City Clerk Brenda Press send this to us over the weekend:

Announcement

The City of Jackson is excited to announce the use of a new Digital Scanning Voting System, the DS200™. It will be implemented for the May 7 Municipal Primary and June 4 General Election. The Voting System is supplied and supported by Election Systems & Software (ES&S). ES&S has a regional office in Hinds County and supports all of the State’s 82 counties.

The DS200™ is the nation’s most widely used paper-based digital precinct scanner with more than 15,000 units in use. The DS200 equips the City of Jackson with the most advanced tabulation technology available. Technicians will be located around the City on Election Day to assist at all precincts. Polls open at 7:00 am and closeat 7:00 pm.

Interested in learning more? Check outwww.essvote.com/CityofJackson.

Mayor Johnson just posted a warning:

Jackson voters: Remember... when you cast your ballot today.... you must vote for ALL of the Municipal Executive Committee Members... or the voting machine won't accept your ballot! Please share this status so that your vote will be counted!!!!

And kdavis, you just proved my point. You made your own decision about what you think about Lee's donors. Others can do the same -- if they know about them.

By the same token, I agree totally about Lumumba not falling his report or anyone not filing them on time for people to look at them. Completely irresponsible. I can hold both those thoughts at once: let's scrutinize donors; and let's make sure reports are filed. In fact, they're two sides of the same coin.

Same to y'all, Darryl. How long has Mayor Mayor been in place? 30 years? ;-)

The campaign-finance laws never seem to be enforced, kdavis. Call the secretary of state' office and ask them why. Then call the House and the Senate and the governor and ask them to put some teeth in the laws -- and good luck because it benefits all of them for the laws to be so loose.

We think it's disgusting and that the aloof attitudes about it are despicable. The only way we know to respond is public pressure.

I'm never forget four years ago this week when we had to force the Better Jackson PAC at the last minute to file the reports revealing who was paying for the scary crime mailers in support of Marshand Crisler. I truly did not expect it to be made up largely of McGowan Working Partners who wanted him to support Two Lakes without question. We fought hard to reveal that information, and it worked. It also told voters who he might have been beholden to, certainly in time for the run-off.

I am concerned about a lot of Republican money, especially from outside Jackson, having too much influence on the mayor's office and the decisions we make -- like saying OK to a racist sales-tax commission or selling off the waterworks plant. Damn right I am. Everyone oughta be, but lots of folks can't get past personality. It was the same with Melton; folks liked him so they elected a "loose cannon" who happened to be incompetent at running the finances and government. Look where that got us.

Kdavis, are you intentionally not listening to me? How many times do I have to say that they can give money to Lee if they want to. That's not the point. People have the right to know if a candidate is overwhelmingly supported by a party different than the one they are running under. Period.

Oh, and consider this, all: Had a media outlet suddenly discovered that President Obama's contributors by far gave more money to Republican candidates, including the above ones, it would be a story, no? People would be scraping and clawing to know why. And they should.

So how in the world on a local level when someone is prominently running as a democrat (huge on his signs) could it not be at least remotely interesting to people that his financial support base is largely Republican?

He also wrote a check for $140,000 to his own campaign on March 29 in the middle of having big financial issues around his company and getting subpoenas for it—the same month Judge Priester issued a subpoena for him to appear in court for not paying his company's debts from when he was president.

Where did the money come from? Was it a loan? If so, from whom? We've asked him, but he hasn't responded.

These are important transparency questions for a would-be public servant, and we just cannot apologize for asking them of him or anyone.

kdavis, I'm really too busy right now to argue the same points over and over with you. I have factcheck requests coming in steadily, and that's more important than saying the same thing over and over again to someone who doesn't really want to hear my answer.

Last time: Republicans can give to anyone they want as long as they do it legally and report it. But it is the public's right to know who is backing their candidates and what their political tendencies. And I can't imagine anyone trying to argue with that with a straight face. It is news and kinda big news.

As for Lumumba and the Hall of Shame (not to mention the Jackson-Kush plan), I have his supporters mad at me from this site to the national Facebook page of the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement because I've been pushing on him to both file his report and because I believe people have the right to know his views. I pushed it through social media all weekend. So go bark up somebody's else's tree. I have work to do instead of answering all this petty whining about us reporting real information. I've been dodging that hoohaa for days now, and my patience for it is thin. I'm an investigative journalist and editor, and I make news decisions that have exposed corrupt mayors, help put Klansmen in prison and won the JFP dozens of national awards (including for how we cover city elections every four years).

I don't really care if you don't like those decisions, kdavis. Figure it out.

kdavis:

1. Chokwe Lumumba has not produced his 2013 campaign-finance report yet for us to analyze. [He is in our Hall of Shame for it.][1]

2. Of course, it isn't against the law for Republicans to donate to Democrats. We didn't say it was. But it is news when a black Democrat overwhelmingly draw white Republican money. It was when Melton did it, and it is now. People can decide for themselves what they think about it.

3. I'll have to check the Mourdock number for you. The point isn't the amount (notice my Tharp point); it's that he is a well-known national figure these donors gave money to. Not trying to draw a direct connection; showing examples of who the donors also gave money to.

4. We're not obsessed with Leland Speed's political contributions. But he is a consistent local Republican on Lee's donor lists and the 20/20 PAC. And many of our readers know who he is and have followed his history in Jackson. Some love him; some not so much. Again, it's up to the reader to decide what they think.

We are reporting the news, kdavis. The people can decide what they think about it. And we're clearing up some misconceptions about Lee along the way as well.

[1]: http://www.jacksonfreepress.com/weblogs…

BTW, we should have the numbers on how much the contributors gave to Dems since 2008 by tomorrow. Check back if you're interested.