Kansas judge bars Wichita mathematician's access to voting machine tapes -- UPDATE MAR. 2
Last edited Wed Mar 2, 2016, 01:51 PM - Edit history (2)
Beth Clarkson wants to examine the tapes for evidence of possible fraud or malfunction
Posted: February 19, 2016 - 1:58pm
from the article:
By The Associated Press
WICHITA — A judge denied a Wichita mathematician’s request for access to paper voting machine tapes from the 2014 election that she wants to examine for evidence of possible fraud or malfunctioning.
Sedgwick County Judge Tim Lahey ruled Thursday that he couldn’t order county officials to turn over the tapes to Beth Clarkson because she presented the same argument in a previous lawsuit she lost. He denied a motion by the county’s election commissioner, Tabitha Lehman, to dismiss Clarkson’s open records case, but it was a hollow victory, since the point of the lawsuit was to check the accuracy of the voting machines, the Wichita Eagle (http://bit.ly/20INeCo ).
More than 100 people, most of them voting rights supporters, packed the courtroom to watch the proceedings.
The judge told Clarkson’s attorney, Randy Rathbun, that he couldn’t order the county to turn over the tapes the law prohibits litigating the same legal issue, by the same parties, twice.
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more at the link:
http://cjonline.com/news/2016-02-19/kansas-judge-bars-wichita-mathematicians-access-voting-machine-tapes
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UPDATE on MAR. 2:
Beth Clarkson's Feb. 29 newsletter describes what the next steps are, now that Judge Tim Lahey has ruled she can't look at the audit log tapes.
link:
http://us11.campaign-archive1.com/?u=aa64e1b3819716e3e24805728&id=48f9e08f47
from her post:
"I went to Topeka twice last month, I spoke to a rather large crowd at the request of the League of Women Voters on the 2nd, and on the 15th to the Kansas House Elections Committee on new legislation requiring audits of our voting equipment after every election.
There was my hearing on the 18th. The outcome was disappointing to say the least. No trial next month. An appeal will be filed instead. But the people that came were awesome. People I had never met handed me buttons saying "Show Me The Votes" and bumper stickers like one adorning this message. There were a lot of people there!
On the 19th, I was back in NE Kansas, giving a talk at the KU Law School Symposium on election law and voting rights. I'm afraid I may have inadvertently horrified some of people there. Without thinking about it, just giving my honest reading of some of my data analysis charts, I basically implied that our Governor did not win reelection honestly.
Finally, having given the matter a great deal of thought, I have a few ideas about what to do next. Best idea I've got: If the folks who were caring enough to attend my hearing are willing to put in a few hours of volunteer time on election day, we could perform a citizens exit poll in November."
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