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Ray Beckerman
by Report from Hocking County re: Sherole Eaton
July 7, 2005

I attended the rally in support of Sherole Eaton, the assistant director of the Hocking County board of elections who was fired aftyer having drawn attention to suspicious activities at the BOE involving both a technician from Triad Election Systems and at least two BOE members around the time of the Green Party's recount and during the 2004 election.

About 35 people gathered in the town square with signs and banners - most were from the local area. J30 folks Victoria Parks and myself as well as Dave (Mr. Meetup) Hickman and Connie ( Ms. Backbone) Harris were there as was Sherole Eaton herself. Sherole was in apparently good spirits and seemingly good health - full of energy and zeal and very appreciative of the support.

At about 12:30 we crowded in to the Hocking County commissioners' office which seats exactly 12 people. The meeting was mostly rather sedate but the content was fascinating. The Hocking Co. BOE had elected to purchase Diebold DRE machines for the county without having investigated ( by their own admission) any other machines. Diebold had met with the BOE members in a local hotel on two occasions and had sold them on the new DRE's. The chairperson of the BOE explained that the HAVA- funded Diebold machines would be "installed" very soon and that after Diebold had tested them an independent group of testers under contract with the Secretary of State's office would conduct a "mock election" on the new machines as a means of verifying their accuracy. I should note here that I applied for a job with that testing crew last week but that my application may have been received too late in the hiring process. The Sec. of State has contracted a company callerd "Compuware" for the task and that company has, in turn sub-contracted another firm called XLN Systems in Columbus to recruit and train at least one of the testing crews.

Another Hocking BOE director noted that under HAVA the number of machines to be deployed is estimated based on there being no less than one machine per 175 registered voters but that the available HAVA funds only allowed the county to purchase 98 machines whereas closer to 150 were needed. The board therefore made a commitment to purchase an additional 2 machines each election cycle until the requisite number had been attained. In the mean time two board members suggested doubling-up precincts ( meaning having twice the number of voters per machine at some polling places as is prescribed under HAVA). In addition there had been compliance issues with some of the polling places which did not meet all the requirements for ADA accessibility and so there was some discussion about the need to establish new polling places.

The board discussed the need for a secure storage location for the new voting machines and they explained that the building which currently houses the county Sewerage and Water department would be vacated to accomodate both the BOE and their new hardware. There was no discussion of the cost of relocating the Swerage and Water Dept.

At several points community members politely interrupted the proceedings to interject comments or concerns. One fellow, a former BOE member himself, raised a question about BOE member Susan Hughes who, he said, was illegally seated because she had "retired" but continued to serve. Ms. Hughes explained that she had, indeed "retired" but had simultaneously applied for re-employment so as to continue her eligibility for County health insurance. I should note here that this, too is relatively routine for state and municipal employees but some members of the community continue to regard this action on Ms. Hughes' part with suspicion. Indeed, one person informed me that Ms. Hughes is currently under investigation by the Secretary of State's legal counsel. The chair of the Hocking Co. BOE acknowledged the concern and began to second every motion that came up on the agenda in place of Ms. Hughes, "because there is a challenge", he said.

Another point of concern was that another BOE employee had been reported by Sherole Eaton to have used BOE facilities for fundraising activities benefitting the Republican Party. Specifically, it was charged, the BOE person in question had made a number of phone calls soliciting donations and had received gifts of raffle items to be awarded in a "Chinese Auction" fundraiser for the Hocking Co Republicans. When this topic was raised a member of the community began cross examining the BOE official who at one point admitted that she did, indeed, commit the viuolations in question. The BOE chair replied, however, that he had issued a policy that no further activities of that nature were to take place and that he was satisfied that the matter was sufficiently resolved. This did not satisfy the crowd in the chambers who began to demand vociferously that the matter be formally investigated. The BOE responded by agreeing to place the subject on the agenda at the next regular meeting.

In the middle of all of this Columbus attorney Cliff Arnebeck put in an appearance wherein he served the BOE officials with a letter from a local judge preventing the board from taking any action to replace Sherole Eaton as assistant director. Sherole has a grievance that will be filed against the BOE and there may be additional litigation to come, according to some of the community members who were present. While the injunction Cliff obtained does not reinstate Eaton, it prevents the BOE from hiring a replacement for the time being. Sherole intimated to me that the BOE already had a replacement picked out, a part-time BOE employee who has been an active Republican but who registered as a Democrat in the last primary election, presumably in order to qualify as a candidate for Sherole's position. The most the BOE members would say about Sherole's firing was that they "weren't satisfied with her performance". A community member pointed out, however, that Sherole had only recently recieved high praise from the BOE chair for doing an "outstanding" job during the last election.

I spoke with the BOE chair after the meeting and inquired as to how the votes cast on the DRE machines could be verified in the event of a recount. "You're more knowledgeable than I am on that", he said, "I really don't know. All I know is that they're certified by the federal government and they're being mandated by the Secretary of State." He also allowed that while the paper-only system would be the least prone to error or tampering, the storage of paper ballots would create an undue burden on the county ( what; would they bump the County Auditor's office next?) - but also that the old punchcard system was perfectly adequate in his view and that he resented the Sec. of State. "pushing (the county) in to something ( DRE's ) that wasn't really necessary".

Incidentally there was also some discussion of some new services being offered ( for a price) by Triad with regard to voter registration and record-keeping. Apparently Triad is offering an off-site data storage and management system that involves the BOE placing all their voter registration information on a DVD every week and mailing it to Triad in one of 52 postage -paid envelopes provided by the firm. Other services include web hosting for the BOE at a cost of $700 a year.

It was nice to see so many people turning out - several Green Party folks, local Democrats and three generations of Eatons. There is a core of folks in Hocking County who care deeply about the integrity of their elections. The spirit of the Voting Rights movement is alive and kicking in the Hills of Hocking!