Pima County Appeals Order to Turn Over Election Data

Case Update 12/28/07: County Appeals Court Order for Disclosure

Fellow Tucsonans, we're back where we started with Chuck Huckleberry's Pima County Board of Supervisors.

The County has appealed Judge Miller's decision ordering them to turn over the election data files.
[See downloadable PDF files Notice of Appeal and Motion for Stay Pending Appeal].

Facts are: [Pima County Administrator] Chuck Huckleberry has known about the "backdoor" into the GEMS voting system since 1996. That was when Huckleberry authorized Bryan Crane to use that backdoor to merge the two databases together. What Crane figured how to do, is not something described in the official user manual.

In 1996 Pima County used punch cards at precincts and vote by mail ballots were counted on optical scanners made by Global Election Systems (the firm that later became Diebold Election Systems in 2002).

How do you think Huckleberry became the most powerful bureaucrat in the state? "By being the man behind the curtain. Now it's time to pull the curtain back," as Supervisor Ray Carroll said in an interview for Arizona Illustrated several months ago.

From my reading of the request for a stay to Judge Miller's decision, as filed by attorneys for the board of supervisors, their plan is clear:
(1) Tie this case up in court;
(2) draw it out past the November '08 elections;
(3) get the current board of supervisors re-elected for 4 more years; and
(4) hope that we still live in the land of amnesia.

Excerpt from the Stay filed on December 21 2007:

"The County respectfully submits that such a stay is appropriate in light of the sensitive nature of the computer files that constitute the subject-mater of this case, as well as the fact that the County's desire to protect those computer files from disclosure would be prejudiced irreparably in the event such release were to occur prior to the conclusion of the County's appeal in the matter."

It's clear that if the databases were to be released that at least 3 out of 5 Supervisors would be prejudiced irreparably by the databases that very well could show election fraud. What other reason could there be? We've heard all the rest of the diversions over the last year and in Court. You would think that the supervisors would want to protect their integrity and give us the transparency that would end the debate. That's why we went to court and had a four-day trial.

Please write the Board of Supervisors, call them, and be there at the BOS meeting January 8th.

They had their day in court!
Tell them the "Mayhem and Chaos" defense lost and to "Get over it"!
Tell the BoS it's over!
Tell them, "We the People" all seem to agree that elections should be free, fair, accurate, trustworthy, and transparent!

I've yet to meet anybody who admits to being opposed to free, fair, accurate, and trustworthy, transparent elections.
At least till now!

Ray Carroll is the only supervisor who has consistently demonstrated that he truly stands for honest, transparent government and elections.
We might be able to persuade Supervisor Ann Day to support the stand of a fellow Republican supervisor.

Let's see how Board Chair Richard Elias decides to vote. He has always voted with us when we were on the losing side. But this time when his vote would be critical to upholding Judge Miller's order to allow the Democratic party to access the database, will he stand up for transparency, or obey the head cheese, King Huckleberry of Pima County?

Call or write the BOS. Let's hold them accountable. Join with us January 8th.

What we do does make a difference, especially if we maintain our civility.

Be the media and tell others.

--John R Brakey
AUDITAZ[at]cox[dot]net

Featured Mini-Clips of Trial Testimony

Testimony of Bryan Crane on the RTA and iBeta Report -- 17 minutes
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7304338799617243809

Link to the iBeta report on Pima election system vulnerabilities -- which doesn't quite say what county technology officer Bryan Crane claims it does.
http://www.electiondefensealliance.org/files/iBeta_Election_Forensic_Rep...

The testimony of Jim Barry illustrates that the Pima County government had a deep, vested interest in the outcome of the RTA election. http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1282511168148207359

Testimony of County Administrator Chuck Huckleberry, the bureaucratic head cheese in Pima government.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4175279576759012912