybe we found the problem. It was in the PS file. Having the
file reviewed by a PS person would more than likely find the problem.
Tom Davidson P.E.
On Tue, 15 Mar 2005 07:56:27 -0700 Ralph Shnelvar <ralphs@xxxxxxxxx>
writes:
Dear Peter:
It is sometimes difficult to express emotional tone in an eMail so
please
understand that the following is being written in a friendly way and
that my
questions to you are not being written sarcastically or
rhetorically.
I am asking for your input to explain to me what you think will be
accomplished by either Evan or me showing up to an ERC meeting. Is
it just
to have two more bodies show up and display their disgust with the
voting
process?
From my perspective, the purpose of the committee is to
Fix the machines
Evan and my agenda is to have hand counted paper ballots. Al's
agenda is to
make sure that the electoral process is open, fair, and accurate. I
don't
know if he supports hand counted paper ballots but I suspect that he
would
support hand counted paper ballots if there were the proper
controls.
Perhaps a little background will help explain where I'm coming
from.
As people on this list may or may not know, both Evan and I are
politically
active. What may be surprising is that Evan and I are friends and
that I
deeply respect (and agree with!) the vast majority of his political
positions.
Both Evan and I are spread very thin fighting a multitude of
political
battles. Whether it is wise to be spread so thin is an open
question but,
at least for me, being able to hook people up so that things get
accomplished is deeply satisfying.
For instance, about a week ago I worked with my friends (both
political and
otherwise), Thomas and Larissa Lawrence, to get them on local TV
news.
Perhaps you remember them? They were the people who successfully
managed to
get their medical marijuana back from the Denver police. It made
front page
news.
"Working" the press took me about 8 hours. It meant taking the day
off of
work and driving to the event and ...
Peter, I have no idea if the medical marijuana issue is a hot button
for
you. Nonetheless, I hope you understand that there are only so many
hours
that I can devote to these issues. I do, in fact, have a job. I'm
trying
to sell my house. I'm picking up a bridge loan to purchase yet
another
house so that I have a place to move my family into when I sell this
house.
I have to help my kids with their homework. I've got a lot of balls
in the
air.
So, Peter, (and again, this is being written in a friendly way), do
you
think that it is worth my time to attend this ERC meeting? Let me
put it
this way: If you were my boss and you saw all the things (both
personal and
civic) that I was doing, would you tell me, "Ralph, attend the ERC
meeting."?
I ask you this, Peter, because I may not know how important the ERC
meeting
is. I may be missing something.
Yes, the press is covering it. But I can tell you with absolute
certainty
that this coverage is making no impact on the citizenry's
consciousness. I
know because I ask people. You want the pulse of Boulder? Talk to
a random
barber and a hairdresser.
My prejudice is that the ERC is a total waste of time for all the
participants. If you feel differently, please explain why and then
I will
make up my mind whether to take the time to attend this Friday.
I am open to having my mind changed.
Ralph Shnelvar
On Mon, 14 Mar 2005 20:51:23 -0700, you wrote:
To: Evan Ravitz
Ralph Shnelvar
From: Peter Richards
Date: Monday, 14 March 2005, 20:40
Re: Boulder County Election Review Committee
It would be nice if either of you would come to an Election Review
Committee meeting.
In my memory, neither of you has attended one meeting...
The next three meetings are as follows:
Fri. 18 March 2005, 13:00 to 17:00
Fri. 25 March 2005, 13:00 to 17:00
Fri. 1 April 2005, 13:00 to 17:00
All meetings are at the 33rd St. Election headquarters, just north
of the
RTD garage, and across the street from the Boulder Police Dept.
They
meet in the Charlotte Houston room, on the north side of the
building, on
the ground floor.
The last meeting for any public comment is the 1 April meeting !!
Luckily, for the citizens of Boulder County, all three newspapers
have
been at every meeting. The Daily Camera, Colorado Daily and
Longmont
Times Call...
I will be looking for you... Bye, Peter Richards
On Mon, 14 Mar 2005 11:42:28 -0700 (MST) Evan Daniel Ravitz
<evan@xxxxxxxx> writes:
I think something like half of your 65% "clueless" are that way
because they "despair" of getting thru the spin and hype at the
truth with the time, energy etc they have.
For example, they know it's not completely a joke when ERC chair
Richard Lyons said they might just put their cover on the
Republican's report on the election, as reported in the CO Daily
today.
It's unlikely the ERC will go beyond its charge and insist on
public
voting software to make vote counting public and transparent
again.
They will do what the bureaucrats want and talk about
rearranging
deck chairs.
But I will make the case for truly public vote counting at their
meeting soon.
Evan
On Mon, 14 Mar 2005, Ralph Shnelvar wrote:
On Sun, 13 Mar 2005 18:34:12 -0700, you wrote:
[snip]
I think the real question to ask about the low turnout at
these
meetings and in the election is "do people care less?" or "do
people
feel more disenfranchised?"
Certainly, a strong argument can be made that "people don't
care,"
especially with a short term office like the City Council
vacancy
or an
exciting issue like the coordination of elections, but after
what
happened in November, isn't it also possible that people
aren't
participating because they don't feel confident in the overall
process,
as much as they may not care?
I know I've been as guilty as anyone in the past of adding to
the
noise, but given how low-volume this list has become, I hope
we
can
focus on the signal.
Thanks to everyone for all your efforts to help us achieve
trustworthy
elections in Boulder County!
Let me give a try at this.
Both the Libertarian and Green parties have noticed - as you
have
noticed -
that people simply are not willing to participate in politics.
The cause of this is varied. I'll catalog my unscientific
observations.
(1) 65%: Clueless. They are uninterested in politics and
couldn't
care less
if the country was run by George Bush or Chinese Premier Wen
Jiabao.
(2) 15%. The free rider problem: "I'll let someone else take
care of
this."
(2) 10%. Despair. Nothing I could possibly do will help.
(3) 5%. I think elections are honest. What are you talking
about?
(4) 4%. Between the kids, working two jobs, and sleep, I wish I
could help.
(5) 0.5%: I'm involved politically but I can't devote any time
to
this.
(6) 0.4%: I'm involved politically and I think that being able
to
rig the
voting system is a very good thing. It means that my side has a
chance of
winning.
(7) 0.1%: I'll support this movement with my time and effort.
So how do we change things? It's hard to do it without getting
people riled
up.
Most of you already know my position on getting people riled
up.
Ralph Shnelvar
Joe
On Mar 13, 2005, at 12:28 PM, Ralph Shnelvar wrote:
As usual, I completely agree with Al.
Indeed, as you wrote on March 9:
- - - - -
Mr. Shaffer was involved in the LATs; he's the LP party
chair;
and was
a
candidate for SD17. His reward: insults.
- - - - -
Why should I cooperate and/or testify when I already know
what
the
results
will be?
As Joe, I hope, will confirm, I have been moderately active
behind the
scenes trying to make positive change. I have met with Joe
&
Co. on
several
occasions. I have met with Joe & Co. and Salas and Lewis to
try to
get hand
co