20 minutes of my life wasted, talking to Jennifer in Utah Elections Office

[gristy]

After reading this story, published in the Salt Lake Tribune today,

<snip>
Lt. Gov. Olene Walker, Utah's election boss, understands the concerns but notes the new voting technology has worked well so far. Electronic voting machines have been used across the nation without a hiccup, she says. "Nobody ever reported any problems or any fraud, and that sort of debunks the worries," Walker says.
<snip>

I thought I'd give the State of Utah a call...

So I spent 20 minutes of my life talking to Jennifer in the Utah Elections Office. This office is headed by Amy Naccarato (801-538-1041), Director of Elections. Amy wasn't in.

Man, what a frustrating 20 minutes. First, we talked about Lt. Gov. Walker's assertion that "Nobody ever reported any problems or any fraud". I asked if Lt. Gov Walker (R) really believed that. She said that if she said it, she must believe it. So I mentioned many of the reported problems that Zan_of_Texas listed in this thread She listened, and said if I wanted I could put them all in a letter and send them to the Lt. Gov. We talked about the Johns Hopkins study. I then went on and on about the difficulty in making a fail-safe and error-recoverable system as complex as these DRE voting systems are. In response, she went on and on about all the studies the state had done, and how the DRE voting systems are certified in a "very impressive process" and how their bipartisan State Plan Committee had vetted all the state's studies and had voted to authorize the purchase of DRE systems, as stated in their State Plan. I really cut her off when she started to explain to me what a State Plan is...

OMG, their belief that we the public are just total idiots is just overwhelming. These folks are completely in cover-your-ass mode.

Anybody from Utah out there? Has anybody else talked to their state election officials in the past week or two?

[devarsi]

1. Spanish Fork

And after reading this, I doubt I will be doing any hard time on the phone with Jennifer.

[ParanoidPat]

3. Please call!

These people need to hear this over and over and over until it's been drummed into their heads! :evilgrin:

Repeat a lie often enough and the lie becomes the truth,
Repeat the truth often enough and the lie is exposed for what it is! :)

[devarsi]

4. Okay okay I'll call!

sheesh :eyes:

[T Roosevelt]

2. I doubt Jennifer's paid to know anything

She's probably just repeating the script given her by her bosses...

[gratuitous]

5. Jennifer probably doesn't know doodly squat

But she gave you a good tip: Write it all down and send it to the Lt. Gov. (Is that the person who supervises elections? In Oregon, it's the Secretary of State). You might even want to note on the letter that you're sending a courtesy copy to the Salt Lake Tribune and a local TV station or two. For some strange reason, politicians get awfully familiar with an issue if they think a newspaper or television story's brewing on it.

August is a good month to get in touch with elected representatives. Not much is happening, and things that cross their desks this month have a chance of being remembered.

[SoCalDem]

6. Send this to Jennifer...with the admonition

WE KNOW WHAT YOU ARE UP TO....

[TinfoilHatProgrammer]

7. lol

Ahahaha... yeah it's not libel when you put a little disclaimer at the bottom. :D

Also you're giving Diebold way too much credit... last I heard, ES&S is actually the world's leading voting-solutions provider. By far. Just saying.

JC