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Archived Activism San Diego Election Integrity Activism: REFLECTIONS ON THE MAY 22, 2007 BOARD MEETING The general analysis of the meeting? The attendance was great, the speakers were excellent and our specific audience, the Board of Supervisors and Mr. Walter Ekard, the Chief Administrative Officer for San Diego County, were unhappy with their citizens who attended the meeting. THE QUESTION? How can election integrity citizens influence Mr. Walter Ekard, the Chief Administrative Officer who runs San Diego County Government and the Board of Supervisors to pay serious attention to the problems of County Elections? WHAT HAPPENED AT THE BOARD MEETING: Approximately 60 energized citizens descended upon the May 22 Board of Supervisors Meeting to voice their unhappiness with the conduct of elections in San Diego County. Nine persons made excellent presentations to the Board covering a wide-range of election integrity topics.1 At a recess, halfway through the morning session, about 40 members of the group went outside to hold a press conference. The rest of the concerned citizens stayed inside to follow the meeting and hear the final speakers’ presentations. Once again the speakers were excellent and their supporters enthusiastic. OUR CITIZENS' FRUSTRATED REACTION: The enthusiasm of the 60 citizens worried the Board as the audience clapped for the public speakers and jeered comments made by Walter Ekard and Pam Slater-Price, a supervisor. Three of the audience members were ejected from the meeting by Board President Ron Roberts for their frustrated outbursts to the inane comments of Mr. Ekard and Ms. Slater-Price.2 SUPERVISORS’ LACK OF INTEREST: The Supervisors appeared comfortable and secure. It is as if the Supervisors have carved out a constituency that will continually elect them to office and they need pay no attention to other voters, such as ourselves. Mr. Ekard and the Supervisors have never demonstrated the slightest bit of curiosity over presentations made by election integrity speakers nor have they seemed to question why the audience members are so upset with the Supervisors and their policies. To my knowledge, neither Mr. Ekard nor the supervisors have ever asked a question of an election integrity presenter at a board meeting or in private. THE MEDIA'S REACTION: The media seems to be the only way election integrity activists can carry their message out to the greater public. This presents difficulties as they seem to value comments made by public officials and office holders than unhappy citizens. In addition, election integrity issues tend to be too complex to be explained in newspaper articles and TV news segments. Channel 6 Fox was the only TV station to cover the event and were quite good. Over the last few days Channel 6 news has run a number of segments questioning San Diego County's hiring of Michael Vu due to his poor record as head of elections in Cuyahoga County, Ohio. From the print media, the Union Tribune, North County Times, San Diego City Beat being present. There may have been other print media present. The Tribune and Times stories may be seen at the sites below:
San Diego Union Tribune,
"Protesters cry foul over election hires"
North County Times, "Protesters
criticize county elections hirings"
San Diego City Beat, "And
that's it."
Some of the issues raised by citizens at the May 22 board Meeting:
Some of the comments made by Walter Ekard and board member Pam Slater-Price:
So
what's the plan?
WHY DO WE NEED TO PROTEST?
LOOK AT THE BAGGAGE WALTER EKARD HAS BROUGHT TO SAN DIEGO COUNTY! In an article that appeared in the North County Times, Chief Administrative Officer Walter Ekard said he'd happily "hire somebody with baggage" to manage the registrar's office if he or she had the right experience. Seiler and Vu, who, combined, have got as much baggage as stowage on the QEII, proves that Ekard means what he says,"I'm accountable for Vu." WHO RUNS SAN DIEGO COUNTY? San Diego County’s Chief Administrative Officer is Walter Ekard. He is appointed by the County Board of Supervisors and therefore should be accountable to them. BUT&ldots; WHO RUNS THE COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISORS? More and more it appears as though it is Walter Ekard who is calling the shots for the county and not the Board of Supervisors. However, it is the County Board of Supervisors which is answerable to the voters of San Diego County. WHAT HAS CAO WALTER EKARD DONE LATELY REGARDING THE POWERFUL POSITION OF REGISTRAR OF VOTERS? • Ekard promoted San Diego Registrar of Voters Mikel Haas to Director of the county’s Community Services Group. He will now oversee the Registrar of Voters, the County Library System, and the Departments of Animal Services, Housing and Community Development, Purchasing, and Contracting. http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2007/03/24/news/sandiego/13_77_063_23_07.txt • Ekard brought the baggage of Mischelle Townsend as "temporary Registrar of Voters." San Diego County Temporary Registrar Mischelle Townsend was Riverside County’s Registrar of Voters when the following events occurred: Linda Soubirous, an underdog Republican candidate for the Riverside County Board of Supervisors, found herself the victim of a very strange election. On Primary Election Night, March 2, 2004, Riverside County stopped counting votes. At the same time there were no Riverside County employees in the vote counting room. But the room was not deserted, two Sequoia employees were alone in the room, Mike Frontera, a Sequoia Vice President and Eddie Campbell. See the following article for more details: http://www.lacitybeat.com/article.php?id=1013&IssueNum=55 Three questions: 1. Why did Mischelle Townsend’s office stop counting votes? 2. Why were there no Riverside County employees in the vote counting room? 3. Why were Sequoia employees Mike Frontera and Eddie Campbell by themselves in this same counting room? And it gets worse, just read on: • Ekard brought the baggage attached to Michael Vu from Cuyahoga County, Ohio. Michael Vu gained the national spotlight when Cuyahoga County botched the primary election and two officials were convicted for mishandling the 2004 presidential election. See more information at www.secureelections.org Ohio local report on Vu's resignation http://www.newsnet5.com/politics/10943511/detail.html North County Times article announcing Vu's hire. http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2007/04/12/news/sandiego/5_02_564_11_07.txt • Ekard has now hired Deborah Seiler--the former sales representative for Diebold Electronic Voting Systems--as San Diego’s new Registrar of Voters. http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20070512-9999-7m12seiler.html Seems that Seiler is one of those "revolving door" officials, first working for 12 years in elections for the California Secretary of State's office, then, in 1991, going through the revolving door to become Government Relations Director for Sequoia Voting Systems. Next stop was at Diebold Election Systems Inc. as a sales representative. While working for Diebold, Seiler sold 1,200 machines to Solana County, machines that were later decertified by then Secretary of State Kevin Shelly. Solano County, however, welcomed her back through the revolving door as Assistant Registrar of Voters, the position she held until Ekard hired her as SD-ROV. Links to articles on Seiler: http://www.wired.com/politics/security/news/2004/09/65120 http://www.votersunite.org/article.asp?id=2990 http://www.bradblog.com/?p=4540
The time is NOW to ensure that citizen outrage is registered concerning the recent appointment of officials at the San Diego County Registrar of Voters!
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