Re: yesterday's op-ed praising Dean Logan "King County voters in good hands" by Yakima County Auditor Corky Mattingly.
Corky Mattingly originally intended for a version of this op-ed to be signed by all 38 of Dean Logan's peers who are members of the Washington State Association of County Auditors. Fortunately, not all of the state's county auditors were willing to go along with this farce. I obtained this collection of emails [large PDF] that shows the backchannel chatter among the auditors about the proposed "you're in good hands with Dean Logan" letter. A rather embarrassing display of wagon circling by many of the state's election officials, while also a testament to the credibility of those who refused to sign.
Here are some highlights.
The exchange starts with Corky Mattingly:
I have been requested to send a letter in support of Dean to the Seattle PI and Seattle Times. Thanks to Bob Terwilliger we have composed this letter. I would like to get buy off from you so that I can send this letter as President of WSACA.Corky doesn't say who requested her to send the letter. Was it Sam Reed? Christine Gregoire? Paul Berendt? Dean Logan? Dustin OCoilain?
Auditors from several counties enthusiastically join the bandwagon. Greg Kimsey from Clark County, Donna Eldridge from Jefferson County, Norma Brummett from Skagit County, Al Brotche from Mason County all had the integrity to pass.
Corky's response:
We have overwhelming support for the letter. However a few auditors are not comfortable signing this letter. Therefore, I am signing this letter as president of the Association. Dean, hang in there and if you need a cheering fan just give me a call.Auditor Zona Lenhart from Franklin County (my Hebrew speaking friends should get a chuckle out of that one) writes:
I can only hope that the people of Washington State realize that this election has been an open and honest one. Dean has certainly been a great example of thatCorky has the last word:
Oh, Zona, so well put. Thank you for supporting DeanOh, Zona, indeed.
Read the whole exchange. If you catch your own county auditor heaping lavish praise on Dean Logan and the King County Elections Dept., you should be very concerned about how your own county's elections are being run.
Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at January 26, 2005 10:15 AM | Email ThisSo, Logan, you're in good company! LOL
Posted by: Dan on January 26, 2005 10:29 AMSecond,
Did anyone else notice the reference to Spokane county auditor Vicky Dalton's reference to"While my case was most likely fraud...". Can anyone tell me what she is talking about?
Third,
If DL/KC knows that there were mistakes made that changed the outcome of the election, (as most all of the auditors in this paper trail seem to acknowledge) then why don't they come out and say that we need a revote, and this time there won't be any mistakes, we'll follow the law to a "T".
Cid
Posted by: CidinDupont on January 26, 2005 10:44 AMAnd yes, I'm with CidinDupont: what's up with Vicky Dalton's comment about her case being "most likely fraud"?? And did they DO anything about it??
Posted by: Michele S on January 26, 2005 10:52 AMI might be wrong here, but the identity of the person who printed these letters, and assumingly gave them to Stefan, is not completely concealed. I won't say who or how I figured this out, but page 23 of the PDF gives some clue.
Posted by: SULawStudent on January 26, 2005 11:17 AMWashington State frauditors - maybe Shakespeare should have included them with the lawyers.
Did you hear the new one by REM? It's a sequal to "Losing our Religion." It's called "Losing our Republic."
"Our laws are made soley for a moral and religious people they are wholly unsuitable to any other." John Adams
I wonder is anybody else out there is willing to colonize Antarctica?
Posted by: Jericho on January 26, 2005 11:23 AMI think it is very important that public records, like these County Auditor e-mails, be uncovered and shared with the Public.
These e-mails clearly show partisan involvement in "circling the wagons" for Dean Logan.
How in the world would any of these other County Auditors know if Dean Logan followed the law or did a fine job????? Auditors, by trade, independently verify things before they issue opinions. DID ANY OF THESE OTHER AUDITOR "CHEERLEADERS" GO INTO KINGCO AND VERIFY THAT LOGAN FOLLOWED THE LAW???????
Obviously not. Part of the ongoing problem here is no Auditors seem to be screaming for an outside, independent review. A "circle the wagons" letter like this is both inappropriate and actually harmful. How many of you feel more confident in our State election process seeing this kind of nonsense?????
I am very, very interested in know precisely WHO requested that Mattingly put forth a support letter. If she hasn't answered yet, she will have to when she is under oath. Watch her try to dodge accountability for what she said in a PUBLIC RECORD!!!!
Posted by: Mr. Cynical on January 26, 2005 11:36 AMKudos to Greg Kimsey of Clark County for having the courage to stand up against group think and make the valid point that errors, ommissions, and mistakes are excused under the statutes that govern the election process.
I'm personally not a fan of getting extremely personal in criticizing Logan, but the fact that this election has not been resolved because of King County's mistakes must be aired, and more, provide the grounds for a re-vote.
Gregoire is not a legitimate governor. No matter what happens as the court challenges makes its way to the Supreme Court, she is not and will never be a legitimate governor until she wins an election by a margin that exceeds the error in the election process.
