All I Have To Say Is

WHAT STEVE ROSS SAID.

Regina Morrison Newman responds to my earlier post

Without further ado:

I have already done a lot of breathing and a lot of work.  The fact is that our current election commissioners are knowledgeable of nothing regarding the tabulation of votes...all of them.

It was not necessary for Myra (also my long-time and good friend) to file an affidavit with the court in support of the SCEC's motion to dismiss the election contest (not granted but argued before trial).  It was not necessary for her to write a letter to the editor trashing the process.

I don't care who is out-numbered on the EC, the Democratic Party asked our Democratic election commissioners to vote NO to certify and they had time left to allow continued inspection rather than blocking it.  They certified a mess of an election and they did it early, with all 5 votes. 

This is supposed to be a public process and those are our votes, without regard to partisanship, race or anything else.  Even with court orders, we STILL haven't received important info we asked for and it is PUBLIC information.

I have read Dee Nollner's report.  Apparently there is a lot of misinformation going around about what was said and testified to in the lawsuit. The only thing the judge ruled on was that we didn't prove fraud or illegality, but the law says we don't have to. 

What the SCEC did do, was engage in abuse of the discovery process.  The information requested in the inspection was public information yet they covered it up or didn't supply it.  We then formally requested the same information in the lawsuit, yet SCEC didn't supply anything until ordered by the judge on the morning of 10/4 to give us everything by 4:30 that day.  They told the media they had already given us everything, but around 4:30, they supplied 5 boxes and 2.5 terrabytes of information (that is 8.3 million pages) and trial was scheduled to start a day later.  They still did not supply some crucial items and those items are still public information.  Evaluation is continuing on the data received because the process must be improved and specificity will be helpful.  An appeal is likely.

The Dem party asked for Federal monitors in May and did not get them.  They asked for them 30 days before early voting started for August, due to the May problems, and did not get them.  In point of fact, observers are quite worthless for the problems incurred in the August election.  The problems are in the software and vote tabulation process INSIDE the computer system.  Although observers might be able to assist voters at the polls, the SCEC computer system is not properly handling the tabulation of the digitally uploaded votes....and there you have the problem with this whole issue.  It is way too technical for the local media or most voters to want to understand. 

SCEC is supposed to run a Logic & Accuracy Test (L&A) on the whole computerized set-up after the election is built for a coming election day.  In August, they only checked the Republican candidates and only partially.  We also 'accidently' received on 10/4 the test which was run for November's election.  Again, the test was only partially done.  This is the age of computers and unless we have people on the EC who understand how computers function, we will continue to have problems.  Unless the SCEC performs the proper testing, we will continue to have problems.  Unless they properly train the election workers, we will continue to have problems.  Despite Giannini's immediate response to the inspection we initiated and the TBI investigation, where he said everything was fine and no one would turn anything up, the moment we listed all the issues on August 24, he said he had to contact the vendor.  The SCEC had no idea how to respond to the issues raised by us in the lawsuit and actually asked the computer system vendor, ESS, how to respond. Attached is a copy of that email. (LWC here: I am working on trying to attach this so you can see it).  You will note that the correspondence parallels Giannini's rebuttal eventually printed in the Flyer.

We discovered that the SCEC staff does not actually build the election in their computer system even though they think they do.  They testified they don't assign the candidate IDs, the vote export IDs (determine where a candidate's votes get tabulated in the software), the various race IDs or really anything.  They think the software does it.  As far as I can tell, the election must have been 'built' by the vendor and without proper testing, the systems will continue to run inaccurately.  There were August problems with all those parts of the election tabulation system.

On 8/19, when the August election was certified, SCEC knew that the number of votes was 3221 more than the number of voters their records showed.  They knew on August 5th that the 'error' they admitted potentially affected 5390 voters, not the 210 or 300 that Giannini kept harping about.  2024 of the 5390 voted but that left 3265 hard-core voters who didn't vote.  Not likely by choice.  They also knew on August 19th, that they only audited 10% of the precincts for certification purposes (out of 236, that's about 24), but 11 of them didn't reconcile.  That's about half.  Yet they certified this mess of an election.

