BRAD BLOG EXCLUSIVE: SD COUNTY REGISTRAR STYMIES BUSBY/BILBRAY HAND COUNT!

[BradBlog]

EXCLUSIVE: SAN DIEGO COUNTY REGISTRAR STYMIES BUSBY/BILBRAY HAND COUNT!
Registrar Mikel Haas Refuses to Supply Chain of Custody Docs as Requested by Voter, Fails to Explain $150,000 Cost Estimate, $6000 Deposit Demand, Disparity in Quotes; Runs out Clock…
Hand Count Filer: 'It seems nobody is accountable here, and the voters are just left out to dry.'



"It seems the Registrar is the judge and juror, the decider and the arbiter and is accountable to no one. Clearly, we've been stonewalled by the Registrar," opined Barbara Gail Jacobson in regard to having little or no legal recourse to challenge the seemingly arbitrarily rules set by San Diego County Registrar Mikel Haas concerning her requested hand count of ballots in the special U.S. House election held in California's 50th district on June 6th.

Jacobson's request to hand count paper ballots and "paper trails" in the disputed CA-50 Busby/Bilbray election to replace the jailed Republican Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham looks to have hit a brick wall. The SD Country Registrar of Voters office has refused to provide chain of custody documents sought by Jacobson in relation to her request as filed after the revelation that the election employed Diebold optical-scan and touch-screen voting machines in apparent violation of both state and federal law.

In a letter sent Tuesday by Jacobson to Registrar Haas' office in reply to an email the office had sent late in the day, the San Diego resident requested a written commitment that the requested documents would be provided before a hand count would begin and prior to the payment of the $6000 as demanded by Haas — by 3pm Tuesday — to cover the costs of the first day's counting on Wednesday.

As well, her letter sought explanation and accounting for the three disparate cost estimates for the count as supplied by Haas' office. Two different sets of varying numbers were supplied by officials to voters, while another number, nearly half the amount of the other two quotes, was supplied to a reporter at the North County Times.

The "official" estimate for the cost of the count, as given to Jacobson finally in a FedExed letter from Haas last Saturday, set the price at an estimated $120,000 to $150,000 for the entire count.

Haas' estimate equates to just under $1 per vote, as opposed to the .14 per vote as charged in neighboring Orange County for a similar hand count request, as reported yesterday by the North County Times.

The email sent late Tuesday from the Registrar's office, and Jacobson letter in reply -- along with much more on this story -- are both posted in full at the following URL...

FULL STORY w/ MUCH MORE, PLUS NEW EMAIL & LETTERS TO/FROM REGISTRAR'S OFFICE:
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=3060

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


---
Brad Friedman
THE BRAD BLOG - The uprising continues...
http://www.BradBlog.com
VELVET REVOLUTION - The revolution begins...
http://www.VelvetRevolution.us

[SoCalDem]

1. Par for the course...n/t

[mod mom]

2. GOP attempts to overprice cost to prevent democracy. They did this in OH

by upping the cost of a recount by 5X (and of course you can no longer challenge federal elections)

They obviously don't wnat the truth to come out, so they will jack up the prices.

Thanks Brad for all you are doing.

[xchrom]

3. these repukes must have training seminars for how to fuck up

and refuse citizens requests for legitimate government.

[nadinbrzezinski]

4. Surprise, surprsie surprsie

[JAYJDF]

5. This is fkn unacceptable!

If this small community can keep from being forced to recount, then what chance is there for larger elections? The Dem party has to take some form of action. If this one recount fails, then I things are worse off than I thought or wanted to believe. Not sure what my options are, but, some serious thought is in my future.

[bluerum]

6. damn, damn him.

Pretty soon people better start gettin pissed at assholes like him.

[movonne]

7. This is the time for people to get out in the streets and especially

San Diego...

[robinlynne]

31. yes it is.

[Botany]

8. Run out the clock and stonewall the facts just S.O.P. for these thugs

But look here is his own words.

“Paper is kept rolled up in a machine, kept for a recount or any election dispute.”
Mikel Haas quote

[Ghost in the Machine]

9. Mikel Haas sounds like one of the first ones who needs to be

dragged, kicking and screaming, out of government office and jailed. I'd settle for someone just dragging him out of office and beating the shit out him though...

[Botany]

11. Let me let me

but I want time w/ Matt Damnschroder (Franklin County BOE head)
Bob Bennett (head of the Ohio GOP & Cuyahoga County BOE head)
Ken Blackwell & Karl Rove too.


These are not Americans but little nazi whores who think that the shit
they are swimming in will not make them stink.

