This is a non-scientific, non random report about two jurisdictions and what they did with their memory cards both before the election and after the polls closed on election night, January 19, 2010. In each case, I talked by telephone with the Clerk of the jurisdiction. I talked three times with the Clerk of the first jurisdiction and twice with the clerk of the second jurisdiction.

At the first jurisdiction, there are four registrars. Three of the registrars are appointed by the Selectpeople; the fourth is the Town Clerk. The Town Clerk tells the registrars what precincts to go to. Each registrar goes alone to their respective precincts to pick up the memory cards. They usually go to the same precint(s) every year. The registrars take the memory cards out of the computers, in the presence of the one police person at the precinct and other poll workers at ...

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On January 19, 2010, the MA Senate special election, there were some pre-owned, pre-voted ballots.  When some voters were handed their optical scan ballots to vote, the ballots already had the oval filled in for Scott Brown.  Ballots are not cars and they cannot be pre-owned.  Neither are ballots something you can pre-vote. I don't care that it was only a few ballots - that we know of.  This is not a legitimate way to run an election, to put it mildly.

Some questions remain.  Here are some of them:

- Why did Coakley start to make a fuss, rightfully, only to become silent and say and do nothing?

- Who marked Brown on those pre-owned, pre-voted ballots?

- Were there more pre-owned, pre-voted ballots like these, that we don't know of?

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The election is almost upon us and the electronic voting machines are having troubles all over the place.  How did we ever get to this place, that a privatized electronic voting machine industry controls our votes.  When I think of and remember all the people who have died to get the vote, and now this mockery of the most basic of our rights, I am filled with rage and grief.  And then I ask myself, what is the next right thing that I need to do, the next right step that I need to take.  And I act.  That helps me a lot to keep the despair away and to keep faith that good does win, even though sometimes not in my time frame.  I read somewhere - if anyone has information on this, please contact us -  that the women suffragists took the symbol of the giraffe for their movement, ...
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Welcome to the Center for Hand-Counted Paper Ballots. I am so glad you are here.  I am intending to write regularly.   SP