PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARY ELECTIONS, FEBRUARY 5, 2008

"I am concerned for the security of our great nation, not so much because of any threat from without, but because of the insidious forces working from within." -General Douglas MacArthur

"In politics, nothing happens by accident. If it happens, it was planned that way." -Franklin D. Roosevelt

"No matter how paranoid or conspiracy-minded you are, what the government is actually doing is worse than you imagine." -J. Edgar Hoover

"All men in power should be distrusted to a certain degree". -James Madison

OBSERVING THE VOTE COUNT- PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARY ELECTIONS, FEBRUARY 5, 2008

By Martin Hill
LibertyFight.com
MTRNews.com
2/7/08

I went down with my camera and audio recorder and observed election night activities at the San Bernardino County, California Registrar Of Voters Office on Tuesday February 5, 2008. After they let me in, I mentioned that I was a volunteer Ron Paul Campaign precinct captain. I declined to divulge this information prior to being let in because one does not have to be any sort of official, reporter, or campaign worker to have access to the election process. Every citizen has a right to observe the election proceedings and to document them, and should take the opportunity to do so.

I was the only observer there other than two newspaper employees (one from the San Bernardino County Sun and one from the Press Enterprise). Two women from the Secratary Of State office were there briefly, as well as one person from the city of San Bernardino. A supervisor named Larry with the SEQUOIA company was also on hand as a visitor. [See the 'Brad Blog' for more info on 'Optical Scan Voting Machines'].

The employees of the county were very nice, professional, and accommodating. They escorted me on my tour of the entire facility and answered all questions that I had. The California Secratary of State, Debra Bowen, had decertified electronic touch screen voting machines last year, so the county used paper ballots. The machines that Bowen had decertified are known as 'direct recording electronic', or DRE machines. See the state's statement on this issue here. That action may quell some skeptics doubts, but one aspect of this that I found interesting is that the paper ballots themselves are fed into computer counting machines. The county of San Bernardino uses SEQUOIA 400Cs. Here is the company's official website info on those machines.

Whether or not those machines maintain voter integrity may still be doubtful to skeptics. See Black Box Voting.org for more info.

While they did comply with the new regulations, I heard county election officials scoffing about Debra Bowen's demand for the return to paper ballots. "This is how my grandpappy used to vote!" one official joked to his coworkers. The SEQUOIA supervisor I spoke with seemed sincere in his confidence of touch screen machines. He referred to 'the black box voting crazies' and also said it was unnecessary to switch to paper ballots, and thought Bowen was doing it to make a name for herself.

The California Election Integrity group Election Defense Alliance, who helped me with suggestions before my visit, states on their website electiondefensealliance.org that 'There is NO REASON to assume that the vote on a paper ballot fed into an Optical Scanner is counted as the voter intended.'

I will post audio of my interview and tour of the facility tomorrow. Meanwhile here are two short videos of the vote counting rooms and some photos. To view a larger version of any of the photos, simply right click on it, view PROPERTIES of the photo and paste the URL into your browser. Thanks to my friend Robin for help with the research on this article.

Election workers cleaning the machines on election night- San Bernardino County, California