NO SEQUOIA IN ESSEX county for now-- WE WON - YES -WE WON

FogerRox

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Fri Jun-10-05 10:18 AM
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NO SEQUOIA IN ESSEX county for now-- WE WON - YES -WE WON

WE won! The Essex County Freeholders Voted 5 to 3 to not authorize the bond to purchase voting machines. One Freeholder was not in attendance. Alfie Charles and his 3 other Sequoia cohorts immediately left the chambers.

At one point one of the Freeholders was holding a copy of S29, NewJerseys proposed State Senate VVPR law, As the Freeholder asked SOE Carmine Cascaino that since S29 had been fast-tracked in the Senate and is likely to pass by June 30th does it make sense to buy a machine that has a printer available for it. Carmine said that since there was no standards that he couldnt buy a printer. The Freeholder said "I am holding the standards!". It was a beautifull moment.

That was when Alfie Charles got up--stood in the aisle like he was going to charge------

After Rebeca Mercuris presentation she got a Ovation, some of us stood immediately, after a minute more poeple stood, and the ovation lasted a good 3 minutes.

Carmine repeatedly lied. He said HAVA reqiured replacement of lever machines. He said State law stated there was a dealine to purchase by Sept. 1st. The NJ HAVA plan, a directive from the Attorney General (who runs the Elections in NJ, not the SOS) states there is a deadline, but that is not a state law. 3 weeks earlier he told the Freeholders that there was only one certified machine in NJ, The Sequoia Advantage. 2 weeks earlier he told me in the hallway after the meeting there was 3. 1 week earlier Donna Kelley of the AGs office told the Freeholders that there was 5 machines. Jon Casiano, a reporter for the Newark Star Ledger did some digging was told there were 6 machines. After Carmine gave his presentation, Alfie Charles VP of Sequoia forgot what Carmine said, and contradicted Carmine by saying HAVA did not require the replacement of lever machines, way to go Alfie !

Before the vote, I spoke for a second time, acknowledging that the Freeholders were between a rock and a hard place, that they were not given much of a choice. I also said that I supported the Freeholders in that at some point they would have to vote for a bond to purchase voting machines, but there was no rush, that there was a month or 2 before they had to make a choice. And that I looked forward to working with them to explore the different options, and that I would support speeding up the NJ Certification process, which would give them more choices. I felt at that time that we had our 5 votes, and I was being magnaminious. Like it was a done deal, I knew the bond wouldn't pass. Ha!

After the vote, the crew from Sequoia stalked out of the chambers and promptly vanished, HA ! One of the Freeholders thanked me in the hallway, I told her thank you for her no vote. She is a republican. Shes OK by me.

We now have 6 weeks before the next meeting, when the bond can be brought up again. During that 6 weeks I plan to have 2 maybe 3 Teach-ins. Lynn Landes has agreed to speak, I am sure Rebeca Mercuri will come back up to speak, I plan to video the Teach-ins so I can go to different towns, taking the teach-in on tour, if you will. We have agreed to hold conferences with the Freeholders, to get them completely up to speed, espescially on the misinformation that has been put out. State Senators, assembly persons, Congressional representatives all will be invited to the teach-ins. We have to put pressure on the AG Office to speed up the certificatio process.

On December 7th 1941 the Imperial Japanese Navy bombed Pearl Harbor. About 3 months later a US Navy Task Force that incuded the Carrier Wasp with land based B-25 Mithchell 2 Engine bombers that had been craned onto the deck, set sail from Pearl Harbor, and at about 1100 miles from Japan the B-25s were launched. They flew to Tokyo and dropped incindeary bombs, starting hundreds of fires. The B-25s then flew to Mainland China. About 95 crewmen made the flight. 3 months later about 65 men had been resued by the Chinese and brought back to the US. The surviving crewmen were brought to the White House where a very famous picture was taken with President Roosevelt.
And then the American people were told. We had struck back. We had taken the fight to the Japanese Capital city. Symbolicly that signaled the end of the war in the Pacific. The Imperial navy was ordered back into a defensive posture, and they played defense the rest of the way back to Japan. Army Air corp. COl. Dolittle had the idea that the B-25 could take off from a carrier, he led the raid on Tokyo. Its known as the Dolittle raid.

Essex County New Jersey has struck back. And just as in the War in the Pacific, the major battles are to come. But we have struck back. The standard has been set for the rest of New Jersey. Sequoia knows we can stop them.

Thank you Katherine, Jay, Justin, Paul, Fran and her husband, Ed, Peter, Trina, Ted, Ellen, and Ellen, Burt, Richard, Werner, Jon, Pat, BIll, John, Pam, Rebeca, and Ron.

I'd like to also thank Ellen Theisen from votersunite, Renne Steinhagen of NJ Appleseed and Andy Stephenson for their support and words of encouragment. And of course the 5 Essex County Freeholders who voted the bond down.

The Essex County Task Force on E-Voting has struck back.

Roger D. Fox