[cascadiance]

14. Haas needs to be sued alright!

For violating our rights as citizens here by taking away our having a fair and honest election. I think until we can actually make folks like this pay for this (and hopefully a big sum of money to set an example), there are going to be more and more of these officials around the country which will just flaunt the law.

We need to get the ACLU to help us with this here! I want to see this on ACLU Freedom Files soon! Maybe we can mention this to Robert Greenwald when he's in town this weekend for Democracy Fest to get Brave New Films to working on this in their next segment. Maybe RFK Junior could help with this too?

We should also be writing letters to McPherson and the Board of Supervisors and to challenge them to come down on Haas for violating our rights too, and if necessary sue them as well! Unfortunately they are all Republicans, and probably won't do anything about it though.

Perhaps at Democracy Fest, we could organize an impromptu march of interested attendees on the ROV and protest outside there!

[MindPilot]

17. The problem with filing lawsuits is it ultimately depends on a judge

and without a legitimately elected government, we don't have legitimate courts.

Short of armed insurrection, I think we're screwed.

[cascadiance]

19. I just called the local ACLU here. Perhaps if enough of us did...

... perhaps they might jump in to help.

Go here and get the phone number:

http://www.aclusandiego.org/

It is [phone]

Don't see an email address on this page.

[autorank]

10. Friedman on Fire!!!! K&R

"has refused to provide chain of custody document" utterly devastating. Wow!

[bvar22]

12. Boots on the ground, people in the street....

Democrats in SanDiego, Look to Mexico and the Ukraine.

[Gregorian]

13. These are public servants. They work for US.

Unless America is fascist. And it isn't.

[mom cat]

15. Where is the Democratic Party leadership on this? They Should be in

there fighting tooth and nail for Busby. They are a bunch of lily livered LIHOPS. We need some leadership with real gonads! :grr:

[JAYJDF]

16. I sent the DNC an email with this reference

I told them if this just slides by then what good are they. No reply as of yet

[mom cat]

20. Don't hold your breath!

Welcome to DU!
:hi::hi::hi::hi::hi::hi::hi::hi::hi::hi::hi::hi::hi::hi::hi::hi:

[lindisfarne]

22. Why the DNC isn't involved already is beyond me ... obviously, the DNC

doesn't care much about the integrity of the voting process, or ensuring that the laws related to this process are followed.

[MindPilot]

18. That's fer damn sure

None of the big guns in the Party came out here to campaign for Busby. With Cunningscam down for the count, it is a slam dunk to keep that campaign on the front page every freaking day. But do we see Clinton, Kerry, or even Boxer of DiFi get some newz coverage for Busby? The Dems like to keep their powder a little too dry...

[troubleinwinter]

21. Clarification please

http://www.bradblog.com/?p=3060

Fundraising led by VelvetRevolution.us, an election integrity organization, has so far raised about $10,000 towards the overall expenses of fighting for accountability in the Busby/Bilbray election.

Jacobson's letter was appropriately cautious in demanding a written response from the Registrar that the documents would be supplied before being forced to commit $6000 of those funds towards the effort without any assurances or accountability from Haas. (DISCLOSURE: The BRAD BLOG is a co-founder of VR.)

Is this the $10,000 that was solicited on DU last weekend SPECIFICALLY for the purpose of retaining an attorney?

The $10,000 that HAD to be raised by last Monday?

WAS the attorney retained??

"of those funds"? It was represented on DU that the funds solicited were for retention of legal council, not recount expenses.

Clarification would be appreciated.

[BradBlog]

26. troublein troubleinwinter...

I don't know how it was "solicited" here at DU (at least not by me), but the fundraising link at VR, where the funds were largely collected said (and still says):

DONATIONS NEEDED FOR LEGAL EFFORTS TO ENSURE ACCURACY AND ACCOUNTABILITY IN THE SPECIAL BUSBY/BILBRAY U.S. HOUSE ELECTION!

PLEASE DONATE HERE!...
http://www.velvetrevolution.us/donate.php

I know you're looking for "troubleinwinter" that isn't there, but that's about all I can tell you.

Funds are still needed as any legal action from this point will take a LOT of funding, and the $10,000 needed off the bat (which was raised! thanks to those who donated!) is just to get this thing started.

Thom Hartmann interviewed the woman who filed for the hand count earlier this morning, and she describes the money issues as well. You can listen to that interview here:
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=3067

[troubleinwinter]

27. Clarification might be good.

"Specifically, we need $10,000 by Monday July 10 to retain our attorney."

