It has just been announced by San Diego County that they have hired Deborah Seiler as their new permanent Registrar of Voters. Ms. Seiler joins the county elections office from her job as the Assistant Registrar in Solano County, California.

"Seiler brings unique elections experience from the state, local and private sector that adds valuable perspective at a crucial time," according to a press release (posted in full at the bottom of this article) as issued today by San Diego County.

All of which sounds great, until one does a moment or two of Googling --- particularly on that "private sector" point mentioned --- and Seiler's troubling past is quickly revealed to be yet more bad news for the voters of San Diego, who continue to get the worst of what American democracy is supposed to look like.

Look what we found out about Seiler...

According to a Wired News article from Sept. 2004, Seiler worked for 12 years in elections for the California Secretary of State's office. She then left, in 1991, through the revolving door and got off at the exit marked "Sequoia Voting Systems" where she worked for 8 years as their Government Relations Director. Then Seiler got back into the revolving door for her next stop at "Diebold Election Systems Incorporated" where she took a job as a sales representative.

It was while she was working for Diebold that she sold 1,200 Direct Recording Electronic (DRE) touch-screen voting machines to the fine folks in Solano County.

An investigation of this sale by then CA Secretary of State Kevin Shelley found that the machines were not state certified for use in elections and, in fact, had not been federally tested or qualified. This sale led Shelley to ban Diebold sales in California and the county ended up paying Diebold over $400,000 to get out of their contract.

Solano County was so irate about the dishonesty of the sale of machines that were not legal for use...that they welcomed Seiler back through the same revolving door, naming her Assistant Registrar, the job she held until today.

So, today Deborah Seiler, who sold uncertified voting machines to one California county joins Michael Vu, who who left his Cuyahoga County elections director job earlier this year after he stepped down in light of convictions against two of his election workers for rigging the 2004 Presidential Election recount. Vu admitted that secret ballot boxes were unsealed prior to the recount, so that they could be checked for accuracy before the county faked the "random" selection of precincts to be recounted.

The news just keeps getting worse for the voters of the People's Republic of San Diego County where former Registrar Mikel Haas --- one of the country's worst --- was recently promoted after several disastrous elections, including the Busby/Bilbray Election Debacle of 2006.

It can't be good for news for elections anywhere in this country, for that matter. Failed, dishonest officials should not be able to find a home anywhere in American democracy. And yet, they seem to be much in demand these days. Certainly in San Diego.

San Diego County's press release follows in full below...

ENDS

Deaf Ears: Speaker On Support For Mojo Mathers

Scoop Audio: In a press conference this afternoon Speaker Lockwood Smith defended his handling of requests for support for profoundly deaf MP Mojo Mathers' participation in Parliament, and said he was "deeply concerned" by the way the issue had been portrayed.

Earlier today the Greens said they had been told they would have to fund support Mathers requires out of their own budget. More>>