November 21, 2006
War With Iran
Senator Cantwell-
Good grief.
I wrote to express concern about the Bush Administration's efforts to preemptively attack Iran. And I asked what can be done to stop the insanity. You replied with outdated platitudes, denying the obvious. This feels just like the fabricated run up to Iraq.
Iran doesn't have any nuclear weapons programs. How, exactly, is a diplomatic solution to a problem that doesn't exist supposed to work?
Thanks. For what, I have no idea.
Cheers, Jason Osgood / Seattle WA
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Dear Mr. Osgood,
Thank you for contacting me to express your concerns for the development of nuclear weapons in Iran . I appreciate hearing from you on this important issue.
As you may know, international nuclear inspectors continue to monitor whether Iran is developing nuclear weapons. Such a program would be in contravention to the nuclear non-proliferation agreement that Iran has signed. In November 2004, the countries of Britain , France , and Germany negotiated an agreement with Iran , in which Iran agreed to cancel its nuclear programs. Unfortunately, Iran has recently backed away from its commitments. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has reported that Iran is accelerating its nuclear fuel enrichment activities and has failed to comply with international nuclear inspectors. Specifically, Iran began resuming uranium conversion in August 2005 and then announced its intentions to begin research on enriching uranium in February 2006.
On March 29, 2006, the United Nations Security Council issued a Presidential Statement on Iran 's nuclear programs requesting that Iran suspend its uranium enrichment programs within 30 days and cooperate with the IAEA. Iran failed to comply with this Presidential Statement.
On May 31, 2006 the Bush Administration decided to change course and join diplomatic talks with Iran , along with the United Kingdom , France , and Germany . I believe that the United States must engage in real diplomacy and work with Russia , China , and other countries to deal with Iran . We cannot permit Iran to build or acquire nuclear weapons.
During the debate on the Defense Authorization bill, Senator Joseph Biden (D-DE) introduced an amendment calling onIran to suspend its enrichment program and to cooperate with the International Atomic Energy Agency. The amendment was agreed to, with my support, in a vote of 99 to 0.
Please be assured that I will continue to press for progress towards a verifiable diplomatic solution.
Thank you again for contacting me to share your thoughts on this matter. For more information about my work in the Senate and issues of importance to Washington state, feel free to visit my website at http://cantwell.senate.gov . Please do not hesitate to contact me in the future if I can be of further assistance.
Sincerely,
Maria Cantwell
United States Senator
For future correspondence with my office, please visit my website at
http://cantwell.senate.gov/contact/index.html
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# posted by Zappini @ 8:51 AM
November 10, 2006
Access to Lexus/Nexus?
Fellow activist Annette is compiling a list problems with computerized voting machines reported in print media. It occurred to me that we should find a way to use
Lexus/Nexis. I understand that this is how journalists do research.
Currently, Annette is using Google and registering to access each paper's website. Not very efficient. Also, print and web can differ.
Any ideas?
# posted by Zappini @ 3:47 AM
KCE: Problems Solved?
Hi Sharon Plan Chan-
Catching up on my reading. Thank you for covering election integrity issues.
Recommendation: Instead of appointing a director of elections, elect an auditor.
... It was postponed because Sims said he had a strong candidate who was considering taking the job here if it remained an appointed position. ...the candidate turned down the job.
Now that the old plan is moot, I'm very eager to learn what the new plan is. I've asked a few times. No answers yet.
Cheers, Jason Osgood / Seattle WA
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Washington Citizens for Fair Elections
# posted by Zappini @ 12:16 AM
Poll Voters Divided on Forced Mail Voting
The results indicate that polling place voters are evenly divided on the vote-by-mail issue. Exactly
one-half of the polling place voters support the move to vote-by-mail, while the other half oppose
the new voting system in King County.
Maybe this survey's results seem like it would be obvious. However, 1/3rd to 1/4th of the ballots received at a poll site are dropped off by absentee voters. So there's likely a mix of absentee voters included in the survey.
I find the breakdown of support by group to be very interesting.
Surprising to me is that whites are split 50/50, whereas minorities support 60/40. Which I'd say is unfortunate. My impression is that African Americans and Latinos believe mail ballots are a tool to fight disenfranchisement. Stuff like having too few computerized voting machines, being shunted towards provisional ballots, or other dirty tricks. (None of which, to my knowledge, have happened in King County.) These are legitimate concerns. However, with mail ballots, disenfranchisement would be invisible and untraceable.
Local Democrats support forced mail voting a little bit more than local Republicans. Makes sense. The local Dems are in charge. In jurisdictions where Republicans are in charge (e.g. Arizona), the Democrats oppose forced mail voting.
The survey report also examines the correlation between a voter's confidence in the elections and their support for forced mail voting. Again, makes sense.
I'd like to see this survey conducted on current permanent absentee voters. Many voters have been signed up as absentee status against their wishes. And I haven't met a single person (outside of the Democratic Party) that wants to take away the neighborhood poll sites. Then, of course, there's people like me who switched to poll status once I understood the problems with mail balloting.
# posted by Zappini @ 12:15 AM
November 09, 2006
Recent Forced Mail Voting Articles?
Did anyone see a recent article in the PI or Times which stated that forced mail voting is more expensive than poll voting? A friend said it was about 2 or 3 weeks ago.
# posted by Zappini @ 8:11 PM
Citizens Election Oversight Committee Mtg Tues Nov 14th
I asked about upcoming CEOC meetings and got a quick response from Mike Alvine. There's a meeting Tuesday Nov 14th from 12:30pm to 1:00pm. I have the impression that the CEOC members will visit the Temporary Elections Annex to observe the central count.
The location is King Co Intl Airport (aka Boeing Field), Terminal Building Room 201. I called and the address is 7277 Perimeter Road South, Seattle WA. Here's the
Google Maps link.
Mike Alvine also provided the list of current members and their contact info. Here's the current CEOC members:
Evelyn Arnold Chelan County Auditor
AJ Culver Nonpartisan "Good Govt" Org.
Paul Guppy WA Policy Center
Ellen Hansen Registered Voter
Victor King Chinese-speaking Community
Marilyn Knight Nonpartisan "Good Govt" Org.
Sheryl Moss Secretary of State
Gurine Nordby KC Democratic Party
James Rigby State Republican Party
Michael Snyder State Democratic Party
Monica Tracey KC Republian Party
I don't feel comfortable posting their contact information without permission. If anyone wants the list, just holler.
Julie Goldberg and I are carpooling from Ballard. Holler if you need a ride. (Just know that I tend to hang out and gab, so don't expect a quick trip home.)
# posted by Zappini @ 4:10 PM
Missed Observing Touchscreen Performance Audit [Updated]
[Update: The 4% performance audit of the touchscreens has NOT happened yet. I got a note saying it may happen on the 16th or 17th of Nov.]
I really wanted to observe the performance audit of our touchscreens
following the general election. I missed that procedure during the
primary. Determined to not miss it again, I contacted the right
people, requesting prior notification.
Alas. When I got home last night, I got a voice mail from a KCE
person saying the performance audit was that afternoon at 2:00pm. Great.
I was contacted afterwards with an apology. A couple of party
observers were there, so I was encouraged to follow up with them.
I have the impression that 3 precincts from 3 touchscreens were
performance audited.
I ran into Toby Nixon a few weeks ago and he reported the audit from
the primary found no problems. But I'm still a bit confused. I heard
there were definitely problems with our touchscreens. Mostly printing
issues. Also, a trainer told us that one poll inspector found a VVPAT
printer canister in his car's trunk.
Seems to me the sample size for the performance audit was too small
to catch these problems.
# posted by Zappini @ 9:22 AM