Posted by: DeadManVoting (aka Iguana) on January 26, 2005 11:39 AMCorrect: speaking of ommissions, I forgot the "NOT"!
Logan should have put this squarely in the laps of Ron Sims and the KingCo Council (lead by Mr. "Disenfranchised Larry Phillips"). How ironic that Phillips, complaining about being disenfranchised, is actually to blame for FAILURE TO PROVIDE LOGAN WITH ADEQUATE FUNDING AND RESOURCES TO DO HIS DAMN JOB!!!
Now, Phillips can argue he can't fund a problem he knows nothing about. Same goes for Sims. So the blame then comes back squarely on the shoulders of LOGAN!!!!!!
The buck has got to stop somewhere.
Has anyone looked at public records from the Budget process to see what Logan submitted????
Lack of accountability, even by fellow supposedly "professional" County Auditors is appalling. WHERE DOES THE BUCK STOP!!
Again, Logan & Huennekens are like Abbott & Costello...Who's on first? No who's on second, what's on first.
As john said...these folks are a "gaggle of doofae"! Perhaps john, it's more like a "litter of doofae". Certainly it is not a "Pride of Doofuses"!
Posted by: Mr. Cynical on January 26, 2005 11:51 AMhow about a GAG-gle of doofae.
Posted by: SnoCo Voter on January 26, 2005 12:05 PMI does make me proud to be represented by a county auditor who ran a clean and documented election and recount AND stood up to the Democrat weasels in King, Pierce, Snohomish, Kitsap, Yakima, Clark and Spokane Counties. Thank you, Donna Eldridge!
Posted by: Saltherring on January 26, 2005 12:06 PMChefZell - At least you have the opportunity to vote for your County Auditor. I live in shhhh, king county and don't get to vote Dean out. I am beginning to feel like those folks in Broward County FL felt in 2000.
But I will campaign for Ron Sims replacement and make sure this does not go away.
Posted by: Tazzman on January 26, 2005 01:00 PMIs it equally couth to call up Vicky Dalton and ask her about the fraud thing she mentioned?
Wanting to know.
Posted by: Michele S on January 26, 2005 01:18 PMPerpahs there is something to so many experts concluding such?
Posted by: jim on January 26, 2005 03:14 PMHer reply:
I chose to write the letter and spoke with all the County Auditors prior to my writing it.
I have emailed her back:
Your letter to all the auditors said ,that you were requested to send a letter in support.
Again, who requested that you write it?????????????
Lies, halftruths!! She got caught!!!!!!!!
She is President of the Auditors Association????
will post if she chooses to answer my 2nd email.
Posted by: Norm on January 26, 2005 03:26 PMDid you by chance email Vicky Dalton and ask her what she meant by her reference to "While my case was most likely fraud...". I would really love to hear her response on that one.
If anyone else knows please enlighten us, "enquiring minds want to know"...:)
Cid
Posted by: CidinDupont on January 26, 2005 03:41 PMThat will be the most effective way to send the message that needs to be sent.
I only hope that the Republicans can field a good candidate to run against Sims.
Posted by: jaybo on January 26, 2005 03:44 PMThanks. I did just email Vicky to give her a piece of my mind and ask her about the FRAUD.
Posted by: Norm on January 26, 2005 04:09 PMso who did? Who put this in motion?
Keep up the great work!
Posted by: Karl on January 26, 2005 05:08 PMI emailed Corky and asked her "who asked you to write the letter"?
Her reply:
I chose to write the letter and spoke with all the County Auditors prior to my writing it.
I have emailed her back:
Your letter to all the auditors said ,that you were requested to send a letter in support.
Again, who requested that you write it?????????????
Lies, halftruths!! She got caught!!!!!!!!
She is President of the Auditors Association????
will post if she chooses to answer my 2nd email.
Posted by Norm at January 26, 2005 03:26 PM
Interestingly, she claimed in her reply to Norm
"I chose to write the letter and spoke with all the County Auditors prior to my writing it."
If she indeed wrote the letter after she talked to the other auditors about it, why would she need to include the letter and ask their "buyoff" on it?
Posted by: dragon on January 26, 2005 05:44 PMYou obviously have very strong opinions about the conduct of the General election and the recounts that are based on news stories and the information put out by the parties. I also have strong opinions about the conduct of this election based on actual experience. Our opinions are poles apart so I will focus only on your question.
You ask specifically about a phrase that I used in an email to Corky. The phrase references to a situation that occurred in my first year as Auditor. If you would like to verify the basics, the incident was highly publicized and reported in the Spokesman Review at the time (June 2000 thru probably February 2001).
In the 1999 general election, the number of overvotes for one race (Initiative 695) were extremely high (nearly 5%). At the time, we were still using punchcard ballots; an overvote meant that more than one chad had been removed for the race. The overvotes in the rest of the races were within the norm (between 1/10 of 1% up to 1%). The problem was identified by the Secretary of State's Office in June 2000. They brought this statistical anomaly to the attention of my office.
