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OFF THE MARK
The tone of your article [Outtakes, Dec. 7:
] tended to disparage our band of citizen volunteers who turned out on their own unpaid time during the holiday run-up to talk to an elected public servant on a scheduled appointment about a serious community issue. This from the Reporter, which early last year did one of the first and best feature articles in New Mexico on the untrustworthiness of electronic voting [Cover story, April 14, 2004: "Black Box Voting"]. We can assure you we were not "befuddled." Our aim was to urge the Santa Fe county clerk to consider an alternative machine for the disabled voter-the AutoMARK, which uses a paper ballot that is counted by electronic scanning and is a system that is more easily audited and recounted for counting accuracy than the Sequoia Edge. In recent demonstrations of the three machines for the disabled deemed eligible by the New Mexico secretary of state for federally funded purchase, five representatives of the New Mexico Commission for the Blind chose the AutoMARK as their best choice for the visually impaired. Also, in making their own selections for the Dec. 5 deadline set by the secretary of state, 19 of the 33 New Mexico county clerks chose the AutoMARK over the Sequoia Edge. If our Santa Fe county clerk hasn't heard of problematic vote counting by Sequoia machines, we can show her a list of 28 major Edge machine failures occurring in New Mexico and across the nation. We would appreciate the opportunity to meet with her.
Robert Stearns
Santa Fe
WRONG VIEW
The outtake by Dan Frosch was the reporter's view of what took place at the county office building on Dec. 5 when a group of us sought a meeting with Valerie Espinoza. Had he looked more in-depth he would have found that the group contained some very savvy people who know a great deal about voting machines and care deeply about the voting process.
It is indisputable that there were lost votes in the last major election. It may have made good copy to call us a group of aging activists but it was a very superficial observation.
Marion Seymour
Santa Fe
CLERK RESPONSE
I would like to respond to your story published Dec. 7, subtitled "Critics heated over clerk's new voting machines."
Unfortunately, your story may lead the voters of Santa Fe County to believe that I did not respect concerned constituents and that I have chosen touch screen voting machines for the voters of Santa Fe County. Neither belief is correct.
First, Mr. Robert Stearns called my office on Friday, Dec. 2 and asked if he could come in and meet with me on the voting machine selection for Santa Fe County's disabled and language minority voters. I quickly agreed to an appointment with Mr. Stearns at 1 pm on Monday in my office. Mr. Stearns did not mention that he was planning to bring a large group to the meeting. Had he done so, I would have been happy to reserve a meeting room here at the county building.
Approximately two hours prior to the scheduled meeting, I was made aware that Mr. Stearns' intentions were to stage a demonstration, not have a meeting with me. I immediately called him and expressed my reservations at not having scheduled a meeting room, but stated that I was still willing to meet only with Mr. Stearns in my office, as planned. He refused. I cancelled the meeting. Mr. Stearns could have notified those he had assembled for this planned ambush.
Second, at no time have I ever planned to purchase and use touch screen voting machines as the primary voting system for Santa Fe County. As Mr. Stearns and Verified Voting New Mexico are well aware, I supported their drive for paper ballots and pled their case with Gov. Richardson prior to his signing legislation this year. I fully intend to deploy optical scan paper ballots once the Legislature funds the legislation it passed and the governor signed. I wish Mr. Stearns and this group of citizens would show the same zeal at persuading the Legislature to immediately allocate funds for the counties to purchase the paper ballot voting systems the Legislature has mandated.
What is at issue are the machines purchased by the secretary of state to comply with the Help America Vote Act, which requires one disability accessible voting machine per polling place. Mr. Stearns, who is an able-bodied citizen, as was the group with him, is attempting to dictate what voting machines will be used by the visually impaired, blind and language minorities.
I carefully examined the voting systems available and made a selection. All three systems certified were rated as acceptable by the disabled citizens who tested them. Most of the group accompanying Mr. Stearns had never seen any of the machines tested, and not one of the callers who received misinformation from his group had seen any of the voting systems.
I want to assure your readers that I remain committed to an open-door policy, but will not be intimidated by individuals whose intent is only to achieve publicity for their agenda. I am willing to meet with any group or individual who requests a meeting and allows my office time to make accommodation. I remain committed to open, fair and free elections for all the citizens of Santa Fe County.
Valerie Espinoza
Santa Fe County Clerk
TORTURE IS OUT
In regard to your recent cover story by Zelie Pollon [Cover story, Nov. 16:
]:
I see that Pollon uses the term "prison abuse" to refer to the US military scandal that went on in that Iraqi prison, and that the term "torture" is not printed even once in your cover story about military tactics US foreign policy has embraced. Interestingly, the respected British journalist Robert Fisk, whose views were heard recently in Santa Fe at the Lensic, made this observation Nov. 12 about mainstream American "journalism" that apparently SFR has sought to educate its readers with in its cover story:
"'Torture' is out. No one tortures in Iraq or Afghanistan or Guantanamo. What Americans do to their prisoners is 'abuse'…American journalists now refer to 'abuse laws' rather than torture laws. Yes, 'abuse' sounds so much better, doesn't it? No screaming, no cries of agony when you're abused. No shrieks of pain. No discussion of the state of mind of the animals perpetrating this abuse on our behalf."
Pedro Romero
Santa Fe
CLUCK, CLUCK
In response to the letter by Emmet Milliner of KVETCH [Letters, Dec. 7:
]: I have only one word-touché!
Lisa Lashley
Santa Fe
The Reporter welcomes original, signed letters to the editor. Letters (no more than 200 words) should refer to specific articles in the Reporter. They may be edited for clarity and space. Please include address and phone number for verification purposes; these will not be published.
