Guest Blogged by John Gideon
It has just been announced by San Diego County that they have hired Deborah Seiler as their new permanent Registrar of Voters. Ms. Seiler joins the county elections office from her job as the Assistant Registrar in Solano County, California.
“Seiler brings unique elections experience from the state, local and private sector that adds valuable perspective at a crucial time,” according to a press release (posted in full at the bottom of this article) as issued today by San Diego County.
All of which sounds great, until one does a moment or two of Googling — particularly on that “private sector” point mentioned — and Seiler’s troubling past is quickly revealed to be yet more bad news for the voters of San Diego, who continue to get the worst of what American democracy is supposed to look like.
Look what we found out about Seiler…
According to a Wired News article from Sept. 2004, Seiler worked for 12 years in elections for the California Secretary of State’s office. She then left, in 1991, through the revolving door and got off at the exit marked “Sequoia Voting Systems” where she worked for 8 years as their Government Relations Director. Then Seiler got back into the revolving door for her next stop at “Diebold Election Systems Incorporated” where she took a job as a sales representative.
It was while she was working for Diebold that she sold 1,200 Direct Recording Electronic (DRE) touch-screen voting machines to the fine folks in Solano County.
An investigation of this sale by then CA Secretary of State Kevin Shelley found that the machines were not state certified for use in elections and, in fact, had not been federally tested or qualified. This sale led Shelley to ban Diebold sales in California and the county ended up paying Diebold over $400,000 to get out of their contract.
Solano County was so irate about the dishonesty of the sale of machines that were not legal for use…that they welcomed Seiler back through the same revolving door, naming her Assistant Registrar, the job she held until today.
So, today Deborah Seiler, who sold uncertified voting machines to one California county joins Michael Vu, who who left his Cuyahoga County elections director job earlier this year after he stepped down in light of convictions against two of his election workers for rigging the 2004 Presidential Election recount. Vu admitted that secret ballot boxes were unsealed prior to the recount, so that they could be checked for accuracy before the county faked the “random” selection of precincts to be recounted.
The news just keeps getting worse for the voters of the People’s Republic of San Diego County where former Registrar Mikel Haas — one of the country’s worst — was recently promoted after several disastrous elections, including the Busby/Bilbray Election Debacle of 2006.
It can’t be good for news for elections anywhere in this country, for that matter. Failed, dishonest officials should not be able to find a home anywhere in American democracy. And yet, they seem to be much in demand these days. Certainly in San Diego.
San Diego County’s press release follows in full below…
I’ll be on the phone Monday to SOS Bowen’s office as Mischelle Townsend had been given until May 15th to respond to two election complaints from San Diego.
Great way to stonewall responses to election complaints.
Un-F***ing real! Do they do any kind of background checks in the People’s Republic(an) of San Diego? Oh, yes, of COURSE they do. That is why they hired Vu and Seiler – they fit the “mold” of San Diego – America’s Finest (corrupt) City.
And we thought the sludge problems coming from the sewers in Tijuana were a problem – this will stink much worse and for a lot longer and will cause health and safety problems unprecedented in history.
Now all they need is for Ann Coulter to move there and register in both CA 50 and in Issa’s districts. That way she can vote twice and help those most ethically challenged – one who replaced Randy “Duke” Cunningham and one who threw a tantrum when he kicked in $1 million to recall Governor Davis (not a bad idea) and then no one would back him to run for governor.
If you wrote a screenplay with this stuff in it, no one would produce it – because it is totally beyond belief!!!
I happen to live in this toxic waste dump.
But it isn’t just San Diego. And it isn’t just Republicans.
By the time people get around to realizing that Debra Bowen isn’t Jennifer Brunner, California, and San Diego County in particular, will have earned an equal place in the annals of infamy for 2008, as Florida did in 2000 and Ohio in 2004.
I’ve been watching this train coming, and I keep screaming at people to get off the tracks, but it must be a very loud train because nobody seems to hear me.
Appalling. It’s amazing how little these neocons seem to fear the law or any reprisals. And with good reason, since the media is as usual keeping hands-off. Democratic congress be damned, the Cheney oil regime rolls right along, changing policy not a whisker, rolling out their crooked elections machine with, as usual, the Democrats nowhere to be found on the issue. This past week’s dismissal of the Curtis challenge was both tragic and telling. These people not only don’t get it, they adamantly REFUSE to get it.
Meanwhile, Cheney Oil Election Manipulation LLC spreads like bird flu, with the latest stolen election in France as the Neocons install a prowar racist NeoNazi (no more Chiracs, thank you very much) bent on cutting social programs and supporting the Cheney Oil regime.
But the big question is whether Deborah Bowen can shine a bright spotlight on these vermin once and for all. I find it hard to believe she’d allow this BS to stand.
It is obvious that they tremble in their boots at everything the EVM movement says … 😉 … wonder why?
