So, last we visited the Golden State, Secretary of State Kevin Shelley (D) had demanded that all voting machines have a
voter verifiable paper ballot. Then, Shelley was caught with his hand in the cookie jar, so he
resigned. Herr Gropenfuehrer nominated the well respected, mild-mannered
Bruce McPherson (R) in his place. McPherson has always tacitly supported the intent of the new laws. Until now.
Apparently he was only happy with the current laws because it had an immense loophole! This loophole is in the process of being swell-foopedly crushed in a bill just passed, called
SB 370. Pointedly, it states the following:
This bill would provide that on a direct recording electronic voting system, the electronic record of each vote shall be considered the official record of the vote, except that the voter verified paper audit trail shall be the official paper audit record and shall be used in the manual tally and any recount.
Existing law provides that, if in the event of a recount of an election in which the votes were recorded by a punchcard, electronic, or electromechanical system, the voter demanding the recount may select whether the recount is conducted manually, by means of the voting system used originally, or both.
This is just about the coolest bill that's ever happened since we realized the Republicans were rigging the voting machines. It is the ONLY solution that is not susceptible to tampering via the electronic counting system. Yet today, McPherson published an op-ed in the San Jose Mercury News urging a veto of this bill, and like any moral Republican would do, hides behind the handicapped to do so.
He starts off with a real knee slapper:
My biggest objection in using the paper trail to check voting machine performance is that it denies many in the disabled community the ability to have the same level of confidence in the process that all other voters enjoy.
Please. So equal LACK of confidence in the system is more important than the overwhelming majority of voters actually having STRONG confidence in the system? This is one of the worst cases of twisted logic I've ever read.
He goes on:
Current technology only provides an audible method of verifying votes for visually disadvantaged voters who cast ballots on a computer screen. I have heard from several members of the disabled community who are very troubled because there is no such review for the paper trail, leaving this community out of the process.
Let me get this straight...because some of the disabled will be unable to tell whether their audible verification matches their printed verification, then the whole system is unfair? This is more important than NO ONE being able to tell whether the tallied vote matches their on-screen verification? I swear, Rove has gotten to this guy.
Oh yeah, he also raises the complaint that the paper quality is only good enough for a voter verification, and not strong enough to go through the rigors of recounts or audits. To that I say --- THEN FIX THE GODDAMNED PAPER QUALITY!!!!!!
Please contact Ahnold, and urge him to sign SB 370