Bottom line: they have a lot of issues which need to be corrected and couldn't verify those election results from August if they tried.  The same thing will be happening in November.  This is really a non-partisan issue but the media was determined to make it partisan.  A lot of work needs to be done and help from any quarter is appreciated but observers are not the only answer.

There seems to be a lot of panic in the air

I have heard that, in the aftermath of the clusterf*ck that was the August elections, that there have been calls for both Democratic commissioners, Myra Stiles and James Johnson, to be replaced immediately.

Um, no.  First, no matter who our commissioners are, they will be outvoted 3-2, no matter how long and loud they scream, so it would be pointless. Because Democratic leadership in the legislature never conceived that they would ever be out of power, they failed to ensure that Democratic-leaning counties would always have Democratic-leaning commissioners in charge.

Next, Ms. Stiles (full disclosure, a dear friend of many years and I am not at all impartial here) has spent several terms on the Commission, and Mr. Johnson was formerly the Executive Director of the Commission, so where would you find two more knowledgeable people on such short notice?  Step back and breathe, folks.

Now, if you have concerns about the upcoming election (and I am not saying that you SHOULDN'T, given the unsecurable machines that we are forced to use), what those of you NEED to be doing is getting and TRAINING as many potential pollwatchers as possible for EVERY POLL for November.

Be effective, let's get as many folks as possible and SHOW A DEMOCRATIC PRESENCE at the polls.  This will send a message to those who might be discouraged that we are determined to protect their votes and ensure that they will be counted fairly.  This needs to happen TODAY.

If those of you who want to toss Myra Stiles and James Johnson will work on this project instead, I will support this; otherwise, it's just mindless talk and will achieve nothing.

Are you in?

Crooks and Liars looks at our mishandled election

Amazing stuff they have, there is growing support for trashing the election and starting over with NEW MACHINES THAT PROVIDE A PAPER TRAIL.  That the GOP-dominated EC does not want it lends credence to the idea that our elections ARE NOT SECURE.

PRESS CONFERENCE AT 11 AM REGARDING LAWSUIT AGAINST SCEC

A PRESS CONFERENCE WILL BE HELD ON WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 25^TH, AT 11:00 AM ON THE SOUTH SIDE OF THE COURTHOUSE AT 140 ADAMS AVENUE.

AUGUST CANDIDATES FORMALLY SUE DUE TO

IMPROPRIETIES IN ELECTION

Ten countywide candidates in the August 5^th election have formally filed an election contest in Shelby County Chancery Court requesting injunctive relief. The ten plaintiffs in the suit include certain non-partisan judicial candidates as well as certain Democratic nominees, all of whom competed in the County General Election earlier this month.  Based on an inspection and investigation of the Shelby County Election Commission (SCEC) and of August 5^th election records, the suit claims that the election process was incurably flawed to the extent that the citizens of Shelby County were denied a free and equal election as required by Article I of the Tennessee Constitution.

The suit alleges widespread irregularities, improprieties, discrepancies and voting problems so significant as to have affected the outcome of the August election and to have caused the election results to beincurably uncertain. Already known is the massive error already acknowledged by the SCEC and described by the SCEC itself as “unacceptable” where invalid and inaccurate voter eligibility records were provided to polls on Election Day potentially affecting 5,400 voters and turning away thousands. 

“This lawsuit is intended to assure that the OTHER substantial and appalling improprieties which occurred in the August election are brought to light, investigated and resolved for all citizens and for every future election. The handling and mishandling of the August election by the SCEC is an embarrassment to our county and a violation of every principle on which our country was founded.  Regardless of race, party or gender, every citizen is entitled to better and is entitled to an unimpeded and transparent voting process. Our upcoming November election, including the vote on consolidation of Memphis and Shelby County, is important to many, and we intend to do everything in our power, with the approval of the courts, to assure that every citizen’s vote counts. None of us should tolerate incompetence or impropriety.”

