George Rebane
Earlier in the day I heard of the great Nevada County voting machine debacle – apparently they don’t register the paper ballots because all of them were printed with identical registration numbers and no one checked the ballots or the scanning system with the ballots before voting started. Who knows, there may even be more stuff that is discovered afterward. I wasn’t going to post on this dust-up until the dust had settled.
Well, I’ve been getting emails from my partisan correspondents regarding this little incident since it directly involves the incumbent Clerk-Recorder Greg Diaz who is standing for election for this non-partisan office against challenger Barry Pruett. Pruett’s campaign has focused on the dual issues of the incumbent’s overall competence and character.
For a number of reasons, Mr Diaz has attracted a following mostly from the left, and Mr Pruett from the right. Several strong community voices from the left castigated those on the right about making the race partisan. Those on the right advised the left to get over it because in reality, once the tilt of the candidates becomes known, there is no non-partisan voting, no matter what it says on the ballot – never is, never was.
Anyway, from one unverified source I understand that, due to this foul-up, there will be an attorney from the state’s elections office sent here to monitor the manual count of the ballots. That should mollify those who might think that it was a planned goof designed to stop Pruett. I don’t belong to that school of conspiracy and prefer to accept the simpler of the explanations.
In any event, an example of the concern about the ‘scanner error’ is voiced by Bill Neuharth, chairman of the Nevada County Republican Party. Haven’t yet heard any complaints from the left, I guess for them everything is hunky-dory. Neuharth just issued this statement –
"The integrity of the election process is in jeopardy here in Nevada County. Due to an unprecedented printing error the ballots being cast in the precincts are unreadable by the E-Scan machines, and therefore the votes can't be tallied in the precincts."
"Consequently, the trust of the Nevada County voters has been violated by the Nevada County Clerk Recorders office."
"I am urging the California Secretary of State to send independent observers to oversee the ballot counting process this evening when the polls close. There should also be a complete and thorough investigation to determine what lapses of oversight occurred to allow the printing of faulty ballots.”
rebanesruminations.com 
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