Monthly Archives: July 2013

My response to the response to the lawsuit

Numbered paragraphs really help keep things straight.  The numbers refer to the official response to my lawsuit.

1.  Legalese clearing of the throat.

2.  I incorrectly added an ‘s’ to the word election in her title.

3.  I can understand and agree that this is going to be a cumbersome and expensive task.  But that fact is not a reason to deny my request.  It is simply part of the duty of her office to me as a resident. I have requested estimates of the costs involved if remuneration will be required. I know this is the normal approach as I was charged 25 cents a copy for copies of the records that were available when I visited her office in December. I have received no response to these requests.

4. The official results tapes by precinct are what I wish to independently verify using the RTAL tapes.  I cannot independently verify results reported on the summary tapes without them.  There is no other physical record of the individual ballots cast.  While I’ve no doubt the defendant is correct in the claim that these records are only available in six counties in Kansas, that means only those six counties have the ability to do an independent post-election audit of results. It is not a reason to claim that those tapes need not be produced by the County election office when they are available.

5. Same as #3.   I can understand and agree that this is going to be a cumbersome and expensive task.  But that fact is not a reason to deny my request.  It is simply part of the duty of her office. I have requested estimates of the costs involved if remuneration will be required. I have received no response to these requests. I know this is not unheard of as I was charged 25 cents a copy for copies of the records that were available when I visited her office in December.

6.   The statute requires that these records be produced when so ordered by a judge of the proper court. I filed this lawsuit in the hopes of obtaining such permission to access the records. What requirements need be met in order to do so?

7. I would appreciate the judge to explicitly rule on this. Are such records available to the public under this law? If not, who has the right to access these records and under what conditions will that access be granted?

8.  This is a valid point in that I may need access to those ballots to complete the audit. If a separate summary of the non-machine results exist, then I will not need those, but if no such summary exists, then I will have to request access to those ballots to complete the project.

9.  I am happy to agree that credentials are not applicable to access of these records under the open records act.  However, I think they may reasonably come under consideration regarding my request for the judge to order the election commissioner to allow me, and my designated assistants, and not others access to those records rather than making them available to the general public.

10.  I wish to research the actual past performance of our voting machines and software. I cannot do that research without access to the physical tapes that contain the voting record of each machine. Are these records never to be seen by human eyes again or are there circumstances in which they would be retrieved and scrutinized?  What requirements must be met in order for an individual to gain access?

11.  I will leave it to the judge to decide if the defendant is the proper person for service in this situation. If not the election commission, then I hope the judge will advise me regarding the proper person to apply to regarding access of these records.

12.  I will leave it to the judge to decide if these records should be available under the open records act.

13.  Same as 10.  The relief I am requesting is access to the necessary records to do my research.

Also, in the last paragraph, which isn’t part of the numbered set, they request that records be conditioned on payment of a reasonable fee for access.  I don’t have a problem with that. I’ve been expecting to have to pay some fees.