STOP THEM FROM REVERSING THE LAW TO DESTROY UNUSED BALLOTS
Friday, with just 2 hours notice, the Senate Rules Committee scheduled a hearing and passed an amendment to SB 1517 with the wording of HB 4174, which will repeal the law that requires unused ballots be destroyed in a timely manner.
We still have a chance to STOP SB 1517A.
Monday the bill will return to the House and House Rules Committee for discussion, hearing and work session. FLOOD the House and House Rules Committee NOW. Tell them to protect the integrity of our election process TELL THEM TO VOTE NO ON SB 1517.
Come to the Capitol and join the War room effort - go to
the hearing and testify! Tell them NO!
Read the attached letter from the Rich Hobernicht, Washington County Election director. He states that per advice from Secretary of State unused ballots were NOT destroyed in November, 2011 until the vote was certified. THEY'RE ALREADY in violation of the law!
READ BILL HERE: SB1517A
SB 1517 will:--Increase the chance of voter fraud, by removing the requirement to destroy unused ballots
at 8 pm on election night
--Make
it very difficult for election observers to monitor and verify the location and
safety of ballots
--Add
new requirements for county security procedures, but will retain the stipulation
that the details not be released to the public, eliminating public
oversight.
SB 1517 amends ORS 254.483 by omitting the law requiring the county clerk to destroy all
unused ballots after 8:00 p.m. on the day of the election. There
is a good reason why unused ballots are destroyed in a timely manner. Blank
ballots sitting around are an invitation for voter fraud.
·If this bill is passed, it will allow boxes of unused ballots to sit in election offices after
the election is over until the county clerk deems it “practicable” to destroy
them. Some counties currently keep them until the election is certified—weeks
after the election.
·Destroying
unused ballots is an important safeguard to elections. Hoarding boxes of ballots
that can be brought out of election closets “when needed” is unacceptable and
must not be permitted.
·Elections must be subject to public oversight.
Election observers cannot reasonably monitor boxes of unused ballots for weeks
on end.
·Some counties have video surveillance, but unused
ballots are kept for weeks. It is not realistic for volunteer election observers
to watch hours of surveillance video recordings. Another prohibitive factor that
prevents public oversight is the costly fee that is charged to access the
recordings. One volunteer was given a quote of over 300 dollars from her county
elections supervisor.
SB 1517A amends ORS 254.074 by introducing new security
procedures. However, it states that “a record or security plan developed and
filed under this section is confidential and not subject to disclosure under ORS
192.410 to 192.505”. What good are security
procedures if they are not subject to public
oversight?
·Thesecurity procedures listed in the bill
are not subject to public review, so they are not credible and only produce
added suspicion. It is like a car salesman, telling a customer, “You don’t need
to look under the hood, just trust me.”
·The public does not have confidence in a system
that keeps them in the dark, public oversight is necessary for all aspects of
government and especially elections.
There are alternatives that will protect vote integrity and save
taxpayer funds.
·Audit voting lists so that county clerks are not
wasting limited tax-payer funds printing and paying postage for thousands of
ballots that are returned undeliverable.
·Undeliverable ballots should be shredded
immediately as they return to the election office. The voter should be noted as
inactive, until he or she updates their voter registration.
Returned envelopes with forwarding information should not be used to
update voter rolls, as is the practice in some counties. This is unreliable
information that threatens ballot security.
·A minimum number of ballots may be printed for
legitimate purposes, but should be printed on paper of a different color that is
absolutely distinguishable to an election observer.Watermarks are
not adequate. Election observers typically have to be several feet away and
sometimes behind a glass window.
·Ballots that are unreadable by the vote counting
machine should not be duplicated on a substitute ballot. The votes should be
hand tallied.The results from the tally sheets can be added to the
counting machine results when the election staff do the “Reconciliation Process”
prior to certifying election results.
Elections are the cornerstone of our representative form of
government. If they are faulty, the entire system is faulty. There should be no
compromise in guaranteeing the integrity of the vote.
The state law to protect our vote, by destroying unused ballots
in a timely manner, is in place for a very good reason. The issue that needs to
be addressed is why it is not being enforced. Penalties should be imposed on
election officials that violate state law.
