State law (RCW 29A.84.010) seems to make clear that county election officials have an obligation to report fraudulent registration and voting irregularities to the county prosecutor "without delay". Nevertheless, King County Elections doesn't seem to follow this law. It's consistent with the apparent policy that the office's only job is to let everybody and their dog register and vote, as if it's somebody else's problem to prevent fraud and abuse. It's long past time for the county to start meeting its statutory obligations to take action against illegal registration and voting.
For example, when non-citizens came to the elections office post-election and asked to have their registrations canceled, the elections office canceled their registrations and put the matter to rest. Never mind that two of these non-citizens actually voted, one of them 4 times. Even though it is a felony to register to vote (not to mention actually vote) when you know you are ineligible, the elections office didn't bother to inform the prosecutor of the non-citizen voters, as required by law.
A senior official in the prosecutor's office who would be aware of such things had no idea about the non-citizen voters until yesterday when I discussed it with him. Now that the prosecutor's office has a report (with documentation), they should be expected to follow up, investigate and bring charges if appropriate. --
Some might argue that the non-citizen voters turned themselves in, their registrations are canceled, what's the big deal? I would say that a voluntary confession should be a mitigating factor in sentencing, but that shouldn't be the ticket to consequence-free vote fraud. If a man walks into a police station and confesses that he murdered his next door neighbor and promises not to murder anybody again, should the police thank him for his good citizenship and let him off the hook?
As Dean Logan said regarding felon voters (as part of his excuse that it's not his job to prevent felons from voting)
Logan said for now, the best deterrent to felons voting is to prosecute those who get caught.Well-publicized prosecution is obviously one way to deter illegal voting by felons or non-citizens. Too bad Logan hasn't backed up this up with proactive steps to prosecute the violators. It's time for him to either start reporting voting crimes to the prosecutor, or to turn the job over to someone who takes the duty seriously. Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at March 30, 2005 10:44 AM | Email This
Is there a way for us to monitor the prosecutor's action?
Great work!
Does the left really have, as part of it’s defining precepts, the notion that there should be no absolutes at all, and the only thing that matters is the ends? Or is it simply convenient and serendipitously beneficial to enable misconduct in the voting/election process…or any other issue where the means can be troublesome to accomplishing the ends?
Not that it matters, unless sloth actually masks criminality or a civil wrong.
When there is a case of suspected illegal voting, the prosecutor is the officer vested with discretion to pursue a criminal charge or let it slide. The county auditor/elections officer isn't authorized to exercise prosecutorial discretion.
Logan should have referred the non-citizens' cases to the county prosecutor for a decision whether to prosecute.
Logan also seems to believe that he must accept what a new registrant says and thereby register that person to vote -- no matter what Logan knows about the person's qualifications or disqualifications for voting.
He then seems to believe that he must let the matter rest until some citizen notices what Logan has done and challenges that voter's registration.
He seems to believe that he has no affirmative duty to keep an eye peeled for information which raises suspicions about any registered voter's status -- e.g., a so-called residence in a mailbox rather than living quarters of any sort.
Logan appears to be wrong about his legal duties.
If the law doesn't place an obligation on Logan and his subordinates as I think it does, then it needs to be reformed to state Logan's obligations in no uncertain terms.
Posted by: Micajah on March 30, 2005 11:30 AMA voter notifying the registrar of voters of their own fraudulent registration should qualify as "aware".
Doesn't this point to the commission of a misdemeanor by someone at KC Elections?
Posted by: Dishman on March 30, 2005 11:46 AMIn fact it's quite a symbiotic relationship when you think about it.
Now that I have sufficiently shocked everyone; I am more shocked that the people actually think that Logan would have referred non-citizens voting issues to the county prosecutor for a prosecute decision. That would have made him contradict his words about his office actually checking voter registrations. So of course Norm Mahleng would not know this unless someone reads this blog.
Please Stefan, keep their feet to the fire.
NUFF SAID!!!!!
Pudster
Posted by: Puddybud on March 30, 2005 01:27 PMBut are we forgeting about the one who allowed this to happen? When will Mr. Logan face the dock for what he has done??? (or not done)
Posted by: BlueKnight on March 30, 2005 01:37 PMThe felon voter prosecution is a bit tougher. It asks whether or not someone is deprived of their civil rights due to a felony conviction. Someone could always claim ignorance of their status.
Posted by: Richard Pope on March 30, 2005 01:53 PMRCW 29A.84.010
Voting, registration irregularities.
(1) A county auditor who suspects a person of fraudulent voter registration, vote tampering, or irregularities in voting shall transmit his or her suspicions and observations without delay to the canvassing board.
(2) The county auditor shall make a good faith effort to contact the person in question without delay. If the county auditor is unable to contact the person, or if, after contacting the person, the auditor still suspects fraudulent voter registration, vote tampering, or irregularities in voting, the auditor shall refer the issue to the county prosecuting attorney to determine if further action is warranted.