Examples of problems from the suit:

1.    Votes Without Voters: According to SCEC records, the Participating Voters List for the August election includes 176,119 voters.  Without explanation, the Certified Statement of Votes Cast shows 182,921 votes as being cast in the August 2010 election.  Thus, according to SCEC’s own records, 6,802 more votes were cast than individuals who participated in the August 2010 election.

2.    Missing Vote Batches: Unexplained errors in vote count are reflected by the voting machines.  Vote batches are numbered sequentially based on when they are uploaded from the voting machines, and all early vote uploads to the central tabulator should reflect an upload date of August 5.  However, two of the batches mysteriously reflect an upload date of August 12 (the first day of inspection) –yet they remain sequentially listed with the other early vote batches that were all uploaded on August 5.    Further, twenty batches of vote uploads are no longer in the system at all (vote batches 245-265) with no record of them at this time. The missing batches potentially contain between 6,000 and 18,000 votes.

3.    Provisional Ballots:  Errors were committed with provisional ballot counting.  Eight entries appear in the GEMS software audit log at SCEC stating that provisional ballots were manually entered on August 12, 2010, but only one entry appears in the batch entry, and according to the poster log, 13 batches were manually entered.  Plus, only about 70% of the provisional ballots cast are being credited as valid.

4.    Turnout Inconsistencies: Inconsistencies exist in the SCEC’s daily turnout figures for early voting sites.  During early voting, poll watchers for candidates documented voter turnout at specific early sites, yet the turnout figures subsequently released by SCEC for each day were inexcusably inconsistent.  Final voter count taken after the last voter voted each day should have exactly matched the actual count released from the SCEC.  In some instances, the count was off by as much as thirty (30) votes in a day.  Such widespread and pervasive inconsistencies occurred at the twenty satellite voting locations over the approximate two-week early voting period as to make the results of the August 5th election incurably uncertain. 

5.    Poll Tapes:  Poll tapes from each voting machine with vote results are to be signed by poll workers and maintained by SCEC in accordance with law (TCA 2-8-108).  During the first day of the post-election inspection at the SCEC Operations Center, two large trash bags were found containing crumpled, but original signed poll tapes, without reasonable explanation from the SCEC except that they were being thrown away.  Such election documentation is required to be preserved by law.  On the other hand, many poll tapes being kept by SCEC to allegedly verify the certified vote totals lack proper signatures and verification, and others are just missing, making it impossible to confirm vote totals.

6.    Unsealed/Unsecured Equipment:  Voting machines, tabulators, memory cards and other voting apparatuses used in the election were seen at the SCEC Operations Center and were not secured or stored in a manner to protect them from manipulation. Many voting machines used in the election were not sealed and had not been sealed since Election Day, August 5th.  Multiple voting machines were not returned to the SCEC until August 12, 2010, a week after the election in violation of law.  There were voting machines running at the SCEC between August 12^th through at least August 17^th, all open and able to accept votes – more than a week after the election.  Memory cards holding votes were in open boxes throughout the facility. 

7.    The Ghost Race:   The election machines chosen by SCEC affix an ID to each race being run.  One ID number is found on the GEMS report and poll tapes and a corresponding but different ID is in the MDB tables.  For example, the Sheriff’s race is ID 92 in the MDB tables and is identified as race 408 in the export to GEMS.  According to the MDB and GEMS tables, there are a total of 105 races.  However, only 104 races were visible to the public while voting, with one race existing but hidden from view.  In the MDB tables, this “Ghost Race” is designated Race 105, with GEMS export ID number 440.  This “Ghost Race” was created on June 11 and remained in the system until after the August election.  It is coded so as to be hidden on both touch screen (early voting and at the polls) ballots and absentee ballots.  It does not appear to be designed to capture votes entered by voters – but it can be used to transfer, delete or temporarily store votes.  The race contains no candidate and is marked “nocount” which will cause any votes in this race to be omitted from vote count reports.