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=1586986&mesg_id=1586986

How can you claim to be unaware of the solicitation when you posted on that thread?

What is the importance of ridiculing my user name? Sorta stupid, eh?

[fooj]

28. Hmmmm...fooj isn't looking for any "troubleinwinter"...

just some TRUTH. What the hell is going on here, anyway?

Please tell me that this is a joke. You ARE kidding, right?
I don't know how it was "solicited" here at DU


C'mon Brad...I've been living on 2-3 hours of sleep myself but I STILL know WHO solicited WHAT at DU. This is all really a shame. I was one of your biggest cheerleaders...

[robinlynne]

32. trouble in winter and fooj. There is no unseemly anything going on here.

I am helping on the fundraising committee. Yes that ten thousand, which was reached 2 days ago was to retain the attorney, which they have done. They tried to get pro bono attorneys and could not find a good enough one to be the lead attorney. they will be needing several attorneys. Some will be pro bono. People have estimated the costs of this kind of lawsuit to be around 300,000.00 before it is done. The only reason Brad can't give you exact details yet is because the strategy changes frequently. They don't know exactly how things will proceeed. There is the probability of lawsuits, and at the same time they were trying to get the votes counted. I can personally vouch for the people I have met working together on this project. They are of the highest integrity. I personally donated a bunch, and spent money for making flyers for Demfest and it was money well spent. There will be lots and lots more fundraising and calls for help surrounding this issue. Personally I don't feel like "letting this go". This is our last chance to get them to start counting votes before november. And our votes have not been counted for several years.

[troubleinwinter]

36. Thanks for the reply.

"Yes that ten thousand, which was reached 2 days ago was to retain the attorney, which they have done."

7/10 Brad says:

Funds are being collected by VelvetRevolution.us for the time being until the group on the ground in San Diego opens up a bank account, gets a treasurer, etc.

Has this been accomplished? Is there now an organization I can send my donation to (that Bev Harris' BBV is not a part of)?

[robinlynne]

37. There is an organization called CA-50 action committee.

They don't yet have a bank account, etc. All funds are still being collected by velvetrevolution.org for now. That is a favor velvet revolution is doing for CA-50. And you can get updates daily on bradblog, till brad goes on vacation. I hope there will be lots of news on monday right after Demfest.

[flyingobject]

41. Going on vacation?

after collecting all of that money?

who will have access to the $10,000 plus that is in
the Velvet Revolutions account?

who owns the pay pal account?

[robinlynne]

42. Brad is going on vacation. Is he not allowed to go on vacation?

Tell me you're joking with that sarcastic attitude.
He has been working for free for 24 hours a day getting this information out. We are pretty grateful. If you are not, that's your prerogative. So what have you done for democracy's sake during these past few weeks?

[troubleinwinter]

49. Brad works 24 hours a day for free?! Wow.

Quite a number of board members and directors of non-profit 501(c)(3) election reform organizations work without salary. But I've not seen one claim to work 24 hours a day, nor apparently is VR a non-profit organization.

[flyingobject]

40. Who is the Attorney or Attorneys? How much more money?

It sounds like this is an open ended trust me sort of thing.

If you are going to be trying to raise
$150,000 for recount,
$300,000 for attorneys,
______________
$450,000 estimated total

You might also want to hire an accountant.

Then you should be able to provide us the
name of the attorneys or law firm at minimum
name of the plaintiff
name of the defendents
some idea of what the lawyers are going to do
who owns the pay pal account that donations are going to


Clearly from the original post, this thing is heading south
and from your post, it is starting to look like a real money pit.

Have you contacted www.VoterAction.org ?

They have a legal case in California right now, and we know who they are.
They are actually making filings and taking action, and

They accept donations.

Maybe we should be donating to www.VoterAction.org instead of this
invisible group who is unable to be accountable.

[robinlynne]

43. I'm sorry you feel that way. I will forward this post to the committee so

that they can answer you next week after DemFest. I am just one volunteer and do not know the lawyer's name. We have no idea of what it will cost or exactly what action will be taken next. The whole point is to get the votes counted, preferably paid for by the state of california or by the registrar of san diego,as we think it should be. Recount request was also filed so as not to miss the deadline in case that is needed, and for some other reasons. One way or another, lawsuit, recount, free count, the plan is to get the votes out in the open, scrutinized and counted. So that THIS does NOT happen in november.
The good news is that the DNC issued a statement this morning supporting the CA-50 action committee and calling for a manual count of the votes. If they step in for real (I'm not crossing my fingers on that one) it would be great. The bad news is that they are making us take them to court which takes way too long.