(3) When a complaint providing information concerning fraudulent voter registration, vote tampering, or irregularities in voting is presented to the office of the prosecuting attorney, that office shall file charges in all cases where warranted.
Posted by: Jim L on March 30, 2005 09:50 PMA Soap Lake man is challenging the voting credentials of hundreds of Washington voters, saying he thinks they're illegal immigrants who registered and cast ballots illegally.
But Martin Ringhofer may have a hard time proving the challenges he has filed in Spokane and 10 other Washington counties.
For one thing, there's the methodology of his research. Ringhofer said he obtained a list of people who registered to vote when they obtained or renewed a driver's license, then culled the list for names "that appear to be from outside the United States," particularly those that appeared to be Hispanic or Asian.
"We eliminated names that clearly sounded American-born, like John Smith, or Powell," he said Wednesday.
For another, there's the fact that many of the people on his list are citizens. In fact, The Spokesman-Review contacted a dozen of the 161 people on Ringhofer's Spokane County list, and all of them are citizens.
"It's kind of insulting that someone would decide because our name is different than Smith or Jones that we're not American," said Deborah Kay Carollo, of Spokane Valley, who is on the list with her husband, Anthony Carollo. "I was born at Sacred Heart. My husband's great-grandfather came over from Italy."
"I was born in Ithaca, N.Y., and have lived in the United States all my life," said Jon Garcia, another Valley resident on the list.
"That's crazy," said Felix Castro, of Spokane, who is on the list with his wife, Adela. Both were born in the United States.
Kimberly Espinosa, of Medical Lake, another American-born citizen, was surprised when told she was on a list of illegal immigrants who voted: "I'm going to kick somebody's butt."
Yousef Beyrouti, who was naturalized as an American citizen more than a year ago and then signed up to vote, said he wasn't angry to be on a list that questioned his eligibility to vote. But he suggested that Ringhofer should do a better job of research.
"In the United States, immigrants come from all over the world," Beyrouti said. "He should know better, that names don't mean a lot and you can't make judgments based on names."
Ringhofer, who filed the challenges on behalf of a group he calls Washington State Americans for Legal Immigration, acknowledged that his system for finding illegal aliens who vote could have problems.
"I was well aware of the fact that there would be errors," he said.
But he doesn't see that as a problem because people on the list who are citizens can simply tell county officials that they are citizens and provide some proof. It's not his responsibility to correct those mistakes, he insisted, but the job of county elections officials.
Spokane County Auditor Vicky Dalton disagrees. State statute says the person filing a challenge must prove "by clear and convincing evidence that the challenged voter's registration is improper," Dalton said.
"Otherwise, a flood of unsupported allegations could have a chilling effect upon the ability of segments of the population to register and vote," she said.
Ringhofer's challenges in Spokane and the other counties don't meet the strict requirements of the law, Dalton said. He filed a single document that says he believes people registered to vote without proof of citizenship and attached a list with 161 names; Dalton and other auditors have concluded he needs to file a separate challenge for each name, with any proof that he has for that voter.
Told of Dalton's assessment of his challenge, Ringhofer said he hadn't been contacted by any elections officials but believes that his challenges are adequate. Although he's not an attorney, he believes he's correctly interpreting the law.
"I'm entitled, as a registered voter, as a U.S. citizen, to make that challenge," he said. He has an even bigger list he plans to file with King County.
The voters' challenges are Ringhofer's second challenge involving the state's elections process this year. In January, he tried to mount a recall of Secretary of State Sam Reed, who Ringhofer contended was guilty of malfeasance and misfeasance for allowing Democrat Christine Gregoire to be elected governor on the hand recount. A Thurston County Superior Court said last month the charges listed in the recall petition were legally or factually insufficient, or both.
Ringhofer said some of the people involved in the Reed recall effort were supporting his challenge of illegal voters. Himself a legal immigrant, Ringhofer said "it's common knowledge" the nation has a problem with illegal aliens voting.
Ira Mehlman, of the Los Angeles-based Federation for American Immigration Reform, agreed that it is relatively easy for illegal immigrants to register to vote because proof of citizenship usually is not required.
"It happens," Mehlman said. "I don't know that anybody can quantify the problem."
But he questioned Ringhofer's method for picking suspected illegal alien voters. "You can't judge who's a citizen by the sound of a name. You can't draw a profile of what an American looks like."
Curtis Gans, director of the Committee for the Study of the American Electorate in Washington, D.C., called the registration of illegal aliens "a minor problem." But trying to challenge such voters based on their names seems like "using a very blunt instrument" to address that problem, he added.