The existence of a “Ghost Race” is similar to a dummy bank account or a second set of log books.  It allows votes to be moved around without reflecting transactions in the audit data.  The most troubling aspect is that it only appeared on ballot styles 2, 10, and 80 – which encompass 54 primarily Democratic precincts.

8.    Obstructionism:  On August 17, 2010 during inspection, employees of the SCEC were stopped while taking computers to their cars.  SCEC represented to the inspection team that the computer memories had been wiped clean, and the computers were being given away due to their age – per a ‘policy’ of the SCEC.  However, upon examination, the computer memories were not wiped clean; voter files were on the machines and the machines’ memories indicated they had been accessed multiple times in the wee hours of August 12, 2010, before candidate inspection teams arrived that same day.

9.    Vote Swap: Numerous incidences of “vote swap” were recorded during the election, where voters voted for one candidate by touching the appropriate candidate’s name on the electronic touch-screen, only to have another candidate’s name appear.  The vote swap issue was consistent and pervasive throughout the election period and SCEC did not cure the problem. 

10. Party Identifiers:  Another distinct problem during the election was “party identifiers” being erroneously placed next to candidate names on voting screens.  For example, numerous reports exist of non-partisan candidates for judicial elections having “party identifiers” labeling them as Republicans or Democrats next to their names.  Such political identifiers are improper and significantly impact judicial races, which are non-partisan.

11. Voting Unavailable: In both May and August elections, some polls opened late – as much as an hour and a half – or had voting machines which were inoperable for periods of time while voters were turned away.  The SCEC denied all requests to keep the respective poll(s) open longer to make up that down time. Some voters attempted to vote 3 times.

12. The Wrong Early Voting Database:  SCEC has acknowledged loading the wrong early voter database in the Electronic Poll Books (EPBs) used for August 5^th, potentially resulting in 5,400 voters being told they already voted.  Affidavits have been collected evidencing voters turned away without being given options and/or threatened with prosecution. Some affidavits have been turned over to TBI, which is also investigating.  The SCEC was correct when it stated that this error was “unacceptable”.  Infringement on a person’s right to vote is not a minor matter; it is illegal. Candidate inspection teams have thus far been denied sufficient data or documentation to even verify that that SCEC used the May 2010 early voter database rather than a larger early voter database which would have affected more voters, as some voter statements would indicate. The error itself was not corrected on Election Day, since SCEC allegedly advising their poll workers how to handle the issue, is not the same as not having had the issue. Voters were told they had already voted, and the voters’ reluctance to try to vote, after being told that they already cast a vote in the General Election was undoubtedly magnified by the arrest of two individuals in July 2010, who were charged with voting twice in the 2006 election.  The media publicized these arrests throughout Shelby County, and specifically included quotes from members of the SCEC.  This public decision to prosecute immediately prior to the election, after a lapse of four years, unquestionably had a chilling effect on voters that was magnified by the use of the incorrect voter file.

******

The lawsuit requests that the Court immediately restrain SCEC from destroying, erasing or disposing of any voter information or data from the August election, seize all election paraphernalia, and that an exact copy of all computer data and hard drives be preserved for examination by the Court.  It further requests that the actions of the SCEC for the November election be monitored. 

Contact:

Regina Morrison Newman

reginamnewman@aol.com

901-287-1800

Want to know why I don't trust the DIEBOLD voting machines?

HERE'S WHY.  A doff of the chapeau to Southern Beale:

SCEC Report - Part 2

Regina follows up her earlier report:

Since I signed into the Ops Center at 4:10, a constant battle of control was waged between the County attorney sent out to represent the Election Commission and the inspection team.  I waded in as the plaintiff on site, and participated in the arguments on numerous idiotic objections raised by the SCEC attorney to each and every request made by the inspection team.  A detailed letter of agreement had been prepared between Van Turner and John Ryder this week, but unfortunately both were unavailable today and this evening.  Regardless of the specification in the agreed letter as to what would be inspected, every request brought forth some type of stalling argument from the SCEC attorney. First he stalled until the IT staff went home, then he tried to use that to stall until Friday, then he threw a fit about Bev Harris' "yankee rudeness' in giving instructions, then he just got more ludicrous - and I am an attorney. 

