February 20, 2005
Busted!
The Tacoma News-Tribune reports that "73 voter registrations voided"
As fallout continues from the disputed governor’s race, Pierce County has revoked the voter registrations of 73 felons, all of whom apparently voted in the November election.
Some of these felon voters were apparently abetted by sloppy county procedures:
[Robin] Hendricks, 50, registered to vote in Pierce County in 1997. The next year, she was convicted of first-degree theft, a felony.
The county should have removed her from the rolls then. But she said Friday that she has voted in nearly every election since 1997, including November’s election when she cast her ballot for Gregoire.
Until she got the county’s letter, Hendricks said she didn’t know she had to petition a court to have her civil rights restored. It’s like being punished twice for the same crime, she said.
Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at February 20, 2005
11:06 AM | Email This
1. Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god. Stefan, you are SOOOOO amazing. 3 million votes cast, and somehow you can keeping finding ones where, if you're a big enough pain in the ass, you can challenge.
I admire the Dems for letting this go an not engaging in the jackassed witch-hunt you have.
You make fun of Ron Sims' decimal problems -- what percent is 73 votes? What percentage is the doctor in Georgia who you can't stop harassing?
Grow up.
2. Ooooh Stephan, you big meanie you. Hey, grow up KMS. It is illegal for them to vote. If you don't like it, lobby to have the law changed. Of course the Democrats are letting this go. They won the election due to fraudulent and illegal votes. Why would they want to upset their own applecart? Why do you have a problem with someone insisting that the law be actually followed? Isn't that the whole point of our Republic? "A country not of men, but of laws"?
3. 73 Illegal votes "disenfranchises" 73 legal votes.
4. Stefan,
I think you should go stand in the corner for awhile and think about what you've done to poor KMS. (Be sure to take your laptop.)
5. Hey KMS -- 73 votes is more than half of Fraudoire's margin of fraudulent victory - DUUHHH!!!
6. KMS - You're a moron.
7. Great job!! But beware, the left is going to embark on a major campaign to change the laws so felons can vote.
That woman that feels she was punished twice has actually committed fraud twice and in so doing, stole my vote.......and I WANT IT BACK!!!
8. Mercy goodness me. People on the left are so used to using the law and the courts to their advantage that it must be an enormous shock to see things going the other way for a change. The sky is falling! The sky is falling! Pass it on.
9. State Democratic Party Chairman Paul Berendt: “There’s no indication whatsoever that the majority of felons voted for Gregoire,” he said. “In fact, the limited amount of evidence that has come forward, where felons identified who they voted for, shows that they predominately voted for Rossi.”
I am waiting to see that "limited amount of evidence." I guess it will be presented in court.
Mr. Berendt, I don't care who they voted for, nor should the courts.
The fact is that they shouldn't have voted at all.
"...it’s a felony offense for felons to vote illegally, carrying a maximum penalty of five years in jail and $10,000 in fines."
http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/story/4611546p-4284826c.html
So they probably will get no fine and probation.
10. It took a little less than 3 weeks to revoke the registrations -- starting with the article in The Seattle Times and ending with the Feb. 11 meeting of the county canvassing board.
Starting with 77 names, they whittled them down to 73 with ease.
Maybe with the statewide database that is supposed to be maintained starting in 2006 there will be less of a problem with unenforced laws regarding voting by felons.
In the meantime, for those who are trying to keep count, the two felons named in The News Tribune who stated the identity of the candidate for whom they voted claimed:
One voted for Gregoire, and
One voted for Rossi.
From the left, that no doubt appears to be an overwhelming majority of felons voting for Rossi.
11. Curious that Pierce Co. has no problem removing felons from the registration files many years after the fact but Dean Logan in King Co. claims that he doesn't have legal authority to keep someone convicted of a felony years or even months before from registering to vote. It does not appear that Pierce Co. shares Logan's creative, and conveniently exculpatory, theory of the law.
12. There is something that has been bugging me since I attended the meeting in Pasco with the Election Reform Taskforce.
At the end of the meeting one of the taskforce members read off a list of things derived from the comments made at the meeting. For each comment he asked for a show of hands of those who agreed with that particular solution, and then for a show of hands for those opposed to it.
