Here's a editorial exercise in understatement:
"Election mystery proves elusive: Centralia couple, authorities puzzled by pair of mail-in ballots."Magical mystery ballots? Hmmm, where have I heard that before?
I love the pains the newspaper takes to not imply any untoward or nefarious actions...
While lawsuits swirl around nearly 600 newly found ballots in King County during the closest governor's race in state history, a mystery has settled over two Lewis County votes.Who sent in ballots for Edward and Janice Monaghan?
Monaghan, who goes by Butch, said he was shocked on the day before the election to discover that the county had already received ballots with the Centralia couple's signatures.
Both say they hadn't received ballots or voted.
The only evidence in the case is two canary-yellow envelopes with their names written in felt-tipped pen -- which the Monaghans say they never use. [Note: the article did not say whether it was similar ink to the election workers' felt-tip pens--ed.]
"Now this election with the governor's race is so close, I'm thinking, 'Holy cow, this is a big deal -- how many more people did this happen to?' " Edward Monaghan said.
The mystery almost passed by without notice.
Nothing, however, could stop those original two questionable votes from being counted. The ballots that came with the first envelopes, dated Oct. 25, a week before, had already bene inserted into the stacks of thousands of ballots -- two needles in a haystack of 33,000 paper votes.Ok, to be fair, we don't know who the votes went for. But this certainly adds to the question of who legitimately won.Edward Monaghan said the result is that someone cast two mystery votes in their names. Zandell said this is the first such situation he has encountered in his 27 years in the elections office, "and I'm unaware of any occurring prior to me," he added.
There is, Zandell said, one common situation where ballots receive counterfeit signatures: when a wife signs for her husband. [NOTE: SoundPolitics repudiates this sexism. Husbands have signed for wives, we're sure.--ed.]
"That occurs all the time," Zandell said, often when the wife goes to mail the ballots and finds that her husband didn't sign it.
Janice Monaghan said she "absolutely" did not sign her husband's envelope. "I never even saw them," she said, adding she is shocked that someone could write a passable version of her signature. She wonders if a check was intercepted or if someone got into their locked post office box.
"I think there needs to be some light shed on what goes on behind the scenes that we aren't even aware of," Janice Monaghan said.
Maybe we need to do the whole vote over again?
Posted by Brian Crouch at December 30, 2004 12:06 PM | Email ThisThere was no fraud in the election.
Everything is peaceful in Phi Phi, Thailand.
Posted by: steve miller on December 30, 2004 12:59 PMThe fact that it was forged to match how he wrote his signature on the voter ID card, but not how he usually writes his signature elsewhere since he filled out the card, tells you something - that whoever did it had access to the registration rolls.
Unless the two are lying to get attention, which is possible. But then you'd think he would use his normal signature without thinking about it.
I think we need to bring back the stockade. Let whoever did it be stuck out there next to a bucket of rotten tomatoes. Either that or a "scarlet letter." In 2006, for the 3 months leading up to the election, they have to wear a scarlet "BS" for Ballot Stuffer (or D for Disenfranchiser).
If there was another election, and I don't believe there should be, it could be deja-vu all over again.
And for all those people who keep pointing to the Ukraine as a shining example of "if they can do it, why can't we", well, look again and tell me how well that's working for them. Last I heard, they have a candidate who refuses to concede as well. A very possible result could be that peaceful protests could turn deadly and a civil war could ensue.
Oh, and once all of us watchdogs are done with our gubernatorial election, let's make sure we apply the same scrutiny to the upcoming Iraqi elections. Our concerns for a perfect election should apply for our Iraqi friends as well, or else how can we expect them to have any confidence in their election results?
Posted by: Daniel K. on December 30, 2004 02:21 PMWe need a National ID card. Privacy is a great concern but so is this madness of not being able to identify every citizen. There has to be a sensible middleground somewhere.
Set a deadline for registering a decent time before the election.
The voter must prove identity with the card prior to the ballot being mailed out.
States need to have voter registration databases that interface so voters can only vote once regardless of where they are.
As a former Oregonian, I really liked the system.. It just needs to be tightened up a bit to stop this kind of nonsense.
Keep up the good work, Stefan.
This is a great site with great contributors.!
Yes, that would be a simple, and simplistic solution. Of course it would also be inconvenient to people who could not be present to pick up their ballot, but were not in the military. The fact is if it were so simple we wouldn't be discussing this.
Posted by: Daniel K. on December 30, 2004 03:53 PMI like the receipt idea – whether the ballot is absentee or electronic or whatever.
Posted by: TADD on December 30, 2004 04:05 PMYes, good ol' inconvenience...something we detest!
Posted by: Susu on December 30, 2004 04:23 PMHow can I find out if my vote counted AND which vote counted.
When I went down to the polling place and requested the provisional ballot I was informed that many, many mail-in ballots never reached the recipients this year.
My wife and I have been voting this was for years (I used to travel for business, that's how I got started with absentee ballots) and we've never had a ballot go missing.
I smell a rat and I want to know how my vote counted.
Any suggestions?
Posted by: John Borgen on December 30, 2004 07:59 PMI take my right, yes, my right to vote seriously and would have no problem planning ahead and wandering into a state office, say, 30 days prior to an election to pick up an absentee ballot. After all, I take the time to go to a polling place on election days! The lack of verification is one of the reasons why I absolutely refuse to use absentee..
The poll workers practically scoffed at me when I tried to show them my registration card this past November! My reply, "How do you know I am who I say I am?" Of course, this isn't the first time I encountered such behavior but, that's something that needs to be handled legislatively.
A side note, not sure if this has been covered yet, but the Seattle Times is offering access to a database of names of King County voters. It only shows cities, zip codes, and voting method, but it did confirm my voting method properly.. I suggest any other concerned King County voters check out their own votes, just to be sure they weren't "doubled".. I did a couple of quick scans on generic last names and found a couple of potential duplicates, but then again, having the same first name, last name, middle initial and the same zip code, but different voting methods, both counted, wouldn't be too much of an alarm raiser now would it? :)
Posted by: Newsboy on December 30, 2004 08:13 PMI remember reading about a town in OR a long time ago that had a cult almost take over by planting themselves in the right places. So ya, keep human hands off ballots.
Posted by: CJ on December 30, 2004 10:24 PMDaniel K.,
"Inconvenient" is the main ingredient needed for fraud to occur. If it to inconvenient to pick up your ballot maybe you should rethink your priorities.
"Yes, that would be a simple, and simplistic solution."
You appear to use the term simplistic as an insult. Simplistic solutions are what are needed here. The more complex a system gets the easier it is to manipulate and allows for fraud. Who couldn't, other than military personnel, arrange for picking up their absentee ballot days or even weeks before the election date? Of course, the most simplistic solution would be to have honorable election officials but they seem unavailable in King County and other parts of Demo controlled WA.
Posted by: alan on December 31, 2004 11:07 AM