Intimidation Alleged at Some Polling Places - With No Evidence

Thankfully, The Union called Diaz on his demagoguery.

Diaz penned an “Other Voices” article in today's editorial section of The Union to address the issue.

“I've been receiving oral and written comments over the last few elections that voters at the precincts have been uncomfortable,” Diaz said Friday. “Even if one voter has had a bad experience at the polls, it's my responsibility to address it.”

Poll workers (not voters) filed written complaints, and some people (no evidence) have called the Elections Office with verbal complaints about election observers at two precincts, Diaz added.

People reported feeling “uncomfortable” and “intimidated,” but the reported problems were not severe enough to merit any further consequences, Diaz said. (i.e. nobody did anything wrong).

He did not specify which precincts experienced the alleged intimidation, who were the election observers or the specific behavior that sparked the complaints.

“It's not my point to pin anyone down,” Diaz said. “My message is that there's an etiquette involved.” (etiquette?)

Poll watchers are a normal part of the process and come from the grand jury, the California Secretary of State's office, political parties and individual campaigns to ensure the poll workers adhere to proper election protocol.

The rest of the article is here.

The long and the short of it is this...Diaz wants to intimidate poll watchers from observing his screw ups.

Poll watchers in Nevada County need to be vigilant, because any number of issues can arise. For example in the primary election, the elections office misprinted all the ballots that were to be cast in the polling location, which preventing them from being accepted by the voting machines in the polling location and needing to all be counted in the elections office.

Also in this general election, there were plenty of disturbing issues.

First, poll watchers from one precinct reported the voting machine (or scanners as the report was not clear which) had not been zeroed out until after the election started.

Second, poll watchers observed that two voting machines were accidentally delivered to the wrong polling location - one without the required security seals.

Third, poll watchers from five consolidated precincts reported that voting machines were not working.

These retired ladies just took note and made sure that the elections officials were able to adequately address the situation.

After two elections where these retired women actually watched the mess that occurs in Nevada County, voter fraud is not the issue - it is an issue of Diaz's competence. Instead of attacking retired ladies, Diaz should think that a little extra scrutiny and sunlight on the elections process is a good thing.