Sheila Green – 8/4/05

This page was last updated on August 7, 2005.

Local officials failed, too; Sheila Green; Beaver County Times; August 4, 2005.

It appears Ms. Green got tired being out of the spotlight. I wish I understood the true reason behind the crusade against electronic voting machines. Given the extreme positions taken by opponents of electronic voting machines, there has to be more to this than meets the eye. Decertifying electronic voting machines has become a liberal cause célèbre, but Democrats control Beaver County. The Beaver County Commissioners are all Democrats (two are current Democrats and one switched parties so he could get elected), so it doesn’t appear to be a Democrat vs. Republican or liberal vs. conservative issues to these people.

For background, here are some previous critiques on this subject.

Paper trail is vital in elections

We need paper ballots

Celebrate, learn from recount

Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.

“The taxpayers have the right to representation from public officials. The voters have the right to accurate and fully observed vote counts.

“The Beaver County Commissioners and director of elections discarded thousands of our votes and more than $1 million of our dollars, denying us our legal right to local supervised vote counts to outsource that work to deceptive/unknown parties.”

[RWC] Ms. Green should watch out how she throws around the term “deceptive.” She wants us to believe someone other than local officials supervised vote counts. I’ll be generous and only claim she’s being deceptive.

“They falsely accused the voters of apathy, and now they’re handing off the damages to the taxpayers. They should care more about fiscal responsibility and correct vote counts than personal convenience.”

[RWC] I never heard/read about the Commissioners claiming voter apathy had anything to do with choosing electronic voting machines.

“Pennsylvania election laws require that voters choose new voting systems, but this was never put to them on any ballot.”

[RWC] I don’t know if our election laws require voters to approve new voting systems, but if so the requirement isn’t in the PA Constitution. All the Constitution says on this subject is in Article VII (Elections), Section 4 (Method of Elections; Secrecy in Voting): “All elections by the citizens shall be by ballot or by such other method as may be prescribed by law; Provided, That secrecy in voting be preserved.”

“The commissioners and the director of elections failed to research electronic voting issues. They failed to doublecheck sales claims. They ignored thousands of lost votes. They pushed the faulty system to Mercer County without disclosing the existing problems. They are now trying to force the taxpayers of Pennsylvania, which include those of Beaver County, to pay for their mistakes.”

[RWC] Why doesn’t Ms. Green present the evidence supporting her malfeasance claims?

“The one party most liable for this fiasco is the vendor, Jack Gerbel of UniLect, for misrepresenting the product. He owes us a full refund. If the commissioners and the director of elections didn’t make sure he was a bonded/insured contractor who could make good on the damages, then let them pay the county back out of the salaries they’ve been drawing without earning them.”

[RWC] Ms. Green fails to recognize the UniLect system passed all the Pennsylvania Department of State tests and accurately tallied votes even in the retests this year.

“The commissioners and the director of elections must be held accountable for the ways in which they’ve failed to do their jobs competently. The most effective way to do this is to remove them all from office and for the public to elect and hire only those who will perform responsibly.

“They can go apply for jobs at UniLect since they’re already working for them, not us.”

[RWC] I’m not a fan of the county commissioners (They’re all Democrats of one form or another.), but this whole letter is nothing but a nonstop rant. The ranting devoid of supporting facts/evidence is what leads me to believe there’s more involved than electronic vs. paper ballots.