A ruling in Pima County, AZ Superior Court this past Friday addressed the right of the people to have access to election records and databases. 

Pima County had argued that releasing such records would be a security risk in addressing the suit brought by Pima County Democratic Party.   Pima County Superior Court Judge Michael Miller ruled on  May 23, 2008 for the release of databases for the primary and general elections in 2006.

Of course the Arizona Daily Star, bastion of corporate media rights, hid the information about this landmark ruling deep inside the paper on page B2.  Not even on the cover of the regional section... inside!   Anyway...even though this news made the Daily Voting News that collects the most significant news about voting from around the country no one else seems  really to have picked up on its importance.   

The Tucson Citizen (that was the Republican paper back in the days when cities had a Democratic paper and a Republican paper.   Anyone remember those days?)  reports:

Judge Michael Miller Friday issued his under advisement ruling declaring that the interests of the state and public outweighed unproven vote security concerns voiced by county attorneys and witnesses. "All existing electronic databases must be disclosed," the judge ruled.

It is the first time a judge has ordered any governmental entity to turn over all records from electronic elections and ballot tabulating systems past, present, and future to political party officials for scrutiny for signs of tampering.

"Everyone is going to be looking at this ruling and realize that electronic records are public records," said Vince Rabago, chairman of the Pima County Democratic Party.

The Pima County Democratic Party brought suit last year against Pima County for the release of electronic voting records for the 2006 elections arguing that electronic voting records created by electronic voting machines require electronic monitoring.  

Now we just have to see who has to pay court costs.   Judge Michael Miller has not yet ruled on a request that Pima County pay the Democratic Party's legal fees that reportedly run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

With the advent of Diebolt voting machines that can be easily hacked, election results locations in the United States have come under suspicion of tampering since before their adoption as voting technology. There has been vast voter disinfranchisement in key areas of the country during the past few elections. 

Arizona is one of the places leading the way for requisite scrutiny of electronic voting databases and in my humble opinion this is due to a few dedicated folks, such as John Brakey who began his journey as an election integrity leader by digging through the trash cans behind his precinct poliing place a few hours after the polls closed.   As he examined the discarded materials he was able to identify irregularities.  Similar irregularities were found in another precinct in Maricopa County.  Individual action can make make all the difference in the world between freedom and servitude.     I think  John's comment in the online version of a  Tucson Citizen  article from April of  this year is worth reading.  Individuals can have huge impact.   John has been instrumental in the formation of AUDIT AZ Americans United for Democracy, Integrity, and Transparency in Elections, Arizona and in the Election Defense Alliance.    Both of these are well worth checking out as is Arizona Fair Elections another source of information on this topic.  I also wrote about local political manipulation of voting records on my blog a few years ago in 2005.

Arizona may have a reputation for a quirky libertarian streak, but there are progressive enclaves throughout the state and we do lead the way occasionally as in adopting Clean Elections  and now in a precedent setting ruling that helps to insure election record transparency.   For those interesting in maintaining our representative democracy, you might want to keep an eye on how this ruling is challenged and influences other key cases.