Casino Referendum, Voting Machines
Two very big political stories landed with a boom Friday afternoon: referendum measures were filed to invalidate the revised casino deals with four powerful Indian tribes... and a long-awaited report on the security of voting machines raises a lot of questions about this February's statewide primary.
Tribal Casino Referendum Measures: Late this afternoon, the political director for the union of hotel and restaurant workers filed four separate referendum measures to appear on the February ballot.
The measures seek to overturn the recently ratified agreements for the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians, the Morongo Band of Mission Indians, the Pechanga Band of Luiseno Mission Indians, and the Sycuan Band of the Kumeyaay Nation.
A list of the referendum documents can be found here.
This has the potential to be a very nasty and expensive political battle that could overshadow even the presidential primary. While organized labor is taking the lead at this point, led by Jack Gribbon of the UNITE-HERE coalition, it's widely believed that both the horse racing industry and a handful of equally powerful Indian gaming tribes will also bankroll the referendum campaign. Cick here for extended comments late this afternoon from Gribbon, who filed the formal petitions with the state Attorney General.
So how big of a battle could be on the horizon? One political analyst at a meeting with reporters two weeks ago suggested campaigns that could easily total some $20 million per referendum measure.
If enough signatures are gathered... and the pro-referendum forces have only a matter of weeks... voters will be asked to vote either yes (validate the actions of the Legislature and Governor Schwarzenegger) or no (overturn those actions). The referendum will be decided by a simple majority; the backers need a total of about 2 million signatures for the four measures to qualify for the February 5 ballot.
The pro-referendum forces have many reasons for disliking the four casino compacts-- from provisions related to casino workers and their rights to organize, to the slice of revenues these tribes must share with the state (compared to the revenue deals other tribes agreed to back in 2004).
A spokesperson for the governor says that Schwarzenegger stands behind the tribal deals now being challenged. In a written statement, Pechanga tribal chairman Mark Macarro said that his tribe "will do what it takes to protect our agreement with the state."
Much more to say on this brewing fight... stay tuned.
Voting Machine Test Results: A long awaited review of voting machines used in California elections is raising a lot of questions... not only about the reliability of the actual machines, but about the actual testing process itself.
This afternoon, Secretary of State Debra Bowen released the testing results compiled by a team of University of California-led researchers on the voting machines used in dozens of California counties.
The report says that the researchers found numerous vulnerabilities in the security of the machines, including electronic touch-screen devices. The report concludes: "The security mechanisms provided for all systems analyzed were inadequate to ensure accuracy and integrity of the election results and of the systems that provide those results."
The testers examined devices made by Diebold Elections Systems, Sequoia Voting Systems, and Hart Intercivic Voting Systems. The examples of vulnerabilities, according to the report, run the gamut from allegations that screws could be loosened to bypass locks (Sequoia) to internal server systems that could be bypassed by hackers (Diebold) to accessing internal menus that probably should be locked with passwords (Hart).
The manufacturers of these machines will have their chance to respond at a formal public hearing on Monday. And almost no one apparently saw these reports until late this afternoon; in fact, reporters were invited on a phone conference call with Secretary Bowen without yet having seen the documents that were ostensibly the subject of the discussion.
But even with all of those reported vulnerabilities, the researchers make note of something that local elections officials say is the real point: it's possible many of these security flaws, if true, are already negated by the procedures used in individual counties. "The results of this study," writes lead researcher Matt Bishop, "must be evaluated in light of the context in which these election systems are used."
Steve Weir, president of the statewide association of county elections officers, called the results "inconclusive." And in her remarks to reporters today, Secretary Bowen said she hasn't yet decided whether to allow these systems to be used in February as they now exist... or whether to order changes, or outright bans, on some systems.
