Anybody interested in the CA governor's election should know the longtime and well-regarded California Director of Elections was unceremoniously fired Tuesday morning, and will be replaced by a major touchscreen voting machine booster who has said repeatedly that paper trails are "a bad idea."
Just-fired elections chief John Mott-Smith had worked in the Sec'y of State's office since 1979, and was "exceptionally competent at his job, well liked and always available."
Who's his replacement? (expected to be announced this morning): former registrar of voters of Alameda County Bradley Clark, a cheerleader for paperless electronic voting machines, who was described by UC Berkeley's j-school newspaper in 2000 as "a driving force in researching and instituting touchscreen machines and bringing them to the attention of Secretary of State Bill Jones, who certified the machines for use in California."
here's a current non-registration-only article from the Oakland Tribune mentioning some of the issues:
http://www.insidebayarea.com/oaklandtribune/localnews/ci_2658265
here's the blog item that first alerted me:
http://electioncentral.blog-city.com/read/1196907.htm
here's an earlier diary, on the troubling ties of some of the members of the "transition team" for new Sec'y of State Bruce McPherson (appointed by Schwarzenegger to replace Keven Shelley, who gave us the "paper trail by 2006" rule in CA.) One team member is Adan Ortega, Jr., a lobbyist for the firm that represents Diebold Election Systems.
Will CA's new Sec'y of State dump "paper trail by 2006" rule?
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/3/28/132948/585
Anybody got any ideas for an action item, please post such ideas. the CA Dem Convention is happening this weekend, and I'd encourage anybody planning to attend to talk up the "paper trail" rule. We need to make our paper trail rule something that Schwarzenegger -- or enabling Democrats! -- cannot discard without a heavy political price.