Demand that the House AND House Rules
Committee vote NO on SB
1517
--
Wendy
Frome
State Coordinator, Abigail Adams Project
(541) 497-1559
http://OregonAbigailAdams.org/
http://twitter.com/OR_AbbyAProject
http://www.facebook.com/OregonAbigailAdamsProject
Friday, with just 2 hours notice, the Senate Rules Committee scheduled a hearing and passed an amendment to SB 1517 with the wording of HB 4174, which will repeal the law that requires unused ballots be destroyed in a timely manner.
We still have a chance to STOP SB 1517A.
Monday the bill will return to the House and House Rules Committee for discussion, hearing and work session. FLOOD the House and House Rules Committee NOW. Tell them to protect the integrity of our election process TELL THEM TO VOTE NO ON SB 1517.
Come to the Capitol and join the War room effort - go to
the hearing and testify! Tell them NO!
Read the attached letter from the Rich Hobernicht, Washington County Election director. He states that per advice from Secretary of State unused ballots were NOT destroyed in November, 2011 until the vote was certified. THEY'RE ALREADY in violation of the law!
READ BILL HERE: SB1517A
SB 1517 will:--Increase the chance of voter fraud, by removing the requirement to destroy unused ballots
at 8 pm on election night
--Make
it very difficult for election observers to monitor and verify the location and
safety of ballots
--Add
new requirements for county security procedures, but will retain the stipulation
that the details not be released to the public, eliminating public
oversight.
SB 1517 amends ORS 254.483 by omitting the law requiring the county clerk to destroy all
unused ballots after 8:00 p.m. on the day of the election. There
is a good reason why unused ballots are destroyed in a timely manner. Blank
ballots sitting around are an invitation for voter fraud.
·If this bill is passed, it will allow boxes of unused ballots to sit in election offices after
the election is over until the county clerk deems it “practicable” to destroy
them. Some counties currently keep them until the election is certified—weeks
after the election.
·Destroying
unused ballots is an important safeguard to elections. Hoarding boxes of ballots
that can be brought out of election closets “when needed” is unacceptable and
must not be permitted.
·Elections must be subject to public oversight.
Election observers cannot reasonably monitor boxes of unused ballots for weeks
on end.
·Some counties have video surveillance, but unused
ballots are kept for weeks. It is not realistic for volunteer election observers
to watch hours of surveillance video recordings. Another prohibitive factor that
prevents public oversight is the costly fee that is charged to access the
recordings. One volunteer was given a quote of over 300 dollars from her county
elections supervisor.
SB 1517A amends ORS 254.074 by introducing new security
procedures. However, it states that “a record or security plan developed and
filed under this section is confidential and not subject to disclosure under ORS
192.410 to 192.505”. What good are security
procedures if they are not subject to public
oversight?
·Thesecurity procedures listed in the bill
are not subject to public review, so they are not credible and only produce
added suspicion. It is like a car salesman, telling a customer, “You don’t need
to look under the hood, just trust me.”
·The public does not have confidence in a system
that keeps them in the dark, public oversight is necessary for all aspects of
government and especially elections.
There are alternatives that will protect vote integrity and save
taxpayer funds.
·Audit voting lists so that county clerks are not
wasting limited tax-payer funds printing and paying postage for thousands of
ballots that are returned undeliverable.
·Undeliverable ballots should be shredded
immediately as they return to the election office. The voter should be noted as
inactive, until he or she updates their voter registration.
Returned envelopes with forwarding information should not be used to
update voter rolls, as is the practice in some counties. This is unreliable
information that threatens ballot security.
·A minimum number of ballots may be printed for
legitimate purposes, but should be printed on paper of a different color that is
absolutely distinguishable to an election observer.Watermarks are
not adequate. Election observers typically have to be several feet away and
sometimes behind a glass window.
·Ballots that are unreadable by the vote counting
machine should not be duplicated on a substitute ballot. The votes should be
hand tallied.The results from the tally sheets can be added to the
counting machine results when the election staff do the “Reconciliation Process”
prior to certifying election results.
Elections are the cornerstone of our representative form of
government. If they are faulty, the entire system is faulty. There should be no
compromise in guaranteeing the integrity of the vote.
The state law to protect our vote, by destroying unused ballots
in a timely manner, is in place for a very good reason. The issue that needs to
be addressed is why it is not being enforced. Penalties should be imposed on
election officials that violate state law.
Demand that the House AND House Rules
Committee vote NO on SB
1517
--
Wendy
Frome
State Coordinator, Abigail Adams Project
(541) 497-1559
http://OregonAbigailAdams.org/
http://twitter.com/OR_AbbyAProject
http://www.facebook.com/OregonAbigailAdamsProject
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