 

After information was finally being downloaded onto disc with copies made for both the inspection team and the SCEC, one of the final matters was a request for the poster log.  Bill Giannini arrived just before this argument began.  The poster log is a text file (I don't presume to be an expert but this was the explanation the experts put forth).  The log keeps track of actions which could have been made to the system which would override vote totals.  David Cocke was stunned that such overrides were possible, but assured Mr. Settle, as the "dispute resolver" on site, that we needed a copy of the log.  The SCEC attorney consulted with Richard Holden again and announced that it was proprietary to Diebold and there was no way we were going to get it.  The experts explained that there was nothing proprietary about it - it was not programming, it was a text file.  Could we just look at it without even downloading it, before we wrapped up for the evening?  The experts searched their own computers and provided a sample of one for Mr. Settle to see.  He acknowledged that he saw nothing proprietary about it, but the SCEC attorney stood more than firm and negated all suggestions.  I, through David Cocke, suggested that Mr. Settle be allowed to look at the log without us (in legal terminology 'in camera"), so that he could make an even more reasoned decision based on the real thing. SCEC denied that request as well.  Nearly an hour was spent on this argument.  Ultimately, Mr. Settle ruled they should allow him to see it and they refused.  They stated they would contact Diebold Friday morning and if Diebold had no objection, they would let us see it Friday morning.  I said I wished I had a court reporter, but I believe that Susan from BB voting was recording the argument. 

 

It was determined through more argument that the server and back-up server would be unplugged, turned off and locked in the tabulation room, with seals placed on the doors.  Cardell verified that the servers were not hooked to anything.  They were turned off to prevent remote access just in case.  We then requested that the 2 trash bags we had found full of signed poll tapes also be sealed and placed in the tabulation room. This generated another histrionic fit and argument from the SCEC counsel.  A simple yes or no would have sufficed but he accused us of wanting more and more and more and we would be there all night.  The only thing keeping us there forever was that attorney.  Mr. Settle resolved that the bags would be put into the room and everything would be sealed and we would come back in the morning.  SCEC seemed fairly certain that they could contact Diebold between 8 and 9 am on Friday and get the answer. Van Turner arrived just as everything was resolved for the evening.

 

Servers were placed in the tabulation room, shut down and unconnected. The 2 trash bags of tapes were placed in the tabulation room. I tied knots in the tops and placed a seal on each and initialed the bags, which Susan videoed.  We then sealed the door with two seals, which I initialed and which Susan videoed.  The list of seal numbers was given to Mr. Settle. Several Sheriff's deputies had been called.  We agreed to return at 9 am Friday.  I left and arrived home around 11 pm.

 

Today, cooperation from the SCEC was non-existent, despite the law cited by their attorney in court on Monday and despite a letter of agreement regarding the inspection.  Many of the arguments between today's SCEC attorney and David Cocke, and I, became very heated. Most were simply delaying, frustrating and apparently we were expected to give up and leave - which did not happen.  Mr. Settle was frustrated as well and was as clear as he could be, which unfortunately fell on the deaf ears of the SCEC attorney. 

 

At no time, did I expect to become so involved in this situation or expend the time put in today, but the fact is that the process for the August election was tainted by alleged "mistakes' and problems. Tonight, I find it even more tainted by groundless refusals for public information to which the law grants us access.  If there is nothing to hide, why is so much effort being put into hiding everything?  According to our experts, several things we found today were in violation of Federal law, including the trash bags of signed poll tapes. We also found unsealed and opened voting machines, as well as discovering voting machines which were just brought to the center today - one week after the election. 

 

I watched Mike Matthews on TV tonight when I got home.  I believe I know the words he wanted to use to describe the process we went through today but he couldn't say them on TV and I won't say them now.  I will say that if today is any example of the way our current Election Commission officials intend to administer our democracy, we are in serious trouble.