-----------------
Forwarded Message:
Subj: Man says votes from illegal immigrants
Date: 3/31/2005 7:03:03 AM Pacific Standard Time
From: MartinRinghofer
BCC: BWilliams@effwa.org, josefk@wavecable.com, Hinkle.Bill@leg.wa.gov, ronboren@yahoo.com, mulliken_jo@leg.wa.gov, holmquis_ja@leg.wa.gov, mikesiegel2000@yahoo.com, d.lizzy@comcast.net, bobhegamin@comcast.net, susanrichis@yahoo.com, dboze@entercom.com, effwa@effwa.org, RIVERWADE1, cemcminn@wwdb.org, valarie.j.anderson@boeing.com, malkin@comcast.net, meldelancey@genext.net, mllwrm@yahoo.com
http://www.spokesmanreview.com/local/cover.asp
Man says votes from illegal immigrants
He culled list of voters for names that 'appear' foreign
Jim Camden
Staff writer
March 31, 2005
A Soap Lake man is challenging the voting credentials of hundreds of Washington voters, saying he thinks they're illegal immigrants who registered and cast ballots illegally.
But Martin Ringhofer may have a hard time proving the challenges he has filed in Spokane and 10 other Washington counties.
For one thing, there's the methodology of his research. Ringhofer said he obtained a list of people who registered to vote when they obtained or renewed a driver's license, then culled the list for names "that appear to be from outside the United States," particularly those that appeared to be Hispanic or Asian.
"We eliminated names that clearly sounded American-born, like John Smith, or Powell," he said Wednesday.
For another, there's the fact that many of the people on his list are citizens. In fact, The Spokesman-Review contacted a dozen of the 161 people on Ringhofer's Spokane County list, and all of them are citizens.
"It's kind of insulting that someone would decide because our name is different than Smith or Jones that we're not American," said Deborah Kay Carollo, of Spokane Valley, who is on the list with her husband, Anthony Carollo. "I was born at Sacred Heart. My husband's great-grandfather came over from Italy."
"I was born in Ithaca, N.Y., and have lived in the United States all my life," said Jon Garcia, another Valley resident on the list.
"That's crazy," said Felix Castro, of Spokane, who is on the list with his wife, Adela. Both were born in the United States.
Kimberly Espinosa, of Medical Lake, another American-born citizen, was surprised when told she was on a list of illegal immigrants who voted: "I'm going to kick somebody's butt."
Yousef Beyrouti, who was naturalized as an American citizen more than a year ago and then signed up to vote, said he wasn't angry to be on a list that questioned his eligibility to vote. But he suggested that Ringhofer should do a better job of research.
"In the United States, immigrants come from all over the world," Beyrouti said. "He should know better, that names don't mean a lot and you can't make judgments based on names."
Ringhofer, who filed the challenges on behalf of a group he calls Washington State Americans for Legal Immigration, acknowledged that his system for finding illegal aliens who vote could have problems.
"I was well aware of the fact that there would be errors," he said.
But he doesn't see that as a problem because people on the list who are citizens can simply tell county officials that they are citizens and provide some proof. It's not his responsibility to correct those mistakes, he insisted, but the job of county elections officials.
Spokane County Auditor Vicky Dalton disagrees. State statute says the person filing a challenge must prove "by clear and convincing evidence that the challenged voter's registration is improper," Dalton said.
"Otherwise, a flood of unsupported allegations could have a chilling effect upon the ability of segments of the population to register and vote," she said.
Ringhofer's challenges in Spokane and the other counties don't meet the strict requirements of the law, Dalton said. He filed a single document that says he believes people registered to vote without proof of citizenship and attached a list with 161 names; Dalton and other auditors have concluded he needs to file a separate challenge for each name, with any proof that he has for that voter.
Told of Dalton's assessment of his challenge, Ringhofer said he hadn't been contacted by any elections officials but believes that his challenges are adequate. Although he's not an attorney, he believes he's correctly interpreting the law.
"I'm entitled, as a registered voter, as a U.S. citizen, to make that challenge," he said. He has an even bigger list he plans to file with King County.
The voters' challenges are Ringhofer's second challenge involving the state's elections process this year. In January, he tried to mount a recall of Secretary of State Sam Reed, who Ringhofer contended was guilty of malfeasance and misfeasance for allowing Democrat Christine Gregoire to be elected governor on the hand recount. A Thurston County Superior Court said last month the charges listed in the recall petition were legally or factually insufficient, or both.
Ringhofer said some of the people involved in the Reed recall effort were supporting his challenge of illegal voters. Himself a legal immigrant, Ringhofer said "it's common knowledge" the nation has a problem with illegal aliens voting.
Ira Mehlman, of the Los Angeles-based Federation for American Immigration Reform, agreed that it is relatively easy for illegal immigrants to register to vote because proof of citizenship usually is not required.
"It happens," Mehlman said. "I don't know that anybody can quantify the problem."
But he questioned Ringhofer's method for picking suspected illegal alien voters. "You can't judge who's a citizen by the sound of a name. You can't draw a profile of what an American looks like."
Curtis Gans, director of the Committee for the Study of the American Electorate in Washington, D.C., called the registration of illegal aliens "a minor problem." But trying to challenge such voters based on their names seems like "using a very blunt instrument" to address that problem, he added.