Guilford Co Election Screwup - Shades of Sarasota Florida

Rory Blake, the Democrat who ran against Howard Coble got a taste of "Florida style elections" in Guilford County.

Excerpts from the Dec 7 issue of Yes Weekly:

The forgotten Democrat: Rory Blake tries to ride blue wave into red territory

...Blake pokes his head around the corner and summons his campaign staff - Smith and Gaddy - into a back room. In front of him sits a pile of sample ballots lifted from several 6th District precincts. His race tops the ballot, but his name doesn't appear on the paper.

"You can either choose Howard Coble or Howard Coble," Blake says, his temperature rising.

He's heard secondhand that a Democratic observer at Edgefield Baptist Church encountered the same non-choice during the actual touch screen voting and he's livid. Guilford County Board of Elections Director George Gilbert assures Blake the mistake had been taken care of and does not appear on the screens, but Blake doesn't buy it. The candidate is on his cell phone, trying to bend the ear of sympathetic journalists and gin up some last-minute support for what he now thinks might have been a stolen election.

Link.

Yes, of course George says its been taken care of.

Here are some articles about the problem in Sarasota:

FL: FL-13 - Group petitions for District 13 revote:
In a petition drive launched Monday, MoveOn.org said Sarasota County's electronic voting machines "appear to have flat-out lost 18,000 votes for Congress" in what it called an "election meltdown" that can be corrected only by a new election.

"There's no way to recount the votes short of holding a new election in Sarasota," the petition states. "In the wake of Florida's electronic voting machine meltdown, Congress should call for a re-vote and repair our nation's elections."
Link.

One candidate is suing -

FL: FL-13 - State withdraws motion to dismiss lawsuit in contested race:

Democrat Christine Jennings' lawsuit claims ATM-style touch-screen voting machines in Sarasota County lost up to 18,000 votes in the congressional contest to replace U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris. State officials declared Republican Vern Buchanan the winner of the 13th District seat by a margin of just 369 votes.
Link.

We lobbied against touchscreens in Guilford, and went to multiple Guilford Co Commissioners meetings,wrote letters/op eds, even the High Point Enterprise endorsed optical scan.

Gilbert himself predicted the failure of the touchscreen paper "trail",(as did we) but he was HELL bent on the county spending $7 Million on them anyway, even though a state grant would have completely paid for the more reliable, less expensive optical scan machines.

See our history of butting heads with George Gilbert from back to early 2004

Director of Elections,George Gilbert's long battle against Voter Verified Paper Ballots

Gilbert has fought Voter Verified Paper Ballot legislation at the federal and state level,
Gilbert tried to amend S 223 to allow "paperless verification" (a black box on top of a black box),
Gilbert's choice of voting systems are the most expensive, least suitable.
Gilbert changes story to media frequently about purchase cost of voting systems,
Gilbert cited incorrectly that optical scan voting costs more than touchscreen voting,
Gilbert follows the Election Center (organization that accepts donations from voting machine companies) talking points that paperless voting is safe.
Link.

David Allen of High Point, (who served on the State Legislature's Joint Select Committee on Electronic Voting) wrote the full history of Gilbert's crushing of the "paper trail" here:

Tuesday, November 8. 2005
Thwarting democracy in Guilford County
As I mentioned last week, I attended the meeting of the Guilford County commissioners in an attempt (my third) to get them to wake up and reel in George Gilbert, the county election director.....
Link.

If you have observed election irregularities,please share your account with us.
We are also looking for observers' accounts of the Larry Kissell recount in Mecklenburg County.
Our contact information is at the website here.