On every single point the government types...county auditors etc. were opposed, while everyone else was for it.
I wonder if there is some monetary advantage to the counties based on the number of registered voters they have, or something like that which would cause them to want to hold onto all the felons and dead voters etc. Anyone have any ideas on this?
13. It is this type of system that turned off Illinios voters. I know a number of Republicans from there and they gave up voting because they could not beat the machine. The democrat voting machine. IT always seems to allow Democrats to win no matter how far they are behind. If it is close enough race. For a Republican in this state it appears they have to win by 10,000 or more votes. Just to keep the voting machine from working. THis election shows that democrats vote early and often. How else can you explain the dead voting at the voting place.
Please note it is Democratic run counties that seem to have the biggest problem with human error. COuld it be designed that way so they can change election results? Too bad KC doesnt have an election for elections board. But maybe it is by design. THat way they can appoint and Dean just has to be this way because the appointer demands it. Like Ron Sims. Maybe we are looking at the wrong person. Dean may just be following orders of those who give him a job. THats is job security.
14. David Anfinrud: "Too bad KC doesnt have an election for elections board."
If they had such an election, who would we trust to see that the counting was fair and accurate?
I think you are right. The buck stops, at least momentarily at Sims' desk. There are others, of course, that should be looking for new jobs in the future, too.
Maybe the California elections "expert" can give them all a job. Maybe that was why she was here, to offer jobs to them, since she said they ran such an "accurate" election.
15. Once felons have paid their full debt (including fines), they can vote again after filing a simple petition. Nothing needs to change in the law with regard to felons.
16. Hana, perhaps the people involved in making the elections happen understand how it works better then the general public? Just a thought.
Which way did Pierce County swing?
17. KMS= Killed My Senses. Done already basede on that post. Almost sems like brainless in disguise.
18. KMS= Killed My Senses. Done already based on that post. Almost sems like brainless in disguise.
19. KMS= Killed My Senses. Done already based on that post. Almost seems like brainless in disguise.
20. KMS, don't you realize what the next step in a society that allows elections to be run this way is? Anarchy followed by blood shed. We will become a bannana republic. When you can't trust the elections, and you feel that they keep giving you the "leaders" they say you can have, who in turn begin passing laws that benefit themselves and the people who support them, soon people who are exploited for the gain of an elite few will rise up, sometimes with a vengeance. So far we have been able to do that in this country without bloodshed. If the so-called leaders do not make elections more trustworthy, what will follow? Do you think that people will always take an 'oh well' attitiude. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that this election was seriously flawed. My wife's vote was either doubled by someone voting on a provisional ballot in King County at our last residence, or it was canceled by their vote for the opposing candidate. I for one believe that most of the provisional ballots are probably tainted.
21. Yo DWS, chill man! There is no reason to believe this election any different then any other ... only its very closeness is exposing flaws that have always been there.
22. Calvin -- WA *law* states that this COMPLETED election was certified after a hand recount. It is OVER.
The third, hand recount is *the law.* Which Dino Rossi supported and voted for in the Legislature. If you don't like it, lobby to have the *law* changed. I have a problem with people who don't like the way the *law* works, simply because they don't like the result. There are a lot of *laws* about how an election is to be conducted and who is eligible to vote, but the bottom line is the certified result of the hand recount -- as provided by the *law* -- is the final straw.
23. KMS is correct. The election is over. It ended when SOS Reed certified the results.
So what.
Washington State *law* also provide for contests of election results. A *legal* contest of Sam Reed's certification is underway. The contest is most definitely not over.
Next subject.
24. Well KMS, for some of us, there's this nagging question about whether the *law* was actually followed in this past election. Lucky for us all, we have judges and courts to decide whether the law was broken and, if so, what the *law* says about what should be done as a result. So now we get to wait and see what the judge thinks the *law* says about the situation.
25. Boonie --
I'm fine with that. Unfortunately this was a *remarkably* close election, and this affords people like Stefan and Chris Vance the opportunity to do things like cherry-pick a Doc in GA and initiate a "look at your neighborhood and see if anyone looks illegitimate" campaign.
