History Made on a.m. 1360: Jennifer Brunner

     She is now talking with machine vendors about where they are in the certification process, standards updated in 2006 at the federal level. She wants the machines to measure up to EVEREST standards; her staff is “working hard on it.”

     The next caller, Patricia, asked what will ensure Ohio against product defects. She referred to certification of defective machines in the past, exemplified in EVEREST. How can there be a successful transition? We will move as quickly as possible, Brunner answered, with accountability.

      Steve called to ask how it was possible that a law allowing caging, Ohio HB3, was passed. Members of the press caught this and reported it. The law requires that a sixty-day notice be mailed to all registered voters, at taxpayers’ expense, not forwardable. Caging is a thinly disguised effort, reported by Greg Palast and others in the 2006 campaign season, to catch voters who are not at home and then take advantage of the situation—the voter may be in the military, for instance, or in dire financial straits and staying with relatives, and in these and other scenarios will be deprived of the right to vote.

     Another caller pointed out an article in a Dayton newspaper claiming that the changes Brunner is implementing are too late to succeed. The secretary of state compared the chore to “turning the Queen Mary; nonetheless, the transition from punch-card to e-voting was far more difficult for all involved than will be the change to paper ballots.

     Victoria pointed out that the optical scanners will be purchased from the same vendors who manufactured the effete DREs that had cost the state $31 million. Is it possible to bypass the vendors? Answered Brenner, there are limitations on how HAVA money can be spent—on observers of the vote count, for example. She doesn’t think that the state legislature would approve such a move—“there is no political will for hand counting.”

Mary Ann next exhorted the large listening public to urge their Congressional Representatives to support Rush Holt’s latest initiative, HR 5036, the Emergency Assistance for Secure Elections for 2008 Act. Currently in Pennsylvania only two representatives support it, along with three in Ohio. The message is to support “fast tracking” of the bill without any changes, to allow states to switch to optical scanners or hand-counted paper ballots.

The last five minutes of this weekly program, aired Wednesdays from 8 to 9, was occupied by Lawyer Mark Adams of South Carolina and projectvotecount.com. He said that an article in opednews.com on January 14 reported that his state’s constitution, at article 2, section 1, forbids the secret counting of votes. Why this discovery after the entire state uses DREs? None of the Democratic candidates have spoken up about this finding.

     All they do is solicit contributions, said Adams.

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