All I can tell you is the people working on CA-50 are of great integrity, and are working their butts off.

[Name removed]

44. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[flyingobject]

45. why can't any one answer - was a lawyer hired with the money?

last week there was an urgent request for funds to hire a lawyer,

Needed at least $10,000 to hire a lawyer.

Has a lawyer been hired, and who is the lawyer?

I will keep asking since that was the reason for raising the money.

Instead of counting how many times I post, this the quick way to
settle this is to answer the questions.

Unless no one can answer the questions because no lawyer has been hired.

[robinlynne]

46. Everyone is at DemFest. They are at meetings all day and night for the

next 3 days. I will get you an answer on Monday when people are available to talk on the phone.

[troubleinwinter]

47. Well, VR

I don't see how asking legitimate questions and posting opinions is "screaming and yelling".

VR is not at all transparent. Who are the board members? Is it a for-profit? It does not claim to be a non-profit organization.

The tactic of asking what a poster does towards election reform tends to be used when avoiding answering questions.

It is not condidered appropriate on DU to call out a DUer in reference to post count.

"I see what you're about" Perhaps you'd like to share.

[Name removed]

48. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[troubleinwinter]

50. "I wonder why he/she has the right"

He has the right to question when someone asks for money.

The election was not two weeks ago, it was 5-1/2 weeks ago.

When I asked "Is there now an organization" you said, "There is an organization called CA-50 action committee". NOW you say, "We don't even have a name yet."

Anyone with questions "could very easily be from free republic with 100 posts"? I don't have 100 posts, and I am not getting very far with answers either.

I don't beleive you have been accused of anything except not being forthcoming.

[robinlynne]

51. What can I say. I can tell you what I know. It is a group of people

called CA-50 action committee. I don't live in san diego. I am just helping because it is such a good thing to do.
registered as a non profit. no. This issue has existed for all of 2 or 3 weeks. I have no idea if they will or will not register. I don't really care. That is why velvetrevolution was nice enough to collect the money for them. Everyone is pitching in and doing what we can. All of the top election protection people from this state came to the townhall meetings. Here in LA the leadership at the meeting was: Brad Friedman, Marcy Winograd, Mimi Kennedy. Progressive democrats of America has joined on. Bob Fitrakis is there in the background. RFK Jr is aware and keeping abreast of what teh group does. Some democracy for america groups have joined. I'm sure many more people will join this weekend at demfest. These are all honest serious people. I have known their work for years. That's all I got.
Now, I would still like to know what work the critic is doing for our election protection, since he slammed us. "They are obviously going downhill fast". Who do you work for? What do you do politically?

[robinlynne]

52. troubleinwinter, notice that flyingobject has no answer.

just criticism. Maybe looking at the real votes is something that poster is not in favor of....

oh, I forgot, the congresswoman from the 49th district came up to LA to speak in favor and belongs to the CA-50 action committee too.
She took a commitment to never concede without a full vote count.

[flyingobject]

53. no, I asked a question that no one is answering

actually, that is incorrect.
Asking a question is not criticizing.

A post to the DU forum made urgent request for donations -
needed by Monday morning to hire an attorney, but here it is Friday night,
and we hope to find out who the attorneys are that have been hired.

It would be great to know the name of the legal firm to
donate directly to.

I know that I can donate directly to www.VoterAction.org

Here is the question that I asked, word for word:

flyingobject (147 posts) Fri Jul-14-06 09:45 PM
Response to Reply #44

45. why can't any one answer - was a lawyer hired with the money?
last week there was an urgent request for funds to hire a lawyer,

Needed at least $10,000 to hire a lawyer.

Has a lawyer been hired, and who is the lawyer?

I will keep asking since that was the reason for raising the money.

Instead of counting how many times I post, this the quick way to
settle this is to answer the questions.

Unless no one can answer the questions because no lawyer has been hired.

[robinlynne]

54. Isn't this your post?

Who is the Attorney or Attorneys? How much more money?

It sounds like this is an open ended trust me sort of thing.

If you are going to be trying to raise
$150,000 for recount,
$300,000 for attorneys,
______________
$450,000 estimated total

You might also want to hire an accountant.

Then you should be able to provide us the
name of the attorneys or law firm at minimum
name of the plaintiff
name of the defendents
some idea of what the lawyers are going to do
who owns the pay pal account that donations are going to


Clearly from the original post, this thing is heading south
and from your post, it is starting to look like a real money pit.

Have you contacted www.VoterAction.org ?

They have a legal case in California right now, and we know who they are.
They are actually making filings and taking action, and

They accept donations.