Comments have been made about the public confidence in the process, but all they have done is attack the election and the process from the moment they got the result they didn't like.
26. Well KMS, when the results are not close, people might assume, perhaps wrongly, that everything was fine. When it is close, it makes people look more carefully at whether the law was followed. Sort of piques their interest. With a closer look, the way the election was conducted in Washington, and especially in King county looks pretty bad to me. With many thousands of ballots in question, thanks to research by Stephan and others, I'm wondering whether it was, in fact, particularly close based on legal ballots.
It's a little like keeping your money in a bank that you think you can trust, then discovering a serious discrepancy, and after that hearing your bank president start talking nonsense. You lose confidence in the bank. And it would be just plain silly to demonize the person who brought the discrepancy to light.
When it suits their purpose, the lefties have a great deal of admiration for people who blow the whistle on lawbreakers. I think Stephan is just reminding us that we need to be as careful about our election laws as we do about, say, our environmental laws.
27. kms,
You admire the democrats for not engaging in this "witch-hunt?" I would say you have officially engaged yourself.
28. KMS said:
“I'm fine with that. Unfortunately this was a *remarkably* close election, and this affords people like Stefan and Chris Vance the opportunity to do things like cherry-pick a Doc in GA and initiate a "look at your neighborhood and see if anyone looks illegitimate" campaign.”
but does not use the same logic to observe that the same *remarkably close* election allowed KC to pull the exact amount of stunts they need to get enough votes to exceed those given to Rossi. In this case the number of stunts was 9, referring to those occasions when, miraculously, new and uncounted votes appeared deus ex machina.
County dems used the “remarkable close” nature of the election to attempt to pull the wool over voter eyes, and you KMS are attempting to do the same. Give it up. We are awake and we are alert and desperate attempts by people like you and “doc” to cast aspersions on the wrong party do not fool anyone.
29. Well, I guess if government officials will not enforce the laws on the books and legislators won't take the laws off the books, then it is time for vigilantees to see that the laws are enforced.
Vigilantee justice is a historical legacy of the West. While it produced a number of really bad and tragic outcomes, official government representatives always had the opportunity of acting first. Vigilantee justice and citizens arrests has always been an alternative and cleaned up a lot of communities in this country when officials wouldn't get their hands dirty. It is only when the officials refuse to enforce the laws that people want enforced that the vigilantee committees form up.
Stephan, good work on your challenging of the Georgia Doctor. I applaud some of the individuals who filled petitions to challenge the Governor's election and the individual who filed the recall petition on Sam Reed. It is time that citizens start pointing out to government officials that if they are not going to enforce the laws, then honest citizens are fed up and will take actions themselves.
30. The percentage that attaches to 73 felons voting is: 56%
The illegitimately registered voters for the reason of 'non-reinstated felon' in Pierce County alone account for 56% of the needed illegal votes to decertify the election.
Have a nice day.
31. The law is clear. But the regulations are woefully inadequate. It is one thing to remove someone's voter's registration. It is something else to flag the person as being a felon. Nothing stops a felon from re-registering to vote after their name has been removed from the rolls.
Officials would have to maintain a list of felons so that when they re-register to vote they must include proof that their debt to society has been paid before their registration can be completed.
32. Al,
Way to show you understand what you're talking about. I take it that your hourly fees or retainer are too high for the WA GOP to afford. Good luck with that argument in court.
33. David R,
You say: "Officials would have to maintain a list of felons so that when they re-register to vote they must include proof that their debt to society has been paid before their registration can be completed."
Take it to the Legislature. The venue for your grievance/argument is not an ex post facto challenge of a certified election. I don't happen to have any problem with that suggestion.
34. KMS.You asked what percentage 73 votes is and when Al gives you your answer all you can come up with is some smart punk sarcasm.Unfortunately this is all that your Democratic cohorts can mount for an attack.When a political party has no platform to build on they usually stoop to personal attacks on the opponent.This is what you see the Democrats doing now.Right now the Democrats should sit back and cool their jets as they look like politicians who hate their country.That is not a popular position at this time and people dont care for anti american sentiment from their own elected officials.Kick back and maybe the Republicans will implode.
