Delaware County Democratic
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September 27, 2003
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Nathan Pechin Award Breakfast
Chairman Wilson Urges County Council Action on Voting Machines
News Articles
Worth Repeating
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Nathan Pechin Award Breakfast
The annual Nathan Pechin Award Breakfast will be held this Saturday, October 4, 2003 at 9:30am at the Towne House in Media, PA. This year's award recipient is State Committeewoman Nancy Baulis, of Springfield. Nancy has worked for many years in many positions for the party and currently serves as the chair of the party in Springfield, in addition to her postion as a member of the Pennsylvania Democratic State Committee. Over the years, Nancy has worked for many Democratic candidates from president on down to township commissioner and has helped ALL of us in some way or another.
Join us as we honor her dedication to the Democratic Party. Tickets are $25 per person and ads in our program book are also available. Ads can be purchased by local candidates, committees, individuals and businesses. All Democratic committee people, volunteers and party patrons are cordially invited to attend. Send checks to Delaware County Democratic Party, PO Box 473, Media, PA 19063.
Please join us in honoring Nancy at this special event. Reservations can be made by calling (610) 566-6427.
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Chairman Wilson Urges County Council Action on Voting Machines
County Chairman Cliff Wilson has called upon members of the Council to find out why the write-in voting mechanisms of the county's voting machines malfunctioned in the May 21 primary and how the county planned to fix them to prevent a recurrence in the 2004 and 2005 primary elections. Wilson also asked the County Council to monitor the County Board of Elections as it prepares a county plan to implement the Commonwealth Plan that has been adopted pursuant to the federal Help America Vote Act.
Wilson, speaking during the public comment section of the County Council's regularly scheduled meeting, referred to the wide-spread breakdown of the write-in mechanisms in the primary election that resulted in write-in votes across the county not being counted in the recent primary. "Many voters had their votes nullified and not counted because the mechanism that marks whether those write-ins are being cast in the Democratic or the Republican primary malfunctioned," said Wilson. In precincts across the county one, two or more write-ins were not counted since election officials could not determine which party to assign the votes to. "Fortunately in only one instance - the Democratic primary for Council Member at Large in Middletown Twp did the malfunction voided votes affect the outcome". In that case Common Pleas Judge Ed Zetusky held that candidate Dorothy Wyman did receive the requisite ten votes to be a candidate in the general election - although six of her thirteen write-in votes were affected by the machine malfunction. Judge Zetusky's ruling has since been upheld by the Commonwealth Court thanks to the efforst of Democratic Party solicitor Ray Santarelli.
"The machine has a mechanism to identify the party of the write in voter - that mechanism has always worked before - we need to make certain it will continue to work for the years we continue to use those machines. "
Wilson also called to the Council's attention the Help America Vote Act of 2002 which mandates that the current lever voting machines be replaced by electronic voting systems in time for the 2006 elections. "Voters should be able to cast their votes with full confidence that they will be counted - we're not in Florida," said Wilson.
Read the related article from the Daily Times:
Delco voting machine tab could hit $6M, official warns
By ANTHONY J. SANFILIPPO
Delaware County Daily Times
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News Articles of Note
New Voting Technology Questioned
By Finn Bullers
Kansas City Star
Bush Isolated as Speech to U.N. Falls Flat
Gary Younge
The Guardian
Revenge of the ex-generals
By Michael Moran
MSNBC
Cheney in Wonderland
Los Angeles Times | Editorial
Democratic Hawk Urges Firing of Bush Iraq Aides
By Davic Firestone
New York Times
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Worth Repeating
"The bottom line is that the voters must have complete confidence in the accuracy and honest conduct of the elections or the credibility of those elected and their ability to govern will be severely hampered. Voters should be able to cast their votes with full confidence that they will be counted - we're not in Florida."
--Delaware County Democratic Party Chairman Cliff Wilson, in remarks
to County Council, Sept. 23, 2003