As soon as I verified that this anomaly did exist, I informed the news media that a problem existed. I also requested an investigation by the Sheriff's Office. The ballots had already been destroyed in accordance with the law so there was no physical evidence to look at. The software vendor and the punchcard vendor were contacted. The software vendor found no problems with the coding of the counting program and could not reproduce the overvote anomaly. The punchcard vendor found no quality control problems in their manufacturing logs that would indicate chads popping out by themselves. Since software and mechanical failures had been eliminated, that left only two possible explanations for the unreasonably high overvote percentage.
First possible explanation: voters could have been confused and made mistakes by punching two holes instead of one for the I-695 race. Although this was the explanation some of the election staff preferred, I don't believe this explains the problem. None of the other races or issues on that ballot had unusual overvotes. Another factor is that the anomaly occurred only in a few groups of absentee ballots. The overvote percentages in all of the poll site ballots and the vast majority of the other absentee ballot groups were within the norm. I find it highly unlikely that only those voters in a certain geographic area of the county would consistently make the same mistake while all of the other voters would punch their votes properly.
Second possible explanation: the ballots were tampered with while in the Elections vault. I remembered that chads seemed to be flying while absentee ballots were counted in that election. After a bit of thought, I figured out at least one way that large quantities of ballots could have been tampered with (i.e., the "YES" chad punched) in a fairly short period of time and have produced a lot of loose chad in with the ballots. Security procedures at the time were insufficient to ensure at least two people were with the open absentee ballots at all times.
Due to the lack of evidence, the investigation by the Sheriff's Office concluded that tampering was unlikely. Without evidence, there was no way to conclusively identify a tampering process or a suspect. I do not agree with their conclusion. I believe that tampering is the only reasonable explanation for the extremely high overvote percentage.
It was a horrible experience that still makes me sick when I think about it. However, at least some good did result. Personnel changes occurred; procedures were changed; security was improved. In 2001, we changed to an optical scan balloting system. We also moved to a new facility in 2002 that was designed for the elections function, incorporating improvements in procedures and in security. There has been no similar problem in my office since then. In fact, the observers from both political parties consistently compliment us on our professionalism, procedures and security.
As I mentioned earlier, you can verify the incident by reviewing the stories published in the Spokesman Review. After reviewing the media reports, I hope that you will understand why I can truly empathize with and support Dean.
Sincerely,
Vicky M Dalton, CPA
Spokane County Auditor
POOR BABY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Posted by: Norm on January 26, 2005 06:43 PMACK!!!
She has GOT to be joking!
There is no way to paint a rosey face on this election. Writing that statement must have been painfull for Zona.......I wonder how much she charged for it?
The Democrat party is at work and you can bet that the operatives were in touch with Terwilliger and perhaps Corky before she crafted this letter, or maybe Bob T was the operative here after talking to Polls Schmolls.
Dean Logan is probably not under any fire except for his questionable practices and more recently his statement; "Ets not my job, man" that suggest that he is a partisan and plays ignorant when convenient, when it gets right down to it.
So keep calling and writing these auditors who line up behind Logan and tell them that they are showing that they are OK with voter fraud - and if they were worth diddly squat, they would really be working with "Swamp Weed" on meaningful election reform instead of blathering away about their ilk and ignoring the will of the people.. Bob Terwilliget is the Democrat auditor for Snohomish County and may be an operative on the side. His and their credibility on the way this election was handled is SADLY LACKING !!
Posted by: KS on January 26, 2005 08:25 PMHow much did she charge for it, you ask?
In Hebrew, zona means whore. Really.
Posted by: FedUpWithThis on January 26, 2005 08:30 PMI think it is very important for ALL PUBLIC RECORDS, and that includes e-mails and ESPECIALLY DELETED E-mails related to the various County Auditors, especially Corky Mattingly, be released....NOW!
Someone obviously requested Mattingly push a "Support Logan" letter. She isn't saying who, is she? It's now HER idea???
I'll bet somewhere in the BOWELS of deleted e-mails in Yakima Co. lies a real Corky turd.
Someone needs to do a formal records request and specify all e-mails, INCLUDING DELETED E-MAILS and also send the request to the Yakima County Information Services Dept.
HAPPY HUNTING!!!!
Posted by: Mr. Cynical on January 26, 2005 10:38 PMGuess she needs to be pressed a little harder on this, eh? Thanks to Norm for his emails to the auditors.
Posted by: Michele S on January 27, 2005 12:29 AMI'll have to send my county auditor a letter asking whether they certified their results in complete compliance with state laws to include seal, total reconciliation of votes to voters, and any dead or felon voters. Wonder what Pierce county's response will be.
Posted by: Mark Beyer on January 27, 2005 05:20 AMWhat a great bunch of comments and insightful analysis you are showing in this comment thread!
I hope you will join me in copying the entire state email list and sending a letter to all of the auditors involved expressing your concerns and opinions.
Over at Free Republic we are working on a campaign to get email pouting in from all over the state and the country.
Posted by: Baynative on January 27, 2005 06:17 AM