Today, I went to the San Diego Board of Supervisors meeting in order to witness the discussion of the purchase of more Diebold touch-screen voting machines. It was a well-attended meeting, because the real issue (as set forth by San Diego Call to Action was the hiring of two new employees at the Registrar of Voters.
You can read about the background for this issue here. The short version is that former San Diego County Registrar, Mikel Haas, who has been involved in a number of voting controversies, including his choice and use of Diebold touch-screen machines which fail to meet even Diebold's own standards for security, and the infamous "sleep overs" where poll workers kept the machines at home for weeks prior to the elections, has been promoted, and in his place the county has selected Deborah Seiler, a former sales rep for Diebold, and Michael Vu, who recently left his job as registrar of Cuyahoga County, Ohio, amid convictions of several of his workers for rigging a recount in the 2004 election.
Some of us in San Diego have been rather upset by this, and Call to Action was able to amass a turnout that filled the meeting room. It was, to say the least, a lively meeting.
The meeting started with the usual "dog and pony show" stuff: a commemoration of Memorial Day, etc. Then the real fireworks began.
The Supes allowed 5 public commentators 3 minutes each to speak (how generous of them). Among them were Jenni Criscenzo, who ran for Congress in the 49th District, and who spoke about her lack of confidence in the system, and Brina-Rae Schuchman, who spoke with a deep conviction about the sad state of voting in San Diego County.
Supervisor Pam Slater felt compelled to interject that people who did not want to vote on touch-screens could vote by mail (although she conveniently forgot to mention that those who do will likely have their votes tabulated by having workers at the Registrar's office enter the data from their mail ballots into DIebold touch-screen machines). Her comments stirred up the crowd, and at least 3 people were ejected from the meeting.
After the public comment, the majority of those who had come to protest left. I knew better than to leave so soon. After they left, the Supervisors voted on another matter. Supervisor Bill Horn apparently felt compelled to let his true feelings be known; he joked "I'm sorry we are going to be voting electronically here," and made a comment about "hanging chads."
I'm not suprised about Supervisor Horn's comments, but I am compelled to say he should be ashamed of himself. It's true that votes are tabulated electronically, but the Supervisors each get to push a button, and then see it on a screen above their heads, as does everyone else. He is paid a lot of money to represent all the people of his district, not just those who agree with him. Those people who came to the meeting today did so on their own time and at their own expense; he should not be making fun of them.
Recently, Barbara Boxer said "elections have consequences." I hope that statement can mean something good, and not really bad for us in San Diego in the future. I wish I could feel more optomistic.