Re: Thank you Marilyn Marks!

[Neal McBurnett <neal@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Thanks to all involved!!  I'm sorry that I didn't get more involved in
the hand count this week, though we were delayed at a wedding in NH
over the weekend, so I would have missed the critical early stages.

The thing that puzzles me the most based on an incomplete perusal of
the news stories is that the tally had fewer votes, nor more, for each
candidate.  In my experience hand counts always find more votes to be
counted for each candidate, and fewer over- and undervotes.

Were the undervotes and overvotes tallied?  Is there a full result set
that includes them?

Did the number of ballots match in each count?

The really good news, from what I've heard, is that the discrepancies
were attributed by the SoS office to ballot interpretation
differences, not to hand count errors.  That is huge!  And an
excellent argument to require hand counts in future recounts, rather
than doing machine recounts.

Neal McBurnett                 http://neal.mcburnett.org/

On Thu, Sep 01, 2011 at 10:45:25PM -0600, Mary Eberle wrote:
> Dear Al,
> 
> We arrived back here about two hours ago, and I just opened my email to find
> your kind note. It is appreciated, but also I have to pass your thank yous and
> ours on to Marilyn Marks, without whose many efforts the Saguache review would
> never had happened. Marilyn has been analytical and quick thinking from the
> beginning of the Saguache debacle, and all who are interested in increasing
> voting integrity must be grateful to her.
> 
> Everyone should know that Marilyn is responsible for the hours of video, except
> for that done automatically on four fixed cameras belonging to the secretary of
> state. She also formulated most of the wording attributed to me by the Pueblo
> Chieftain writer Matt Hildner. What I did mainly was function as a watcher,
> checking the callers as much as possible. The SoS did not see fit to revamp his
> planned three-member counting teams into teams of four members, and that was
> only the first of the problems encountered. We need to get four-member teams
> specified in law for hand counting, and we need to get the faster "sort and
> stack" method blessed for Colorado elections. But I digress. We can all be very
> proud of Marilyn--she was everywhere: scanning, phoning, being interviewed by
> the press, talking with the SoS folks and explaining some of the intricacies of
> this particular situation as we went along, smoothing feathers of Saguache
> County residents who were understandably dejected because the SoS did not
> authorize a forensic investigation, and being an articulate spokesperson for
> election integrity during the various Q & A sessions run by SoS personnel. I'm
> sure I've missed some important roles she fulfilled, many behind the scenes.
> Thank you, Marilyn, for getting the Saguache County citizens educated and fired
> up and pursuing the legal remedies that allowed some big steps to take place
> this week, not the least of which is citizen access to anonymously cast voted
> ballots.
> 
> There is still work to be done, and she is going to be scanning the ballots
> Friday and probably Tuesday. She is after other election documents as well.
> Stay tuned.
> 
> I also have to thank the Saguache County citizens who gave their time and
> knowledge to serve as election judges and in other capacities. Without them,
> this review and the other steps along the way would never have happened.
> 
> Thank you again, Al. You helped too by communicating with the SoS and being
> present via electronic link during the crazy wrap-up session. Knowing that you
> and others in Colorado Voter Group were cheering us on was great moral support.
> 
> Best,
> Mary
> 
> Mary C. Eberle
> 1520 Cress Court
> Boulder, CO 80304
> (303) 442-2164
> 
> On 9/1/2011 9:03 PM, AlKolwicz wrote:
> 
>    
>      
> 
>     Dear Mary and Bill,
> 
>      
> 
> 
> 
>