Judge rules against SD county Registrar in suit against CA SoS Debra Bowen

by CarlsbadDem [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

KPBS is reporting that a Superior court judge has tentatively ruled against a lawsuit by the San Diego country registrar of voters. As reported here on Calitics, the SD registrar had sued California Secretary of State Debra Bowen because, basically, San Diego county doesn't like the idea of being forced to have clean elections. The larger issue at stake is how much authority Bowen has in assuring clean, fair elections for all Californians.
The argument was over a requirement for counties with electronic voting to hand count 10% of votes in the event of a very, very close election (within 0.5%). Recall that our registrar of voters is a former Diebold sales rep, and the deputy registrar is the notorious Michael Vu, whose underlings from his previous registrar job are now in prison for violating elections law. Good times!

The issue at stake in this lawsuit was a claim by the SD Registrar that Debra Bowen exceeded her authority by setting the 10% requirement (previously only 1% of votes had to be hand-counted). The SD registrar argued that "absent an express command" from the legislature, Bowen cannot act. As I understand it, the counter-argument is that without these additional safeguards, e-voting systems are not certifiable at all (as per Bowen's in-depth analysis of them last year).

All I can say is thank goodness for Debra Bowen, and thank goodness this case has reaffirmed her power to ensure fair elections for everyone.

This ruling is tentative. If the judge stands by the decision in the next step, the county has vowed to appeal. Boo!!