Treasure
06-14-2006, 06:00 PM
This morning I received the message below from Progressive Demos of America (PDA).
I observed the tally for a couple hours last Friday and again on Tuesday. We are extremely fortunate, because this 1% tally (audit of the machine count) is unique to California. Most (all?) other states have NO audit of their machine counts.
I highly recommend a few or more hours of observing the tally to all who think it makes sense to audit the machines that count our ballots. Party affiliation doesn't matter.
I found on Tuesday that when I was the ONLY observor, the tally became absolutely fascinating. I felt that it was up to me to help the people doing the tally remain attentive and count every single vote. Simply by being present, observors encourage the counters and demonstrate that voters place a high value on the 1% audit of the machine count.
Tara Treasurefield
--
June 6 has come and gone, but the official canvass of the ballots continues.
We need quite a few people to volunteer as observers, in order to cover the hours of ballot counting going on at the ROV office (from 9-5 daily). Currently, the mandatory random 1% hand count is being conducted. They have randomly selected 1% of the precincts and are hand counting 100% of the ballots cast in each of those precincts -- this is the procedure mandated by the Elections Code to check the accuracy of the machine count, conducted on the June 6 Election.
Yes! We do have voting machines. The optical scanners used to count the paper ballots we use in Sonoma County are electronic machines -- they run on software which is proprietary. More on that later.
The public is invited and SHOULD BE part of the process. Each political party can also send reps to observe the count. One of the things we need to do as part of the process of returning our elections to citizen control and oversight is to observe the 1% manual tally.
We need people there every day for the rest of the week. We will also need volunteers for next week, expected to be the last week of counting. Soon they will be counting the absentee ballots.
If you are able to do a two hour shift or more! at any time this week or next, please let us know. The ROV folks are friendly and the whole experience is an education in participatory democracy -- please consider observing the count FOR ALL OF US!
Please call Anna at, 545-6286 or e-mail Lynn at, [email protected] ([email protected]) to sign up for a shift, coordinated by Sonoma County Election Defense Committee.
*when you go to the Registrar of Voters building, check in at the office on the right. They will give you an Observer's badge and direct you to the counting room across the hall. The ROV office:
435 Fiscal Drive
Santa Rosa, California
I observed the tally for a couple hours last Friday and again on Tuesday. We are extremely fortunate, because this 1% tally (audit of the machine count) is unique to California. Most (all?) other states have NO audit of their machine counts.
I highly recommend a few or more hours of observing the tally to all who think it makes sense to audit the machines that count our ballots. Party affiliation doesn't matter.
I found on Tuesday that when I was the ONLY observor, the tally became absolutely fascinating. I felt that it was up to me to help the people doing the tally remain attentive and count every single vote. Simply by being present, observors encourage the counters and demonstrate that voters place a high value on the 1% audit of the machine count.
Tara Treasurefield
--
June 6 has come and gone, but the official canvass of the ballots continues.
We need quite a few people to volunteer as observers, in order to cover the hours of ballot counting going on at the ROV office (from 9-5 daily). Currently, the mandatory random 1% hand count is being conducted. They have randomly selected 1% of the precincts and are hand counting 100% of the ballots cast in each of those precincts -- this is the procedure mandated by the Elections Code to check the accuracy of the machine count, conducted on the June 6 Election.
Yes! We do have voting machines. The optical scanners used to count the paper ballots we use in Sonoma County are electronic machines -- they run on software which is proprietary. More on that later.
The public is invited and SHOULD BE part of the process. Each political party can also send reps to observe the count. One of the things we need to do as part of the process of returning our elections to citizen control and oversight is to observe the 1% manual tally.
We need people there every day for the rest of the week. We will also need volunteers for next week, expected to be the last week of counting. Soon they will be counting the absentee ballots.
If you are able to do a two hour shift or more! at any time this week or next, please let us know. The ROV folks are friendly and the whole experience is an education in participatory democracy -- please consider observing the count FOR ALL OF US!
Please call Anna at, 545-6286 or e-mail Lynn at, [email protected] ([email protected]) to sign up for a shift, coordinated by Sonoma County Election Defense Committee.
*when you go to the Registrar of Voters building, check in at the office on the right. They will give you an Observer's badge and direct you to the counting room across the hall. The ROV office:
435 Fiscal Drive
Santa Rosa, California