Dear Friends, 

Some good news Chuck Huckleberry moved the counting of ballots to Tuesday at 1PM (Chuck Memo and BOS Ally Miller are attached)

Still more work to do to make this Election Fair, Honest, Transparent and Verifiable.   Please join us at the Press Conference / Rally today at Apollo school at 6PM. Address for Apollo is 265 West Nebraska Street. Tucson, AZ

1)  Mickey Duniho to be our Representative  Election Day inside the Election Count Room.  He is registered independent; he serves on the PC EIC since the beginning.  Mickey use to work at NSA for 37 years and he knows what to watch for.  He’s done this many times before but now Brad Nelson says No.  Why? 

2)  Observer rights at Apollo School as we now have at the other two locations. 

3)  A pure random hand count of one of the 12 to 15 batches of ballots after the election.  Verifying the election within a day or two. 

How did this school get picked?   Apollo Middle School looks to be very big weak link as well as a conflict of interest.  It’s the home precinct of “Louie Gonzales” who has served 14 years on SUSD board and he is being recalled. We understand that his son works at the school.  I’ve also been told that he has some 30 family members working in Sunnyside school system.  Could this be a great place to stuff envelopes? This is why we have qualified trained observers, who if needed are in touch with trained election attorneys.   We want to know how many people go in and out and how many people vote there.  Just like any other election at any other school.   

At all 3 locations there will be a minimum of 3 voting booths and one DRE “Direct Recording Electronics”   except at Apollo.  Don’t these centers look more like a “voting center” than Just a “drop off ballot station?”   

The Recorder’s office and Huckelberry says we can NOT have an observer at Apollo school.  However, they will allow observers at the other two locations.  Chris Roads (recorder’s office) said that because there will be NO tabulating of votes at this site, only a ‘ballots drop of center’. When I pointed out that there was a tabulator and it’s built into the DRE “Direct Recording Electronics”.  He then advised me that he was removing the DRE from Apollo site. Preferring to violate an equal access law in order to refuse access to observers clearly demonstrates lack of pure intent.

By  removing  the DRE from Apollo , in order for the County to continue to use the site without violating Arizona statute, not only a careless disregard for the perceptions of the small Sunnyside community, but the laws which protect citizens with physical or other challenges for which a DRE provides equal access. 

Over the last 10 years I’ve learned that secure chain of custody of election materials, robust ballot accounting and equipment are prerequisites for good election and post-election audits.  

Inclosing, For a Fair, Honest, Transparent and Verifiable election the following conditions must be met: 

(a). There are strict written accounting procedures for paper records to prevent the addition, subtraction, substitution, or alteration of paper records. (b). To safeguard the ballots and audit records from loss and tampering, paper records and electronic equipment are fully secured at all times when a breach could adversely affect the integrity of the records including from the time the votes are cast until all audit or recount activity is completed and election results are finalized. (c). The audit begins as soon as possible after the random selection of audit units, which commences as soon as possible after the initial tallies recorded by the voting system are reported. (In some circumstances the audit may be conducted in phases as discussed in Best Practice. (d). There is a reconciliation to ensure that all votes from all audit units are correctly tabulated in the election totals.

John Brakey

Video courtesy of John Brakey