ACTION ALERTS FOR MAY, JUNE 2009
Links to contact
information for
senators & reps:
>>
San Diego County Representatives:
NEW !!
With the recent release of a flood of photographs and memos, we, the American public, now know that our government tortured human beings in our name.
Our response as a people and as a nation will
record for history what kind of people we really were (and are). If we do nothing in response to
this revelation, it will say as much about us as any action that we might direct our elected representatives to take.
Lynn Feinerman writes in her article "Life After
Torture and Torment" in the MAY/JUNE 2009
issue of TIKKUN,
"Unless we face this about ourselves, our military, and our foreign policy - unless we face the part of us that is narcissistic, predatory, and
"exotic" in our brutality, it will seize us again. We are perilously close to repeating this nastiness
in Afghanistan.
We must face ourselves, our nation, and the full implications of our deviant behavior."
>>
NEW !!
Tuesday, May 19, 2009 California Statewide Special Election to be conducted in many counties,
including San Diego county, using flawed election
systems !!
The Statewide Special Election on May 19, 2009
has a number of important state propositions that will determine how our state and local tax dollars will be spent. The election results will directly affect every California resident.
That is why many in San Diego and throughout the state are very concerned that the accuracy and reliability of the election results being provided by the various private corporations that have been contracted to count and tabulate votes are uncertain.
In San Diego, our county Supervisors have contracted out vote counting and tabulation to Diebold/Premier Election Solutions.
At a March 24, 2009 public meeting in Humboldt county of the ad-hoc Humboldt Election Advisory Committee, a Diebold/Premier spokesperson admitted that "all" versions of the GEMS (vote tabulation) systems---as used in 20 counties in California, including San Diego, and 34 states across the nation---feature known flaws.
Some of those flaws, including the wholesale deletion of ballots without notice to to the system operator, were discovered to the surprise and dismay of Humboldt County, CA Registrar of Voters Carolyn Crnich and volunteers working on the
Humboldt County Election Transparency Project following the certification of the November 2008 election. Humboldt Registrar Crnich was subsequently forced to re-certify the election with new results.
As posted in a blog [ link posted at the end of this Alert ] written by one of the volunteers on the Humboldt Election Transparency Project on
April 30, 2009: At a meeting of the ad-hoc Humboldt Election Advisory Committee on Tuesday, (April 21), Humboldt Registrar Carolyn Crnich presented copies of two one-page letters from Premier Election Solutions ( formerly Diebold Election Systems ) terminating all contracts between Premier and Humboldt county.
The letters were dated March 17 and 18, the day of and the day after the California Secretary of State's
hearing regarding serious flaws found in
Diebold/Premier's GEMS vote tabulation system.
Now every county nationwide using Diebold/Premier
Election Solutions, including San Diego, is left with uncertainty. Will we receive a similar letter and what will we do if that happens? Should the public take back the job of counting the votes we cast?