Sunday, May 11, 2008
Arizona Elections Bills, Good & Bad
Our sister organization ACER has put together a list of bills currently in the Arizona Legislature regarding election integrity, Arizona election process and the Arizona Secretary of State elections manual. We need the support of citizens to make sure our elections are free from fraud and transparent to the public in Arizona. Their website lists 17 bills but since we have highlighted three in the past, we are going to do so again here: -
SB1053 elections; counting center; observation. (Senators Gray and Blendu.) Adds a new provision to state law that all proceedings at the counting center shall be under the observation of a representative of a candidate for nonpartisan office, a representative of a political committee in support of or in opposition to a ballot measure, proposition or question. Current law specifies representatives of each political party and the public. The bill provides for observers in non partisan elections. Passed out of Senate Judiciary. SUPPORT -
SB1395 orders of protection; animals strike all bill for elections (Senator Johnson) Creates provision for graphic scanning of 10% of early, provisional and polling place ballots for purposes on maintaining the transparency of the vote counting process. SUPPORT -
SB1477 elections; manual audit revisions (Senator Johnson and Senator Gray) Expands the hand count from 1% to 2% or ten thousand for early ballots to conform with the 2% manual audit of the precinct-cast ballots. On Senate Judiciary agenda for 2-25-08. SUPPORT
ACER lists their support and opposition to the various 17 bills. AuditAZ supports the three aforementioned, and for the full 17, please click here. When you review that list, you will aslo see another bill which we join ACER in opposing. The lawsuit the Pima County Democratic Party has filed against Pima County Board of Supervisors and the Elections Division and their "lost" tapes highlights why this bill will do more damage to our transparency of elections in Arizona: -
HB 2364 election law amendments. (Representatives Crandall, Reagan: Adams, Konopnicki) Makes a number of changes to election law. Makes changes to the election date concerning a vacancy for a U.S. representative of Arizona. Makes changes to dates in the voter registration file concerning when a person can be moved to the inactive list and eventually removed. Eliminates of ARS 16-445 Section 11 E. Specifically strikes this language: Each program tape or disc or any other material submitted to the secretary of state shall be returned to the county, city or town within six months after the close of the election for which it was submitted except: 1. When a court ordered recount is pending. 2. When a restraining order is in effect. 3. When any other legal action is pending. The bottom line is that these changes could bolster the argument that no one can examine what is sent to the Secretary of State. The material sent to the Secretary of State would have been important to the Pima County Democratic Party's examination of fraud in the RTA election. That material was sent back to Pima County where it "disappeared." Subsection A would not require Pima County to destroy evidence because the Secretary of State would destroy it for them. Passed out of House Judiciary 2-21-08. OPPOSE
Labels: Arizona election legislation, Arizona elections, Karen Johnson, State legislature
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Friday, April 18, 2008
Attend April 21st, 9:30 am Court Hearing
Show Your Support for Election Transparency
Monday, April 21 9:30am
Judge Michael Miller’s Courtroom
Sixth Floor Pima County Superior Court
110 West Congress Judge Miller’s ruling established a nationally significant precedent that established computerized election database records as public records. The Pima County Democratic Party pleading requested the release of all computerized databases. Although Judge Miller ordered databases from the 2006 primary and general elections released, Pima County attorneys fought to dictate the terms of the transfer. Pima County Democratic Party Chair Vince Rabago and Attorney Bill Risner won that skirmish, forcing the county technical staff to transfer data to a new laptop out of the box, to prevent any corruption of data in public view of a video camera. Only a united expression of multipartisan objection stopped the Board of Supervisors from following the County Attorney’s advice to appeal Judge Miller’s ruling. In face of public opposition the Board reversed itself and agreed to release the database from the RTA election because citizens stood up and demanded to be listened to.
Monday’s Hearing will focus on release of the rest of the election databases from 1995 going forward. Release of all databases will allow computer analysts at the University of Arizona to analyze all Pima County computerized databases to facilitate the development of a software tool capable of detecting irregularities in computer data that need further investigation. Depositions from top national computer security experts with election experience concur that there is no security risk from releasing data from past elections. Yet County Administrator Chuck Huckleberry has thrown up a smokescreen by misrepresenting the facts to justify withholding public records.
Transparent elections depend upon the release databases after every election.
Sandra Spangler
Acting Chair, Pima County Democratic Party Election Integrity Committee
Labels: Arizona elections, Chuck Huckeberry, court hearing, election fraud, Judge Miller, pima county election
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Saturday, March 15, 2008
Uncounted's Tucson Premiere
 On March 11, 2008, AuditAZ sponsored the Tucson premiere of Uncounted - The New Math of American Elections.
