Last night I posted this diary about Florida Voting machines having weekend sleepovers at poll workers' houses.
http://www.dailykos.com/... Tonight, I emailed my Supervisor of Elections on the issues and copied everyone I could think of-- practically the entire planet.
The email/letter and the recipient list are below the fold.
Who recieved the email?
TO: The Supervisor of Elections, Jerry Holland jholland@coj.net <jholland@coj.net>
CC:
Local TV and Print News (Including locally produced NPR shows):
newstips@firstcoastnews.com ; audienceservices@fox30online.com ; news@firstcoastnews.com ; themail@folioweekly.com ; mike.clark@jacksonville.com ; marilyn.young@jacksonville.com ; editor@staugustinerecord.com ; lawrence.peck@staugustinerecord.com ; wir@wjct.org ; firstcoastforum@wjct.org ;
Mayors of 4 Cities in Duval County:
jpeyton@coj.net ; dbrown@neptune-beach.com ; dwolfson@coab.us ; FSharp@jaxbchfl.net ;
Bigger Media:
letters@nytimes.com ; letters@latimes.com ; editor@usatoday.com ; letters@washpost.com ; letters@newsweek.com ; letters@usnews.com ; letters@time.com ; wsj.ltrs@wsj.com ; letters@slate.com ; info@ap.org ; letters@nypost.com ; news@edit.nydailynews.com ; audsvcs@cbs.com ; evening@cbsnews.com ; wolf@cnn.com ; cnn@cnn.com ; comments@foxnews.com ; Special@foxnews.com ; Foxreport@foxnews.com ; nightly@nbc.com ; today@nbc.com ; dateline@nbc.com ; hardball@msnbc.com ; msnbcreports@msnbc.com ; info@cnbc.com ; newshour@pbs.org ; atc@npr.org ; morning@npr.org ; webmaster@hannity.com ; joe@msnbc.com
The funnier ones:
thecolbertreport@comedycentral.com ; thedailyshow@comedycentral.com; rrhodes@airamericaradio.com;
Candidates:
info@rodsmith2006.com ; jimdavis@jimdavis2006.com
What did I say?
Dear Mr. Holland,
It has come to my attention that you've made a dreadful decision as the Supervisor of Elections for Duval County, Florida.
Apparently, you've decided that it was a good idea to send all of our voting machines home with your employees for the weekend so that they can take them to the Early Voting sites on Monday morning for the Primary Election. Now, I understand that the rationale for this is that the sites open "early" (10 AM) on Monday and there is no time for you to have them picked up from storage and delivered to the sites on Monday. So, you thought that if the workers just piled the machines up in the back of their cars on Friday afternoon, they could conveniently drive them to the sites on Monday.
I can see where this might be convenient for you and your employees. However, I really have a problem with this decision. In fact, I am down-right furious.
Mr. Holland, are you not aware of all of the election fraud that's been committed in this very county? Even if you don't believe it to be true, you must be aware that many voters are extremely concerned about our voting rights. You must know that it is your job, as an elected official, to use your power to its fullest extent to protect this very right. You must realize that it is entirely absurd that the very machine I will use to vote on Monday is sitting in someone's garage, living room or back seat of a car somewhere in Jacksonville right now!
Sir, it is bad enough that many voters will be using Diebold touch-screen machines that have been proven to be easily hacked. Do you have to make it worse by allowing these machines, along with the opti-scan machines, to sit unsupervised in the homes and cars of your employees for the 48 hours immediately prior to an election? Do you realize how crazy that sounds?
Even if you have 100% confidence in all of your employees, their family members, friends and whoever else may stop by their houses this weekend, you can't expect the Voters to feel the same way. And please don't tell me about all the "security measures" you have in place. Locks keep out the good guys. These machines are vulnerable if someone is smart enough to get around your measures. And believe me, someone is smart enough.
Mr. Holland, there are many other professional and secure ways to get the voting machines to work on time. How about asking your buddy, Mayor Peyton, to borrow 14 city vans and 14 city employees to get up real early Monday, pick the machines up from a locked facility and deliver them to the 14 Early Voting sites? Sure, it would cost a little overtime money but I'd bet you'd have plenty of volunteers who could really use a some extra cash in their paychecks this week. Isn't our right to have our votes protected worth a little extra money?
Now that I know about this mishandling of the machines on the way to the polls, I really need to understand where you plan for the machines to go after the election. I assume it's probably the most convenient for your employees to take them home for the night after the election. So, that's probably what the plan is. Just know that this is entirely unacceptable.
I do look forward to hearing back from you. I'm really hoping you can offer a better explanation than I've been given for these decisions. I also am interested in hearing about your plan to fix this prior to the General Election. If memory serves me well, you and I live in the same subdivision. Please feel free to drop by and discuss in person. I'll even make you a cup of coffee. I'm in the book. If you're not up for a visit to your neighbor an email will suffice.
Regards,
[My real name]
Concerned Citizen and Proud American
Wondering where my voting machine is sleeping tonight....