EXCLUSIVE: Busby/Bilbray Registrar Gives 3 Different Prices to Hand Count!

[BradBlog]

EXCLUSIVE: Busby/Bilbray Registrar's Office Quotes Three Different Prices for Cost of Hand Count to Voters, Media; No Explanation Given for Disparities!
Election Integrity Advocates told Hand Count Fees to be $6000/day, While Media told Fees Would be $2000-3000/day
ALSO: No Documents for Ballot Chain of Custody, Machine Audit Logs, 1% Random Audit, as Requested by Hand Count Filing, Have Been Produced by San Diego County Registrar's Office Despite Demand for $6000 Payment Due Tuesday…

The San Diego County Registrar's office seems to be playing games with the amount they are attempting to charge for the cost of a manual hand count request as filed for accountability in the June 6th Busby/Bilbray U.S. House special election.

As well, the office has so far refused to produce any of the documents requested by the voter who filed for the hand count as required by California state law.

As we reported originally, the SD County Assistant Registrar of Voters, Tim McNamara, had informed an Election Integrity advocate via email that the cost of such a count was estimated to be "in the range of $110,000 to $130,000 and would take approximately 24 to 30 working days." The total estimated cost would be $6000 per day. (Complete email from McNamara included with full article.)

However, a story from Friday's North County Times in San Diego on the manual hand count request (they, inaccurately, call it a "recount request") quotes an estimate from the RoV's office that is less than half that size:

Registrar of voters spokesman Mike Workman said that county counsel is now reviewing Jacobson's request for a recount…a process which can cost the requesting party as much as $2,000 to $3,000 a day, Workman said.

Further, SD County Registrar Mikel Haas has FedExed a letter to the requester of the manual hand count, informing her that she must pay $6000 by 3pm this Tuesday, July 11th, to begin the count which he estimates in his letter will to be "between $120,000 and $150,000." (Complete letter from Haas is also included with full article.)

His letter also failed to include responses to numerous documents requested, such as chain of custody logs for ballots and voting machines, any of the audit logs from the machines used on election day, or any of the information requested on precinct voter breakdowns as allowed to the requester by state law (CA Election Code 15630 and other related sections) before such a hand count can begin.

"I have received no responses to any of my requests for information," Jacobson told us. "Not even any information on the required 1% manual audit that was supposed to have been done prior to the certification." ...

MORE, LETTERS FROM ROV'S OFFICE, COMPLETE STORY:
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=3045

Fundraising for associated Busby/Bilbray accountability efforts:
http://www.velvetrevolution.us/donate.php


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Brad Friedman
THE BRAD BLOG - The uprising continues...
http://www.BradBlog.com
VELVET REVOLUTION - The revolution begins...
http://www.VelvetRevolution.us

[Roland99]

1. Guess it depends on how big the skimming gets.

[msongs]

2. the entire election should be invalidated as machines went home over

night in violation of california law, according to reports here on DU.

Msongs
www.msongs.com/political-shirts.htm

[BradBlog]

3. Agreed, msongs...but...

If we lived in a world where the Rule of Law actually meant anything, then yes, the election would be invalidated for the use of 100% decertified voting machines.

That said, while I'm in favor it, we're more likely to get a court ordered hand count of the paper ballots since at least they exist here (mostly actual paper ballots, and just a few unreliable, unverifiable "paper trails"). As long as the margin between the two candidates is larger than the number of DRE votes cast in the race, after a hand count, we could have some certainty in the election results as announced.

If the margin is smaller than the number of votes cast on the DRE systems however, we're screwed and there is no way to get an accurate count of the election.

Any hand count, of course, presumes the chain of custody has been secure on the ballots themselves. Given the way this Registrar of Voters has operated in San Diego, however, that is not a particular safe assumption any more.

Brad