"Pressed by concerns about voter privacy and expense, Mesa County Clerk Sheila Reiner is proposing reducing county’s precincts from 82 to 57...."
Sure, she is. "Pressed by concerns about voter privacy and expense".
Clerk Reiner is being sued:
"Mesa County - The Mesa County Clerk and Recorder is being sued, and some people believe the outcome could have a huge effect on the 2012 general election."
(Learn more? Click title and post link. Comment to discuss)
3 comments:
From: Marilyn Marks
Sent: Wednesday, December 21, 2011 2:05 PM
To: Gary Harmon gary.harmon@gjsentinel.com)
Cc: 'jay.seaton@gjsentinel.com'; 'laurena.davis@gjsentinel.com'
Subject: Sentinel correction requested
Gary,
While technically this may not need a “correction,” because you are quoting Reiner’s misinformation, the readers are surely left with the wrong impression of the facts here, since you only present one side, and the Reiner quotes are false or illogical.
As for the statement that Reiner is a “defendant in a suit that could result in release of documents that would reveal how someone voted,” I am presumably the plaintiff, and there is nothing like that in the case. In fact, just the opposite. The case is about a request for ANONYMOUS data, with the clear exception for any traceable non-anonymous data. Unless the court orders something is not at issue in the case, and that I haven’t asked for and don’t want, then no such documents would be released. Is Reiner speaking of MY case against her? If so, she is making false claims.
Also, it is nonsensical to say that documents may be “ withheld to protect voter anonymity.” Voters are not anonymous. Who voted is public record. Ballots are to be anonymous. Withholding them or releasing them does not affect a ballot’s anonymity. It is either anonymous or it is not.
If a tree falls in the clerk’s ballot storage warehouse and no reporter is there to hear it, did it not make a noise when it fell?
This is an important public policy matter and if the clerk is going to make such bizarre claims, I hope that the Sentinel will counter them with facts.
I will be happy to try to clarify.
Marilyn Marks
970 429 7535
Perhaps this is the possible beginning of the Grand Junction press starting to accept that the open records litigation does not seek any identifiable ballot data. My request specifically excludes any traceable data.
(I would not accept deliver of such information if it were offered.)
Hopefully the press will begin to ask why the clerk even initiated this litigation, given that no identifiable data was requested. It seems that she is suggesting that all ballot data, or almost all data, is identifiable. That should certainly alarm the press, parties, voters and the elected officials, given the obvious violations of the state constitution. Coupled with the county’s ballot “batching” processes, the traceable system must be put to an immediate halt before the 2012 primaries.
At some point, hopefully the press will de-personalize this and begin to inquire as to what the litigation is really about, and try to learn why it was initiated by Mesa County. (I have no idea.) It absorbs public resources in a wasteful effort and distracts from the real and urgent problems at hand. I wish they would ask why the county is challenging the Appeals Court holding that anonymous ballots are public record.
If the press will not inquire as to what the purpose was of going to court and why anonymous records shouldn’t be publicly available, perhaps the citizens will ask why:
--how can Reiner state that the “anonymity of each voter is protected,” AND “votes are traceable back to the voter.” Both cannot be true. Which is true?
--all ballots and ballot records are not anonymous.
--how Mesa can conduct elections which comply with the constitution if the ballots are traceable.
--what does this failure of compliance imply for 2012 elections.
--what the county hopes to accomplish in litigation.
I will be interested in any information that anyone gets on this.
(Continued)
continued:
"Plan grows precinct sizes"
By Gary Harmon
Thursday, December 22, 2011
A proposed new precinct map for Mesa County would enlarge precincts to reduce election costs, as well as reduce the county’s vulnerability to lawsuits, officials said.
Mesa County Clerk Sheila Reiner is proposing reducing the number of precincts from 82 to 57.
The Mesa County Commission has the final word on the proposed new map and will conduct a public hearing on it Jan. 9.
Elections officials can more easily and less expensively administer fewer, larger precincts for several reasons, among them that it will need 57, not 82, basic ballot styles.
Larger precincts also ease the pressure on elections officials to find election judges and political parties to find precinct captains and other campaign workers, Reiner said.
Fewer meeting locations would be necessary for precinct caucuses, as well, Reiner said.
The work of statisticians also should be eased as they deal with breaking down election results and other data from fewer precincts, Reiner said.
The change also is motivated by a lawsuit filed against Mesa County by Aspen resident Marilyn Marks, Reiner said.
Marks has filed suit against Mesa and Jefferson counties for access to ballots cast by voters.
The form in which Marks is seeking the ballots, however, could allow an observer to discern how a voter voted, Reiner said.
That’s related in part to problems associated with small precincts containing all or parts of various districts. In some cases, only a small number of voters would have the same ballot and if only one were to cast a ballot, the identity of the voter — and the voter’s choices — would be identifiable.
Marks insists she wants nothing to do with connecting voters and the ballots they cast and said in an email that she is seeking only anonymous data and wants no information that would tend to connect a voter and a ballot.
“I am spending my time and money fighting for voter’s rights, not trying to compromise them!” Marks wrote to the Sentinel.
Expanding the size of precincts would reduce the likelihood of such an eventuality, Reiner said.
The county was divided into 82 precincts after the 2000 census because officials anticipated conducting elections at precinct polling places. Since then, the county has begun using vote centers at which any voter registered in the county can cast a ballot.
The new map can be viewed at http://clerk.mesacounty.us/elections/maps.aspx.
“We hope the public will be pleased with the map and comments are welcome, to me or the commissioners,” Reiner said. "
http://www.gjsentinel.com/S=2fb74cd88d4d8081e1e46c551dc82b8b90b9e686/news/articles/plan_grows_precinct_sizes/
Marilyn Marks
Marilyn@AspenOffice.com
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