35. 73 votes felon votes does not equal 73 voters disenfranchised--it means that all voters have been disenfrancised.
36. Well, hey-ho for Pierce county (too bad they waited til now, tho)! When is KC going to follow suit???
37. Hey...
A Moveon.org type volunteer told my brother last year that as a felon, your right to vote is automatically restored after 7 years.....No need to petition the court! This guy didn't miss a beat with his lie!
Kind of makes you wonder what kind of script these liberal voter registration workers were using before the elections? I wonder what they were prepared to tell illegal immigrants and dual residents as they chased them down the malls to sign up!
I'm seeing an orchestrated effort in illegal registration. We should have never opened up and trusted voter registration to these organizations! They literally went to town signing up anyone and everyone - regardless of eligibility!
38. And Dems, don't sneer at justice finally being done. It doesn't work. The law is the law. If you're not legally allowed to vote; you're not legally allowed to vote. No name-calling of others who stand up for clean voter rolls is going to pass for anything but a vote for chaos and disenfranchisement of legal voters. Enough. Stefan just MAY NOT be the one who needs to grow up.
39. KMS, you are unbelievable. If this had happened to one of your Democrat candidates you would probably be even louder than the Republicans. We have already seen what you do when a Republican wins with an even larger difference than we saw in Washington State. You wouldn't be all about forgetting about it. This case is far different than some idiot network news anchor gleefully calling an election prematurely because it looked like his guy was going to win. Then you damn fools started with the unfounded accusations,making a big deal out of rumors started by democrat hacks. In our situation, we actually do have evidence that was sorely lacking in the presidential election. I do however think that all of the hubub over the felons voting, while it may still have been wrong, is not as bad as dead people voting and unchecked provisional ballots that would not have checked out.
40. KMS,
It is imperative that we clean this mess up. The problems are many: dead voters voting, felons voting, provisional ballots unverified, people voting in 2 or 3 different states, rejected ballots interpreted as to intent when the voter most likely couldn't decide on the governor candidates and chose not to vote for anyone. KC "discovering" lost ballots nine times with no real good explanation why they weren't counted originally or any evidence that they were legitimate. KC allowed to make changes and include previously rejected re-canvassed ballots but not allowing that standard to be applied statewide because the other counties had conveniently already certified at an earlier date. Hundreds of voters registered at the KC elections office address with no verifiable residence or assurance that they are not registered in 2 or 3 places. Motor voter registration rules that require the agents to ask each person applying for a drivers license if they wish to register to vote but not being allowed to require proof of citizenship or residence. It just goes on and on. Remember how long the Dems fretted over Florida in 2000 and Gore never won any count! Machine or recount! Rossi won the first 2 counts and the final margin of victory of 129 votes out of almost 3 million cast is simply too close to allow to stand without closer scrutiny. It's that simple. Even you must see the importance of that.
41. And it's beyond me that Dems--knowing that at least a couple of the illegal votes went to Dino--would not cry out that x-tine should not have to compete against that since she 'tied' by only 42 votes at one point. Why don't they want her to have every advantage? Is it that they know that most fraud benefits THEM and so they're willing to suffer a little rep. illegality knowing it mostly goes to their side???
42. Ms. Hendricks statement that she did not know that she would have to petition a court to have her civil rights restored is a bogus statement. Upon conviction the individual is advised by the court of the loss of their voting rights. And they are not told that those rights are automatically restored at any time. Are your 2nd amendment rights automatically restored? NO If your drivers licens is suspended is it automatically restored? NO. If your car tabs expire are they automatically restored, NO. It was her responsiblility. Ms. Hendricks is of the "How can I be outta money when I still have checks left?" mentality.
Equally bogus is KMS's trumpeting of the *law*
KMS conviently ignores the violation of the underlying *law* as it supports the results that he/she is happy with...got any checks KMS?
43. Oh KMS, by the way, how many provisional ballots did you submit?
44. It's pointless to try to argue logic and facts to KMS, and others like him. They don't think, they feel. And by feeling, they ALWAYs find validation of their feelings by others. Thinking implies that one could learn other facts that would interfere with their intentions. Feelings can't be wrong, correct?
