All Bark and No Bite

The county attorney could've forced elections department reform, but he backed down

A A A Comments By John Dougherty Thursday, Jul 14 2005

...continued from page 2

"This quote by Ms. Osborne directly contradicts your prior representations," Thomas wrote in a June 16 letter to Purcell.

Purcell fired back a June 24 letter assuring Thomas that the elections department was preparing to enter into a contract to upgrade the optical scanners with equipment designed to better detect marks on mail-in ballots.

Karen Osborne

Andy Thomas lashed out at Osborne, but then dropped the matter.

More About

Like this Story?

Sign up for the Weekly Newsletter: Our weekly feature stories, movie reviews, calendar picks and more - minus the newsprint and sent directly to your inbox.

Thomas returned the volley on June 30, once again berating Purcell for continuing to say there are no problems with the county's voting equipment, while at the same time telling Thomas that significant changes are in the works.

"This two-sided approach to these matters is troubling," Thomas wrote Purcell.

But Thomas was all bark and no bite.

When the chips were down, he decided it wasn't worth it politically to come down on Purcell's operation.

It's too bad that the county attorney has proved his critics right.

Check out this week's featured ad for News