We would like to update the community on the status of Ballot Tracker, which defies state and federal law by linking your name to your ballot’s serial number barcode, permitting officials and vendors to know how you vote, and facilitating election rigging through its un-certified, corruptible “audit.”

The County Council voted 5-1 to dump Ballot Tracker. Every county candidate also agrees with us. Auditor Milene Henley and Prosecutor Randy Gaylord are the lonely county politicians doggedly fighting to the county’s last bone for discredited ballot barcodes.

As the Canvass Board majority, Henley and Gaylord insist on wielding exclusive power.

Never mind the county’s Hart Voting System version 6.2 was de-certified by California and Colorado for violating the secret ballot and failing to count votes accurately.

So what that, on Aug. 1, the Federal Elections Assistance Commission ruled that barcode readers are “components” of “voting systems” and therefore must be certified, which means tested, to be sure they conform to all election requirements.

These rulings fall on our deciders’ deaf ears. The Henley-Gaylord duet pleads, “Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.”

Henley-Gaylord banned from the entire elections process video, cell phones, public observers, and official partisan observers from ever reading a ballot before or after it’s voted.

Joyce Harrell, a 15-year election judge here, was fired for questioning Ballot Tracker. Employees are now recruited and hired in secret. All Canvass Board meetings are now deemed “special” — no one is notified.

They have launched San Juan County into the forefront of Big Brother elections that we are forced to trust, not verify.

We endorse these candidates supporting our efforts to restore your secret ballot: Lovel Pratt and Howie Rosenfeld (County Council), Howard Pellett (state representative), Kevin Ranker (state Senate), and our champion, Jason Osgood (Secretary of State).

Allan Rosato and Tim White
Orcas Island

Editor’s note: County elections officials said observers from political parties are allowed to observe ballot processing in the Elections Office.

Elections officials said permission must be obtained to bring camcorders, cameras and cell phones into the Elections Office when ballots are being processed. They said this is to protect voter privacy and prevent disruption of voting and processing. Elections officials said filming done in the Elections Office in a previous election caused several voters to leave without casting their ballots.

Elections officials said Joyce Harrell was not invited back as an Elections A Team member because she didn’t share her concerns with elections officials but instead went public with those concerns.

Elections workers “are supposed to question things,” County Auditor Milene Henley said. “She had questions about the process and she didn’t express them to us. She expressed them in public and there’s nothing wrong with that, but she used them against us, rather than to help us.”

Henley said openings for election workers’ positions are publicly listed. Each has a job description and is considered a paid employee.

Henley said upcoming meetings of the Canvass Board are advertised in the Public Notices section of The Journal, as required by law.