In California (2009), citizens have been circling 'round with formal written requests to try to pin down who prosecutes election law violations and under what circumstances. This would seem to be a simple task, but the answers they've been getting from the Calif. Attorney General's office have been dodgier than G.W. Bush at a shoe-throwing festival.
WITHOUT ENFORCEMENT, LAWS AND 'CHECKS & BALANCES' DON'T PROTECT US
What's going on in Detroit right now is incredibly important, because it provides an opportunity to consequate significant violations of chain of custody. We need consequences and we need enforcement, or passing all the laws in the world won't do a thing to improve election integrity.
(1) With such a large number excluded (far more than the margin of separation between mayoral candidates), there can be no reasonable certainty at all about the election outcome.
(2) Michigan has recently joined 25 other states in loosening up its absentee voting requirements, which will result in vastly more absentee ballots being cast, with fewer checks and balances than before. If you are a fan of the risky vote-by-mail craze, note that mismatched seals were primarily on the bottom of the absentee ballot boxes. The more vote-by-mail ballots there are, the more unsustainable the burden on chain of custody becomes.
Some Detroit officials are complaining about the cost of having all this looked into, blaming citizens, candidates, anyone but themselves for their own failure to adhere to their own rules and regulations. If Tom Barrow's Detroit actions can improve accountability and -- even better -- start undoing the culture of unaccountability we're seeing in elections administration, he will have performed an important service for us all.
HERE ARE SOME OF THE INTERESTING ITEMS FROM THE COMPLAINT:
#13 - Throughout the day, O'Hara, McDonald and Butler reported observing numerous individuals with large bags and back packs entering and remaining in the absentee counting station area. They also reported that at 8pm, the counting room security completely broke down and the general public was permitted to freely access the restricted access areas
# 23 - three people from ES&S, (the voting equipment computer company) had just signed in at 7:55 am along with one more individual from Premier.
[note that the location uses ES&S machines, but not Premier machines; why were technicians entering the building, and why was anyone from Premier there at all?]
# 36. County recount staff then proceeded to open the case but without looking at or verifying the bottom seal even though it too was recorded in the poll book by the election night workers.
# 37. Complainant challenged the failure to verify the 2nd seal and was vigorously and viciously verbally assaulted by recount election staff. Complainant was advised extremely harshly by Ms. Cynthia Hawthorne, Wayne County Elections Director, that "we never look at the bottom seal in a recount and are not about to start now just for you."
# 43. Subsequently, case after case was brought out and with Complainant on his knees [looking at seals on bottom], noting most of the seals did not agree with the poll book.
# 44. ... notwithstanding the seal differences, nearly all of the cases opened were disallowed and deemed not able to be recounted because there were significant discrepancies between the number of voters in the poll books and the number of voter ballots in the case along with other violations.
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