The Internet age and our Auditor
The Internet age and our Auditor
Next week the Auditor will mail out our ballots to us. Catch that? Next week, we start voting. Yet - our Whatcom County Auditor web page has no information at all about the general election. No dates
Next week the Auditor will mail out our ballots to us. Catch that? Next week, we start voting. Yet - our Whatcom County Auditor web page has no information at all about the general election. No dates - nada. This has been the sad norm for the past few years of the Internet age with our Auditor, Shirley Forslof. Lack of information, links to needed info buried 3 and 4 pages down, voting results taken off line for months, and generally confused layout of the election pages. By the time you read this her office staff may have the fix in place as they do check this site.
Now - Shirley has staff that is supposed to manage her website for her - and she tries her best to get them to do a good job. She is genuinely concerned and trying to do a good job. But the fact is she is in over her head with our new electronic age. She lacks the expertise to supervise her staff because she depends on them to tell her what is appropriate.
The point? I am posting this to nudge the Auditor's office to again pay attention to their web pages and to bring some expertise to the information posted. The current head of the election division has shown no ability at this and someone else should be put in charge of the web pages. But that won't happen. We will bungle along through yet another election.
Next year we have a chance to elect a new Auditor. I hope Shirley takes her deserved retirement. She has served us to her best ability for many years. But we citizens need to be thinking now about tech savvy persons we can back for Auditor. We need someone of very high integrity, intelligence and with courage to buck the local political groups in seeking to create the independent office we need the Auditor's office to be. And we need to be thinking now. It does not have to be an experienced politician.
To end on an Internet story. For the primary election in Sept 1995, Barry Bowen and I setup a computer connected to the Internet in the lobby of the court house on election night. We keyed in the results each time the printed pages were handed out by the Auditor and they were available at this website. We repeated this for a couple more elections as we tried to promote Internet usage by the Auditor and other government agencies. What was interesting was how much they all thought we were goofy and the Internet was a fad. We could not get any cooperation at all from the Auditor. A year later the Auditor helped another guy to get results before us so he could post before us and we quit the effort. By that time everyone realized the Internet was the coming thing. And later still, the Auditor started posting the results on their website.
Check the Voting Reform links at the top right of this page for more info - and especially Marian Beddill's website No Leaky Buckets.
Now - Shirley has staff that is supposed to manage her website for her - and she tries her best to get them to do a good job. She is genuinely concerned and trying to do a good job. But the fact is she is in over her head with our new electronic age. She lacks the expertise to supervise her staff because she depends on them to tell her what is appropriate.
The point? I am posting this to nudge the Auditor's office to again pay attention to their web pages and to bring some expertise to the information posted. The current head of the election division has shown no ability at this and someone else should be put in charge of the web pages. But that won't happen. We will bungle along through yet another election.
Next year we have a chance to elect a new Auditor. I hope Shirley takes her deserved retirement. She has served us to her best ability for many years. But we citizens need to be thinking now about tech savvy persons we can back for Auditor. We need someone of very high integrity, intelligence and with courage to buck the local political groups in seeking to create the independent office we need the Auditor's office to be. And we need to be thinking now. It does not have to be an experienced politician.
To end on an Internet story. For the primary election in Sept 1995, Barry Bowen and I setup a computer connected to the Internet in the lobby of the court house on election night. We keyed in the results each time the printed pages were handed out by the Auditor and they were available at this website. We repeated this for a couple more elections as we tried to promote Internet usage by the Auditor and other government agencies. What was interesting was how much they all thought we were goofy and the Internet was a fad. We could not get any cooperation at all from the Auditor. A year later the Auditor helped another guy to get results before us so he could post before us and we quit the effort. By that time everyone realized the Internet was the coming thing. And later still, the Auditor started posting the results on their website.
Check the Voting Reform links at the top right of this page for more info - and especially Marian Beddill's website No Leaky Buckets.
