RE: ERC Report Draft Insults Election Reform Activists

["Paul Tiger - LPBC - Outreach" <outreach@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Nonsense. You want opposition for controversy, so you invent it if its not
there. Hand counts are not illegal and that is not what I said. Recounts are
not illegal and I never said that. But don't let it worry you too much;
there are lots of people that do not understand the difference between
illegal and unlawful. With the passage of SB05-198 we now have some public
law concerning audits - aka 'lawful'. I'll bet that in the next few years
we'll amend it.

I'm not sure how much speed actually drives the clerk and the BoCC, but
Boulder can't hold up the entire state in 08, so if you think that hand
counts can be perfected to take less than two days, you might have a chance
to sell it to Boulder county.
Joe failed to tell the commissioners, that the 3 hour tallies in Switzerland
involve using currency counters. Most of the counting is done by machines.
So there is an investment to be made.

You are not going to be able to beam your thoughts into the minds of the
BoCC or the Clerk. The reality is that elections and planning for them is
WORK.

Dick Lyons put it well last night in telling the listeners that elections
are extremely complex. All the outsiders and Monday morning quarterbacks
think its just soooo simple.

CVV members have a marvelous opportunity now, as we did in 03, to help the
county with equipment selection (could be currency counters) and some of us
with the insider experience might help with procedural issues. I think that
Neal McBurnett will likely have direct impact on LATs for example.

The illness of apathy in this country has been accelerated and amplified by
technology. The internet and the media give us the opportunity to tear
things down faster than we can build new. Mass consumerism meets the
political management of government. If a politician (just another human)
trips on their shoelaces, we hear of it as a Michael Jackson sleepover.

That's where the secret government is Evan - the attempts (and evident
successes) of media moguls to control the government. Nothing new here -
Remember the Maine!

BTW - I think you are participating. Thanks for doing that.

Paul Tiger

"Any jackass can kick down a barn, but it takes a good carpenter to build
one." -- Sam Rayburn

-----Original Message-----
From: Evan Daniel Ravitz [mailto:evan@xxxxxxxx]
Sent: Tuesday, June 14, 2005 9:15 AM
To: Paul Tiger - LPBC - Outreach
Cc: CVV Net; Boulder County Commissioners; Jim Burrus
Subject: RE: ERC Report Draft Insults Election Reform Activists


Re: your claim below "The county had to buy something and this is
what was chosen." is false. The county, like all governments, can
hand-count the ballots. No purchase necessary, except ballots.

Re: your claim below "I try to deal in reality." Try harder. Over a
year ago you, Paul, at least twice, alternately claimed that hand
counting was illegal, and supported it! When I called you on this,
at least twice, you ignored me. Then, just a month or so ago, you
belately claimed that you meant that hand RECOUNTS are illegal,
which they are, if the original count is by computer.

While you are extremely knowlegeable about details, you confuse the
big picture. I think I know one reason why, but it's personal and I
won't share it in this forum.

Evan