Flake successful in emphasis on earmark reforms
With the election near at hand, there are those in the business community who still fault Jeff Flake for his successful emphasis on earmark reforms. They believe that without pork, Arizona’s federal money trough will dry up. The irony is that without earmarks, Arizona will actually get more federal funds in block grants because those in Congress can’t just steer the money to their constituents’ personal pet projects. No more bridge’s to nowhere in Alaska, only trafficked by polar bears, and no more grants to California to study how many additional angels in Los Angeles can dance on the head of a pin if their wings are clipped. Jeff Flake is committed to putting our fiscal house in order while others are busily rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.
Robert Matte Jr.
Pima County exemptions are outrageous
Pima County for some strange reason is the only governmental agency in the state of Arizona that has a lock on unchallenged election results for county elected officials. The only and ultimate check on close races is a hand count of the paper ballots. Not in Pima County, elected official races cannot be challenged no matter how close the race might end.
It is outrageous that this type of exemption is allowed to exist in and environment where the manufacturer and developer of the computer software states that a five percent (5%) error rate is not uncommon.
Further exacerbating the situation is a lawsuit that has been bouncing back and forth between Pima County Superior Courts and the appellate Courts. What Superior Court Judge would want to be the one who allows the allegations of election fraud get into the courtroom? The lawsuit is about security and the integrity of access to the database, which in reading the evidence disclosure appears to be without adequate security.
The most important part of our republic’s election process is the trust that every vote counts and that every vote is counted correctly. It is unfortunate that in a county where the integrity of the process is seriously questioned the board of supervisors has rules in place that even the closest races for a County Supervisor cannot be hand counted.
Why if the county has nothing to hide would they not want to allow the trial to prove in open court that the process can be trusted.
Sam Evanston