The turnout was spectacular with approximately 350 attendees. Director David Earnhardt along with The Brad Blog's Brad Friedman and Pima Democratic Party attorney Bill Risner spoke after the movie on issues regarding election integrity. The attendees were then allowed to ask questions of the panel. A special thanks to The Loft for allowing us to show the movie at their theatre and their ongoing support of the community.
Arlene Leaf and Sandra Spangler, AuditAZ organizers (left), hand out information on Senate bills, our organization, the Pima County Democratic lawsuit against the County, and sell DVDs to moviegoers.
Director David Earnhardt (lower right) did a spectacular job on the movie both in content and presentation. Michael Moore could learn a few tricks from Mr. Earnhardt on production quality.
Of course, we had time for a few laughs and silliness. Mary Mancini, (lower center) Media & Outreach Specialist, poses with the movie DVD at the behest of AuditAZ organizer Cheryl Rohrick.
After the panel discussion and Q & A, moviegoers gathered on the patio to chat more until we were kicked out at closing. Several of us moved the party to Kingfisher restaurant where we enjoyed more intimate conversations with David, Mary and Brad.
If you are interested in having a house party to educate voters on what is happening to our elections, you can now buy the DVD and host your own screening.Labels: Arizona election law, AuditAZ, Bill Risner, Brad Friedman, David Earnhardt, election fraud, Uncounted
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Monday, March 10, 2008
Contact your Senators for Support
YES We COUNT!!
Tell Arizona Legislators to Move These Bills Forward For Transparent Elections! Find your House and Senate Members at www.azleg.gov Log in to Request to Speak On the Record to Legislators via the Internet. http://alistrack.azleg.gov/rts/login.asp Sign up at Tucson Legislative Office 520-398-6000 for a user name and password SB 1053 Expands right of candidates and political committees to send observers to provide oversight for nonpartisan elections. (Former State Rep. Ted Downing worked with Sen. Chuck Gray to write this bill. Contact Sen. Gray at cgray@azleg.gov (602)926-5288 SB 1395 Legalizes Graphic scanning of early, provisional ballots and 10% of polling station votes. Graphic ballot images can be burned to a single-use disk and/or placed on a website. This bill would make it possible for Pima County to implement its proposal for scanning that was opposed by the Secretary of State. (Sen. Karen Johnson is the sponsor of strike-all bill that originally was for orders of protection for animals). Contact Sen. Johnson at kjohnson@azleg.gov (602)926-3160 SB 1477 Allows political parties to do logic and accuracy tests using their own marked ballots. Improves auditing procedures. (Dr. Tom Ryan, www.azfairelections.org spearheaded this bill sponsored by Sen. Karen Johnson and Sen. Linda Gray. Contact Sen. Johnson
kjohnson@azleg.gov (602)926-3160 and Sen. Gray lgray@azleg.gov (602) 926-3376 Labels: Arizona election law, Arizona election legislation, Chuck Gray, Karen Johnson, Linda Gray
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Wednesday, March 05, 2008
"Uncounted" Movie in Tucson...meet the director
YOU'RE INVITED TO A SCREENING OF
UNCOUNTED: The New Math of American ElectionsA Film by David Earnhardt"...powerful and persuasive..."
Howard Zinn, Author, "A People's History of the United States"
"Very powerful. Clear and succinct. This film is urgent viewing if you care about democracy and the integrity of the electoral process."
Robert Koehler, Syndicated Columnist, Tribune Media Services
"A vital and important work...Uplifting, encouraging, optimistic..."
Brad Friedman, Investigative Journalist, BradBlog.com
Watch the Trailer
TUCSON, AZ
The Loft Cinema
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
7:30 PM
Post Film Q&A with filmmaker David Earnhardt, The Brad Blog's Brad Friedman, and election integrity attorney, Bill Risner
Hosted by Audit AZ
SEDONA, AZ
Future Studios Cinema
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
7:30 PM
Post Film Q&A with filmmaker David Earnhardt and Arizona Democratic Party Election Integrity Committee Member Greg Kaighn
Hosted by: Greg Kaighn and AuditAZ (Americans United for Democracy, Integrity and Transparency in Elections)
PHOENIX, AZ
Harkins Camelview 5
Thursday, March 13, 2008
7:15 pm
Post Film Q&A with filmmaker David Earnhardt and The Brad Blog's Brad Friedman
Sponsored by: 1480 KPHX and Action Point with Cynthia Black
Hosted by: Arizona Advocacy Network (AZAN) and Democracy for America Maricopa County (DFA-MC)
UNCOUNTED is a wakeup call to all Americans. It will change how you feel about elections in America.
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