 

Regina

Cracker here again: the response of the SCEC and Diebold can only lead one to suspect that there IS something to hide here, and that this election should be thrown out.

REPORT FROM THE SCEC OPERATIONS CENTER

I received this a while ago from Regina Newman, County Trustee, who is part of the investigation:

We have 2 experts from Black Box Voting, plus Cardell Orrin, Darrick Harris, 

George Monger & Shep (Wilbun). Del Gill was with them when they arrived at 1 pm. After 

being stalled by SCEC & their substitute atty (John Ryder out of town), at 3:30 pm, 

team called me because SCEC had called the Sheriffs on them. I tried to reach 

Ryder, counsel for the SCEC, since our counsel was out of town.  David Cocke 

agreed to come out to the Ops ctr to fill in for our counsel.

When I arrived around 4, Channel 3 was here. Shortly thereafter, David Cocke 

arrived to argue with the SCEC counsel & Dewun Settle arrived as the 

Chancellor's special master to mediate issues. Following the first & immediate 

argument regarding the access which had already been agreed to & which the law 

allows & which the atty argued was proprietary to Diebold.   

Settle advised that he was staying & the inspection would go forward. Before we 

could get into the machine room, SCEC atty then advised that it was 4:40 & the 

IT staff had gone home so nothing could be provided. 

After numerous more arguments & Holden & SCEC atty disappearing into the 

tabulating rm unsupervised for over 30 mins, then we had more waiting.  Jackson 

Baker, Channel 3 & Mike Matthews have been here.

JB & Matthews & cameraman were here when a trash bag was found containing signed 

poll printouts with vote totals. Many were recorded on video.

Eventually, after argument about who were the appropriate representatives to 

enter the server rm, Darrick Harris, Cardell Orrin, Bev Harris of BB voting, 

David Cocke & I were allowed to enter the server/tabulating rm, with Holden & 

his counsel. Bev began explaining what we needed. SCEC atty threw a fit & said 

she was trying to order a county employee around. He called off everything. Then 

there was another argument before the court's representative where SCEC 

complained of a rude Yankee manner by Bev & said everything was called off right 

then. We then submitted that Cardell would be the Southern interpreter & all of 

Bev's requests would go thru Cardell. Ridicuous but true. (LWC note: My bolding for emphasis).

We were then able to have Mr Holden via Cardell's translation, download certain 

info to disks to review. 

Battery dying. More later. Still at OPs ctr.

Regina

Cracker here.  What in the hell are Giannini and Holden trying to hide?  Why can they NOT provide this list of people who voted on Election Day?  What about the vote totals in the garbage bags?  Aren't those supposed to be kept for archive purposes for a time?

Cohen Did The Right Thing Bringing in the DOJ, This is Officially FUBAR

First, my apologies to the entire Democratic ticket, this election, from everything that I am hearing, was FUBAR.

This is NOT, as reported earlier, about those who voted provisionally, but those who were turned away and/or threatened with being charged with voter fraud.  The fact that the wrong voter file was loaded into the system (and I am receiving reports that people who did NOT EVEN VOTE IN MAY were affected by this problem) shows incompetence from the EC.

This was not just happening to people of color either.  Mike Carpenter (who apparently deleted this tweet from his file, because I can't find it through TweetDeck) responded to one of my tweets that he had received many calls from GOP voters with problems.

Bill Gibbons had to call in the TBI because HE was one of the affected voters, folks, and as such could not investigate it.  Now, Steve Cohen called in the Department of Justice, and he was right to do so, because there are so many things that do not add up about the EC's handling of this election that I believe it may have to be thrown out, and I did not believe that 72 hours ago.

Now I do.

There was a meeting Wednesday night at the IBEW Hall on Madison, and nearly 500 people showed up to sign affidavits and tell their stories about voting problems on Election Day.  There will be another meeting, as noted below, this Friday afternoon at 3 PM at the AFSME Union Hall, MLK Center, at the SE corner of Beale and Danny Thomas.  If you had problems on Election Day trying to vote, EVEN IF YOU DID GET TO VOTE, please come to this meeting if at all possible, and if you did not get to go to Wednesday's meeting.