Maybe we should be donating to www.VoterAction.org instead of this
invisible group who is unable to be accountable.

[McCamy Taylor]

23. Can we hire some Mexicans to protest for us?

[lonestarnot]

30. Sure why not and join them?

[Justice Is Comin]

24. And they're not hiding anything right?

Yeah right!!! :grr:

Boy if we could only go back to the days of the wild wild west. Storm that sonofabitch's office and drag him outside behind a wood shed.

[annabanana]

25. Mikel Haas, phone/fax

Registrar of Voters: Mikel Haas. Phone: [phone] Fax: [phone]

[lonestarnot]

29. Ok so now what?

[Wilms]

33. K&R n/t

[rucky]

34. Is the local news covering this AT ALL???? n/t

[robinlynne]

38. nope. ring of fire, bradblog, lou dobbs, cathy creir (court tv), and

the san jose emrcury news are the only ones who have covered it so far. CA-50 is just now looking for people to form a media committee.

[lonestarnot]

56. kick

[Canuckistanian]

35. So at this point, where does the cerification process stand?

Is anything at all holding back the certification? And where is Busby and the Democratic party on this??

[robinlynne]

39. Haas certified the votecount on the friday before july 4th.

Which meant therre were exactly 5 days to ask for a recount, day 5 being july 4th. They got the recount request in on time. Read the whole history on bradblog.com.
the candidate and the dem party? They are not standing. They are sleeping, hiding under the covers.

[robinlynne]

55. Here is an answer for troubleinwinter and others who expressed doubts:

from Judy Hess, one of the coordinators: As I said they are all crazily busy working at Dem Fest and will be able to respond with more time on Monday.

The websites are not up yet. As I said it has only been 2 weeks. Votes were certified 10 days ago. That was the day we had to move. only 5 days for our legal response, which we were able to get in, in spite of a sat, sun, and the fourth of july included in those 5 days.

"Please let the DU people know asap that they have contributed to
exactly the
right cause, and there has been NO change from what Brad said, other
than
what you will see below.

We have been careful to be guardians of the fund, which is gold. We
have
had discussions with a lawyer, we thought we would have to retain
counsel at
the outset, and the retainer was $10,000., but we were able to save
money
responsibly with some pro bono advice-- every penny of which we will
need
for the legal battle which looms.

As events unfolded this week, the hand count (which the DNC came out
for
this afternoon) would have cost $6,000.00 per day. The ROV has shut
down any
count, now we will have to expend legal fees and they won't be small.

The Administrative remedy has been foreclosed, but no money was spent.
As
events go forward, we won't throw away money which has been entrusted
to us,
but will be unafraid to spend what must be spent to bring our election
officials to task and save our elections in this CA 50 effort.

And now, the legal war really begins.

The organization is little over two weeks old, so obviously we have not
formed a tax-exempt organization, but are operating under the tax
exempt
status of the VR umbrella-- they have graciously offered to do that--
and
that too saves money for the important work ahead-- but we have a
Treasurer
who has set up auditing procedures with VR, and that is just part of
the
accountabilities we've already set up.

I am no tecchie, and am struggling to set up a website so everyone can
log
on and see who we are, what is going on, etc, but my fledgling efforts
failed last night. So I've asked for help. The real tecchies are
looking
at election numbers obviously.

Meanwhile, a few founders are Brad, Mimi Kennedy, Progressive Democrats
of
America's Advisory Board Chair, Emily Levy (CEPN), San Diegans
including
myself (Leader of PDA's new Metro San Diego Chapter), Jim Wade (DFA's
San
Diego Meetup Chair), organizations like PDA national, and California
Election Protection Network. And now I'll probably be in trouble for
forgetting some people, but to give you a flavor of who we are... No
fly by
night organization--

I will try again tonight to get the few pages together I have done up
on the
web at www.nosleepovers.org and www.CA50-busbybilbray.org.

No matter what, they will be up soon, but I have duties all weekend at
DemFest-- and there are only so many hours in the day!

Judy

[troubleinwinter]

57. I don't believe...

...I expressed doubts. I asked questions.

I did not ask if the new organization is a non profit. I know it cannot be, as it takes some time to get approval from the IRS and it doesn't even have a name yet.

I asked if Velvet Revolution is a non profit. I do not see any statement on VR site claiming to be. I cannot find VR listed on Guidestar or on IRS non profit listing. You post it is a non profit.

I did not ask who the directors and officers of the new organization are.

I asked who the directors of Velvet Revolution are. VR site says "Our Board is diverse, experienced and strong.", but does not list them.