Dammit! Fucking Seiler and Michael Vu of all people. Thanks a fucking lot, Haas, you jackass, for bringing a taste of Cayahoga County style vote counting to San Diego. You didn’t do a good job as Registraar, and you are doing and equally poor job now. Are we really supposed to believe that hiring Michael Vu was in the voter’s best interests, given the convictions in Cayahoga? We need to get on the phone and start applying some serious heat to these people.
Here is a more in depth article I woke up to in the North County Times about this crap. Check it out
Folks, we SERIOUSLY need to dig up the dirt on the San Diego Board of Supervisors. They are the bosses that have been all Republicans for the last decade and are responsible for hiring these critters. They’ve also lately been the same bums that are trying to fast track Blackwater into Potrero Hills here against many residents’ wishes. They’ve gotten away with being under the radar screen for so long now! I think they need to start answering for their actions now, so that we can put a stop to hires like this!
Go after:
1) Pam Slater-Price (who’s up for re-election in 2008!)
2) Ron Roberts (chairman)
3) Greg Cox
4) Dianne Jacob
5) Bill Horn
Thomas J. Patuszka (Clerk)
Also go after County Chief Administrative Office Walt Ekard too! I think he’s the guy at the nexus of all of these horrible Registrar of Voters’ office hires too from his defensive comments towards Barbara Gail Jacobsen on her comments about the Michael Vu hire, calling us “conspiracy theorists”, and a lot of other names.
We should declare war on these folks and not let them stay under the radar any longer! The next person running for Board of Supervisor for the Dems shouldn’t be allowed to get slimed by fake campaign flyers like Richard Barrerra was last year against “Democratic choice” Ron Roberts!
Deborah Seiler was the California sales rep for Diebold when the four main counties were sold on the idea of accepting the new TSx voting system prior to its being federally qualified or state certified.
She persuaded Solano County to pay Diebold over $400,000.00 to get out of a contract that Diebold itself had violated by delivering uncertified voting equipment. She then went to work for the very same county. The county should have sued Diebold for fraud and misrepresentation, not paid them off.
Deborah Seiler wrote a letter to the Calfornia SoS August 23, 2003 requesting the TSx be put on the agenda for certification. She claimed the TSx was being tested to the 2002 VSS. She then stated:
“Modifications to both hardware and software have been tested by the Independent Testing Authority and revised in accordance with their direction. The ITA will now undertake functional testing, as a final step in the process, to ensure the hardware, firmware, and software operate as a complete system. Upon completion of this last step, we anticipate receiving ITA approval and our NASED number.�?
California Voting Systems and Procedures Panel (VSPP) Hearing October 9, 2003 hearing (p. 38-42):
MS. SEILER: Deborah Seiler with Diebold election systems. We are actively engaged in working with our jurisdictions in San Joaquin, Kern, Solano, and San Diego. We would appreciate your indulgence in postponing this for the two-week period. We had a tremendous backlog with only one person working on this [ITA approval]. So it’s generated a lot of uncertainty. We anticipate having a letter today or tomorrow to indicate successful completion of the testing. What we don’t know for sure is the time line on the actual report.
CHAIRPERSON KYLE: Why not set it for October 27th. This is some time — you’re expecting some kind of report today or tomorrow?
MS. SEILER: Yes. We have completed the testing.
On October 14, 2003, Frank Kaplan, Diebold’s Western Region Manager, wrote to the California Elections Division reiterating that the TSx had passed all testing to the 2002 Voting System Standards.
On October 15, 2003, Deborah Seiler wrote the California Elections Division and made a formal request for certification of the TSx. She then wrote:
“…. We expect the final release number from the Independent Testing Authority (ITA) Wyle Laboraties will be 4.4.4. The version of our application software, Global Election Management Systems (GEMS), is 1.18.18.�?
As late as February 2004 Diebold was still claiming that ITA testing was completed and a report and resulting NASED qualification number were imminent, when in fact they had abandoned even trying to obtain ITA qualification. It was this pattern of lying and deception that was one of the factors for SoS Kevin Shelley to de-certifiy the AccuVote-TSx.
It was Deborah Seiler who had sold the original AccuVote-TS units to the counties in late 2002. Then in Spring 2003 she persuaded them to accept the new TSx that would be coming out in the summer. None of the counties changed their contracts before accepting delivery of the TSx units. Diebold (and through its local representative Deborah Seiler) then delivered the TSx units before they were federally approved or state certified. The counties did not change the contractural model designation until 2004, after the March Primary meltdown. Some did not change the model change until AFTER the de-certification.
The revolving door between vendors and election officials must be closed. There must be accountability by election officials. Instead it appears that incompetence, conflict of interest, and deceptive practices are rewarded, especially in San Diego County. The ultimate accountability must rest upon the citizen’s representatives, the Board of Supervisors. But of course, they are elected to office by the very same voting systems, and the votes processed by the very same people who the BoS puts into authority. It is a self-serving system that reeks.
This whole situation is ripe for Grand Jury inquiry, or a complete investigation by the California Attorney General.