The integrity of this AND FUTURE ELECTIONS is at stake, folks.  Please take part if you had any problems!

OK, Just STOP this now, will you?

Oh brother.  Here comes ANOTHER useless press release from the SCDP, asking that the SCEC throw out the election.  I have it on good authority from someone I trust that this only affected roughly 230 voters.  PERIOD.  Even if all those votes went to Democrats, we would not win.

Now, I would love it if the state EC would throw out the Diebold machines and institute optical scanners with paper receipts, but if it didn't happen when WE were in control, it sure as hell won't happen now.

Read on:

PRESS RELEASE

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE TO ALL MEDIA OUTLETS

 

Date:   August 6, 2010                       Time:  4:30 p.m.

 

 

THE REPUBLICANS HAVE GONE TO FAR THIS TIME

 

            According to our estimates, the Shelby County Election Commission’s “gross negligence” or “intentional” malfeasance as Congressman Cohen referred to it, could have affected as many as 30,000 voters yesterday.  I understand the tactics of Bill Giannini and the Election Commission.  They are attempting to control the message and downplay what happened.  Naturally, it is in their best interest to do so until the votes are certified next Tuesday.  The issues that we are dealing with are massive.  I contend that we should explore whether the whole election should be thrown-out.  

 

            What we are experiencing today is just the reason why the Diebold machines need to be retired.  Bill Giannini indicated that the problem was resolved at a central location.  This is also worth questioning.  The fact that they could remotely control the voter lists from one location is alarming.  One would think that the entire operation should have been suspended or shut-down to make sure that the problem was resolved.  This did not occur yesterday.  I ask that the Shelby County Election Commission and the Republican Party of Shelby County to stand with me in asking the Tennessee General Assembly to repeal the Diebold voting machines or implement optical scanners, as the law requires, for the November election and all forthcoming elections in Shelby County.  We have the ability to change what we are doing and to finally rid the election process of all these “glitches” and authorized uplinks.  However, as long as Republicans keep doing what they are doing, I doubt they will have the integrity to do what’s right, what’s fair, and what’s transparent.

For More Information, Please Contact:

Van Turner, Chair

Shelby County Democratic Party

Post Office Box 40864

Memphis, TN 38174-0864

Phone:  901-283-5017 

The Early Voter Numbers are IN

Numbers Courtesy of the Shelby County Election Commission

Total - 93,736, or 15.6% of 600,349 registered voters

Breakdown by Party

Democrat - 52,645, 56.2%

Republican- 40,347, 43.0%

No Party - 744, 0.8%

Breakdown by Gender

Female - 55,390, 59.1%

Male - 38,341, 40.1%

Breakdown by Race

Black - 31,525, 33.6%

White - 38,350, 40.9%

Other - 23,861, 25.5%

Now, I happen to believe that OTHER is probably close to the same % as Black/White, so extrapolate away.  I mentioned ten days ago why I thought African-Americans were not voting in the same percentages as 2006 or 2008, but I do see that it picked up a little toward the end of Early Voting.  There had better be a REAL uptick on Thursday, or Democratic candidates for County offices might be in trouble.  There was a motorcade today, one tomorrow, one for Wednesday, and there are meetings going on to prepare for Election Day.

However, unless you can get those folks who just can't bring themselves to vote for or against our former mayor to come out and vote for the rest of the ticket, there might be a lot of eggs on a lot of faces Thursday night.

Breaking News: Calvin leaves, Greg moves UP

Breaking news: Calvin Anderson has decided to leave the State Election Commission, and will be replaced by Greg Duckett, who was the Shelby County Democratic legislative delegation's choice, apparently the ONLY choice.

The delegation is looking for applicants to replace Duckett on the SCEC, I will have more on that later. I believe I am breaking this story, cuz I gots SOURCES, and I'm not telling who they are.......

Watch this space for updates later this evening on how to apply, etc.