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Former Diebold Sales Rep Becomes Registrar of Voters in San Diego

Submitted by MMRules on Fri, 05/25/2007 - 11:24am.

By Kim Zetter May 11, 2007 | 4:55:00 PMCategories: E-Voting, Election '08
Deborah Seiler, a former sales representative for Diebold Election Systems, has been made the new registrar of voters for San Diego County in California. Diebld makes the voting machines used in San Diego. I previously wrote about Seiler's prior appointment as registrar of Solano County in 2004 -- a one-time Diebold county. From that story:
As the Diebold sales rep, Seiler sold Solano County nearly 1,200 touch-screen machines that were not federally tested or state certified. When the state banned the machines because of Diebold's business practices, the county had to find a replacement for the machines and pay Diebold more than $400,000 to get out of its contract.
Joining Seiler in the San Diego elections office is another election official beleaguered by controversy -- Michael Vu. Until recently, Vu was the elections director in Cuyahoga County in Ohio. He resigned in the wake of a number of critical reports depicting problems with how his office conducted elections and how machines made by Diebold performed. His resignation also followed the conviction of two election workers in his office who were found guilty of rigging a recount in the 2004 presidential election. Vu was recently made assistant registrar of voters in San Diego.

The announcement was made today by San Diego's interim registrar, Mischelle Townsend. Townsend was previously the registrar of voters in Riverside County but left that office under the cloud of a financial conflict-of-interest controversy involving Sequoia Voting Systems -- the company that made the machines used in Riverside. Townsend has been acting as registrar of voters in San Diego until the county could find a permanent registrar.

Seiler will start her new job on June 4th.

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Oy.

Submitted by John Singer Sargent on Fri, 05/25/2007 - 9:35pm.

This isn't an exact anaolgy -- but MMR's news flash reminds me of a Sunday Bloom County strip in advance of the '88 Presidential election -- the contest between Bush I (The Wimp, as Berke Breathed tagged him), and Michael Dukakis (The Shrimp) [I'm working with my best memory of the strip, here].

Opus, in the voting booth, realizes his vote is a 'shit-or-go-blind', lesser-of-two-nothings choice. He can't make up his mind ("Wimp or Shrimp; Wimp or Shrimp...").

Waddling out to talk to the poll worker, he asks if he could write in Gregory Peck ("NO!").

Back in the booth, Opus continues to agonize ("Okay, okay; gotta choose gotta choose"), then finally... pulls the lever on the voting machine --

-- and < snick > the voting machine's lid pops up; a mechanical arm holding a huge, gooey green Pie appears; and < FWOOOOMP! > slaps Opus in the face with it.

Finally, Opus is sitting with Hodgepodge, the groundhog, on the curb; their heads are encased in whatever green, gelatinous blobby stuff the pies are made of.

"it's not the outcome that's important", says Opus, "But that we participated in the process."

"Aw, shaddup," says Hodgepodge.

So a former employee of a company manufacturing vote tabulation equipment, whose CEO said he would "deliver" elections to the Rethugs, takes up her position as Registrar of Voters in the bedrock Rethug county of San Diego.

Right. And simply because she's now in a critical position of public trust (just as Blackwell in Ohio was for years), of course she'll refuse to allow any prior employment connections to influence her actions in that office. Right.

Why does my head feel covered in green slime -- and I don't even live in San Diego county?

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Thanks John Singer Sargent!

Submitted by MMRules on Sat, 05/26/2007 - 4:23am.

Very cool resoponse.I live in San Diego.I'm One of the few,but growing slowly,progressives.
I love Opus,Bloom County,and Outland!Berkrley Breathed is a genius!The best
comic bar none.
he asks if he could write in Gregory Peck ("NO!").I love that line!
Thanks again for the cool comment! :)

Bloom County Link!

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link for story

Submitted by Anonymous on Sat, 05/26/2007 - 8:14pm.

Not seeing one, so
http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2007/05/former_diebold_.html

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You Wek'ome. And Gregory Peck Was Cool

Submitted by John Singer Sargent on Sat, 05/26/2007 - 10:01pm.

... but he didn't quite get Breathed's reference.

Remember his line? "Bloom County -- what is wrong with me that I don't understand it?"

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