Election Audit Lawsuit

Direct link to this page: https://copswiki.org/Common/ElectionAuditLawsuit
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Background

This lawsuit is regarding the 1% manual audit which is mandated by California Election code section 15360. That code specifies that all ballots cast including Vote-by-mail ballots, are to be included in the set of ballots from which 1% of the precincts (or batches) are randomly drawn, then hand-tallied and compared with the computer result. The following graphic puts the overall process in context.

Case_Summary_Graphic2.jpg
Graphic describing election flow and audit process

In San Diego, approximately 285,000 ballots were excluded from the audit process, about 37%. Ray Lutz of Citizens Oversight asked that they be included in the audit, and the Registrar of Voters, Michael Vu, declined. This lawsuit was then filed to compel compliance with the law. The initial injunction could not be processed in time to stop certification of the primary results. However, Judge Joel Wohlfeil said the plaintiffs were likely to prevail, and he said the request for declaratory relief was not moot. The trial is to be held Oct 4-7, 2016 in San Diego Superior Court, Department 73.

Images

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Timeline

  • 16 Jun 2016 - Initial lawsuit filed in Pro per for declaratory relief. Main Complaint and Exhibits
  • 17 Jun 2016 - Press Conference regarding the lawsuit
  • Contracted services of Alan Geraci, Attorney.
  • Filed amended complaint, adding request for injunctive relief
  • 28 Jun 2016 - Second press conference introducing Alan Geraci
  • 24 Jun 2016 - Filing of Temporary Restraining Order / Injunction to stop certification in San Diego.
  • 30 Jun 2016 - Reply of County filed.
  • 06 Jul 2016 - Hearing before Judge Wohlfeil in San Diego Superior Court, Dept. 73
  • 07 Jul 2016 - Deadline to certify elections by counties in California
  • 24 Jul 2016 - Ruling by Judge Wohlfeil, See M 1670
  • 01 Sep 2016 - Deposition of Michael Vu, San Diego Registrar of Voters.
  • 09 Sep 2016 - 12 Sep 2016 - Deposition of Ray Lutz
  • 15 Sep 2016 - Deposed witnesses Diane Elsheikh, Charlie Wallis
  • 23 Sep 2016 - Trial Readiness meeting. Trial date changed to Oct 4.
  • 23 Sep 2016 - Telephonic appearance by witness Julie Rodewald, retired county clerk and registrar for San Luis Obispo County.
  • 03 Oct 2016 - Pre Trial press conference.
  • 04 Oct 2016 - Start of the Trial
  • 11 Oct 2016 - Last day of the Trial
  • 26 Oct 2016 - Statement of Intended Decision published by the Court.
  • 10 Nov 2016 - Objections submitted to the SOID
  • 01 Dec 2016 - Case Status Conference (3pm)
  • 10 Jan 2017 - Judgment in our favor
  • xx Jan 2017 - County appeals the ruling (because they think later VBM and provisionals should not be included in the sample.)
  • 15 Mar 2017 - We appeal the ruling (because we believe provisionals should also be included in the sample).
  • 15 Aug 2017 - Notice of record filed (full transcripts of trial)
  • 24 Aug 2017 - AB-840 Amended to restrict required manual tally to early VBM and polls ballots (not required to include later VBM nor provisionals).

San Diego County Attorney Timothy Barry (representing the County and Michael Vu) has asked me a number of questions during the first part of my deposition. Here are some links and information I promised to provide. In addition, the Media Summary, below, has been updated to include all collected media on this site relevant to this proceeding.

  • Snapshot Protocol -- A description of the procedure developed to provide oversight to election audits. This procedure is continuing to be refined as we extend it to other states.
  • Election Team -- Procedures and information related to extending the Snapshot Protocol to our first target, 175 top counties in the nation.
  • Open Ballot Initiative -- Proposal to use off-the-shelf equipment to image ballots and then allow various parties to apply any recognition software they want, including proprietary and off-the-shelf products. This approach streamlines any challenges to the election as anyone can easily buy digital media containing all the ballot images and conduct a 100% audit if they want to, or view them all manually.
  • Election Integrity -- The overarching project which contains a number of sub-projects.
  • Elections.Web Home -- We have started a "web" space which is dedicated to archiving audit information. California Counties have been loaded into this archive and we are extending to other states.

  • Precinct Roster Review -- This is the work our team preformed in August and early Sept 2016. The official preliminary report is not yet published.
    • Precincts with zero crossover NPP voters

Seq Precinct Area NPP/DEM NPP/NPP
32 110150 Rancho Penasquitos 0 33
219 160310 Clairemont E 0 23
344 223500 Pacific Beach 0 31
422 272700 Normal Heights 0 37
485 307400 South Park 0 49
560 365000 Encanto W 0 44
762 409210 Carlsbad 0 49
877 423900 Vista 0 12
950 433300 San Marcos 0 22
991 442800 Imperial Beach 0 45
1082 459490 Escondido 0 6
1157 472200 El Cajon 0 16
1181 476010 El Cajon 0 37
1246 499200 Spring Valley 0 22
1303 516800 National City 0 37
1332 528200 Chula Vista 0 49
1346 529520 Chula Vista 0 56
1392 532580 Chula Vista 0 36
1394 532610 Chula Vista 0 54
1418 538500 Chula Vista 0 25
1431 546600 Ramona 0 12

21 precincts out of our sample of 66, about 1/3

Summary of articles submitted (Add | All):

Number of topics: 59

Discussion List

See List Serve for all email discussion lists and to add more.

  • Ray Lutz talking to Media at initial press conference, 2016-06-17:
    IMG_1651.JPG

Project Form edit

Project Name Election Audit Lawsuit
Project Description Lawsuit against the San Diego Registrar of Voter regarding the incomplete audit in the June 2016 Primary Election
Project Founder
Project Curator
Project Type Issue Oversight
Project Parents Election Integrity
Related Keywords Election Integrity
Project Status Inactive
Publish Status Published
Thumbnail Link
Forum Link
List Serve Topic Election Integrity List
I Attachment Action Size Date Who Comment
Capture.JPGJPG Capture.JPG manage 32 K 23 Aug 2016 - 02:20 Raymond Lutz Ruling Press Conference, after initial ruling by Judge Wohlfeil.
Case_Summary_Graphic2.jpgjpg Case_Summary_Graphic2.jpg manage 164 K 29 Aug 2016 - 21:31 Raymond Lutz Graphic describing election flow and audit process
FBStreamImage.JPGJPG FBStreamImage.JPG manage 52 K 23 Aug 2016 - 02:19 Raymond Lutz Press Conference after initial hearing on July 6, 2016
IMG_1651.JPGJPG IMG_1651.JPG manage 140 K 23 Aug 2016 - 01:49 Raymond Lutz Ray Lutz talking to Media at initial press conference, 2016-06-17
RayLutzGivingInterviewInFrontOfROV.jpgjpg RayLutzGivingInterviewInFrontOfROV.jpg manage 84 K 23 Aug 2016 - 01:50 Raymond Lutz Ray Lutz giving an interview in front of the ROV at initial press conference 2016-06-17
ShreddingTruckInBackground.jpgjpg ShreddingTruckInBackground.jpg manage 110 K 23 Aug 2016 - 02:18 Raymond Lutz 2016-06-28 press conference happened to catch parked shredding truck at ROV.
Topic revision: r15 - 23 Nov 2019, RaymondLutz
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