I wouldn't put it past some of these schmucks to start arguing that illegal votes cancel out other illegal votes entirely, leaving the legitimate votes deciding the race. People such as KMS feel that, why shouldn't it be true in their world?
I would love to suggest that we use the laws that the 'feeling class' has put into place to create transparency, accountability, and fairness. It's not perfect, for it's readily apparent that the 'feeling class' will only follow those laws which they 'feel' like following. ( I cite their 'direct action,' 'civil disobedience,' and such, where they will wreak havoc and know that their fellow travelers in the courts will let them off the hook)
Folks, we can't stop digging deeper and demanding appropriate governance. The 'feeling class' expects all this to fall by the wayside as we go about in our lives and jobs. They know that we are often too busy adding to the GDP to put a lot of effort into foiling their machinations.
KMS, well, we are just going to have to accept and embrace his 'feelings.' That, sadly, is the best he can do to argue a point. Emotionally reactionary is the best that could be expected of such a person, and it would be impolite of us to take notice of such a flaw in character.
45. "I wouldn't put it past some of these schmucks to start arguing that illegal votes cancel out other illegal votes entirely, leaving the legitimate votes deciding the race."
Liberals probably feel that this would be reasonable. As if they understood what reason means.
Some of our more liberal apologists are becoming more unreasonable as well as intentionally absurd.
46. KMS's incoherent arguments are disturbing if they represent a general trend on the Left. There is nothing "ex post facto" about pursuing washington's election challenge statute which was created to solve exactly the situation we are facing: an improperly administered election that results in an unknown winner. The fact of certification is meaningless if the evidence establishes that there were enough illegal votes to call the election into question. If the evidence does not establish that then the certified winner will remain Governor. I'd at least appreciate it if KMS would quit making straw man arguments.
47. It is disturbing to read comments about following the law by KMS and gang. Early in this investigation I seem to recall a lengthy post and discussion about King County and several other counties as well, that did not submitt a proper written talley and explanation of reconciliation attempts to the SoS. Was the law followed then? Should not have the SoS kicked them back to follow the law?
48. The first comment of every post should be reserved for the likes of KMS. In fact I vote KMS lead the democratic party.
"You Republican's sure can hold lots of press conferences and get people stirred up on talk radio, but we stole this election fair and square and you can't prove otherwise."
49. "It’s like being punished twice for the same crime, she said."
Hey, here's a novel idea: if you're gonna be punished twice, think twice--before doin' the crime.
50. "Liberals probably feel that this would be reasonable. As if they understood what reason means."
"Some of our more liberal apologists are becoming more unreasonable as well as intentionally absurd."
While your assertions appear to be good ones; How about inserting another word for liberal such as leftists or quasi-Marxists or Democrat-Socialists? Besides, they believe that liberal has a bad connotation associated. Furthermore, I believe that the alternative names explain their agenda more to the point (after all - they call conservatives neo-cons or right-wingers). Now, this does not apply to all Democrats, just the ones who are fanatic and unreasonable and don't acknowledge or tolerate opposing views because it goes against their so-called religion of liberalism, which is at the root of Socialism and Marxism.
51. KS---
You echo my sentiments exactly.
Where I live, we call these folks Utopian Marxists. They have their head in the clouds, clueless about how to earn a living. In their world, everyone works a 20 hour work week and works for the government.
52. KS and Mr. Cyncial, I agree.
Also, I always considered neo-con was a compliment.
53. I am really tired of hearing from the Democrats about how difficult it is to reconcile the votes or keep felons from voting.
We have these things called computer databases. They crunch billions of records each and every day. To have such a system to check the list of felons against those attempting to register to to vote is such an easy task that any 1st year Computer Science student at UW could probably write such system in Microsoft Access.
So the straw man about it being "so difficult" or so costly is bogus. I sincerely doubt that Stephan Sharkansy has used anything more elaborate than MS Access or Excel. Retail price for the entire MS Professional Office Suite is under $600. If the poor Democrats cannot find that money to do it, we can take up a collection.
Certainly, if we we have electonic lotto macines that can track the legitimacy of millions of purchased tickets each and every day, the simple matter of reconciling felons, dead persons and others on the voter ledger is within our grasp.