1) Demand local policies for the following matters pertaining to elections:
a) Require all election workers and poll workers to sign an affidavit: "I am not
related to anyone on the ballot"
b) Do not permit family members of election staff or candidates to volunteer in
any capacity that provides access to election records or computers.
These are decisions that can be implemented locally regardless of whether the
state requires such measures.
2) Short term: Identify the family relationships in your local elections
jurisdiction. Anyone can do this, with a little legwork. Long term: Push for
Personal Relationships Disclosure Requirements. Disclosing family ties should be
simple. We know who our family is. If it takes too long to fill out the form listing family members employed by local and state government, you've got too many relatives on the payroll.
3) Work to secure state legislation or a constitutional amendment similar to the
Missouri Constitution anti-nepotism clause. (It is ironic that a current
candidate for Kentucky governor thinks it's more important to change the
constitution to allow gambling than to eliminate Kentucky's nepotism problem).
Exterminating nepotism will help deal with farcical elections. The next article
in the Moonshine series will address the intolerable: felonious conduct by public officials.
The Complete Moonshine Elections Series:
1 -- The Hunt for Joe Bolton: http://www.blackboxvoting.org/moonshine1.pdf
2 -- Family-Run Government: http://www.blackboxvoting.org/moonshine2.pdf
Still to come
3 -- Felonious conduct by public officials
4 -- The Bullitt County Experience
5 -- Moonshine Solutions
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Extraordinary work by Bullitt County citizen Kathy Greenwell triggered this
investigative report.
It's not often you read in the newspaper that a candidate for sheriff -- in this
case, Kathy's husband, Dave Greenwell -- is running a campaign with an explicit
promise to clean up nepotism in county hiring practices. That flagged the issue
for us, and a closer look reveals that this problem is significant, jeopardizes
computerized elections, and is not limited to Bullitt County.
When Dave announced his intent to run for Bullitt County sheriff, he was fired.
He is now a police officer in nearby Pioneer Village.
Election rights attorney Paul Lehto has done a masterful job of framing the issues of counting votes in secret, and provided several of the frames used in this article.
Black Box Voting administrative assistant Natalie has contributed
astute insights and suggested some of the practical solutions. She trekked
around Kentucky with me capturing video and asking questions.
And thanks also to the mighty Nancy Tobi, from whom I purloined the "gone wild" concept for the "Nepotism Gone Wild" subhead. Her "Citizens Gone Wild" concept in New Hampshire is an empowering way to take action.
Citizens who wish to become more involved: Black Box Voting has prepared an easy to follow "Citizens Tool Kit" for you, available for free online:
http://www.blackboxvoting.org/toolkit.html
