Republicans on the King County Council today requested a federal investigation of last November's election. The letter is posted here.
Meanwhile, Council Democrats are calling for an "independent audit" of the elections division. SNOOZE.
The Council also passed 10-3 a package of election reform legislation. It's a Democrat bill (=mostly useless), but Kathy Lambert also added some amendments to require the Executive to take some steps on citizen verification and ballot reconciliation. I'm skeptical that Sims and Logan will deliver much, but we'll see.
Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at April 04, 2005 03:35 PM | Email ThisThe people that were planted in the King County elections office ought to go ahead an confess before they get into much more trouble.
Posted by: DeadManVoting (aka Iguana) on April 4, 2005 04:04 PM"These unopened and uncounted ballots are the result of the systemic problems he is working to fix," Sims said in a statement. "It is important to let him finish the job he has begun."
Uh.....Ron?
Mr. Logan took the *systemic problems* of the past..and multiplied them to become the disaster we now have with the November election! Just what on earth are you thinking? We aren't talking about a bad haircut here! This is our state's election process he's screwed up!
Not only should Mr. Logan be shown the door......but Ron Sims should be removed from office during the investigation!
It's too bad the request for a federal investigation appears to be partisan (Republican)....It looks really bad for the Democrats in this mess! Lends credibility to the suspicions of fraud.....
Hey - If we are going to have the Feds involved....let's check EVERYTHING! Why focus only on the Governors race at this point? Surely there were enough close races in this election to warrant a relook. With the number of ballot descrepancies and illegal votes discovered.....a complete recount could change the outcome of several races....(are you listening letgislature???)
Posted by: Deborah on April 4, 2005 04:18 PMInteresting statement you make.
If you have faith in King County Elections Commission, and you believe that Gregoire was duly elected Governor, why would you not welcome this investigation?
Wouldn't it show that nothing was amiss, that the election was a model, and that Gregoire was elected by a majority of legally-cast ballots?
Shouldn't you be welcoming this investigation, the subsequent findings of no fault, and the embarrassment of the Republican Party for making so much ado about nothing?
Instead, you are starting to sound desperate.
Posted by: Larry on April 4, 2005 04:30 PMThose adjustments were based on the recognition that more ballots were in the boxes than there were regular ballots issued -- because hundreds of provisional ballots had been unlawfully inserted into the boxes.
Rather than report the situation, much less remedy it, the "reconciliation" treated the presence of the illegitimate ballots as being fully explained -- thus, they were not even reported as discrepancies.
Now, the King County Council has directed this:
"The executive is requested to, by July 1, 2005, file with the clerk of the council, for distribution to all councilmembers, a report on improved reporting and procedures for the reconciliation of ballots issued, voters voting, and ballots cast, both for absentee and polling place ballots at the precinct level."
It won't be enough to reconcile the numbers of "voters voting, and ballots cast," if they don't report (and try to remedy) a situation in which "voters" unlawfully inserted ballots into the ballot boxes. Sure, there can be one voter to each ballot, but only regular, legitimate ballots belong in those ballot boxes.
Will Sims and Logan propose measures which will require a report of such discrepancies, or will they continue to try to convince people that these aren't really discrepancies at all?
Posted by: Micajah on April 4, 2005 04:30 PMThis is NEWS!....Get Busy !!! Put a fire under Goldy and his crew! I cant wait to see Gold'y Spin on this one.
Posted by: Chris on April 4, 2005 08:14 PMDO you have any idea what federal laws would justify a federal criminal investigation?
In the Schiavo case, the GOP were incompetant or dishonest in passing a law that only gave the federal court jurisdiction to decide any claim by Terri's parents under federal law. There was no federal law which would allow the court to inquire anew into the facts of the Schiavo case. That was a question of state law.
Are the GOP King County members making the same false claim here?
Posted by: chew2 on April 4, 2005 08:59 PMI'm not interested in making a federal case of this election contest.
So, I haven't looked to see whether there is any federal law (or jurisdiction). Have you?
Posted by: Micajah on April 4, 2005 09:08 PMBy the way, Micajah, you make a pretty good prosecutor here. Keep up the good work. Long live the judge.
Posted by: Mark Beyer on April 4, 2005 09:16 PMBut wait, you can relate the two....The Dem's are starving us Taxpayers, by raising our taxes, after "CG" promised not too. Just one example. How about I-601, it is being ignored.
You are so right, they are related. Call the feds in. False claims are being made.
Posted by: Chris on April 4, 2005 09:20 PMyou said: "So, I haven't looked to see whether there is any federal law (or jurisdiction). Have you?"
Nope. I know you've been concerned with the minutiae of the Washington election statutes and regulations, so I thought you might also be familiar with the federal election statutes.
I noticed that the letter by Dunn et.al. didn't mention any specific federal laws that they claimed had been broken. I wonder why they didn't ask the King County prosecutor to investigate for violations of state law.
I am suggesting that they might be following the same modus operandi as the GOP Congress in the Shiavo case, e.g. political grandstanding. Perhaps like those congressmen and senators, they don't really believe that any federal law was violated here.
But I haven't researched it. so I'm just speculating. -)
Posted by: chew2 on April 4, 2005 11:12 PM1st a Fake Governor and now a fake reform...one thing is for sure...the Democrats of WA are consistent
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Call in the Feds...
Just like the the fictional A-Team Leader John "Hannibal" Smith used to say when things were getting good and the bad guys (in this case: Sims, Logan...and oh yes...Chrissy-Pants herself AKA: WA's 1st Faux Governor )were about be exposed..."I Love It When A Plan Comes Together!
Posted by: flexnfx on April 4, 2005 11:28 PMCan you imagine the busloads of agents it's going to take to get through King County's mess alone?
No wonder the FBI is hiring!
Posted by: Deborah on April 4, 2005 11:57 PM"Are the GOP King County members making the same false claim here?"
"But I haven't researched it. so I'm just speculating."
At least you're intelligent enough to answer your own questions.
Micajah:
"I'm not interested in making a federal case of this election contest."
Many of us would rather the state courts do the right thing and handle the election contest locally. But that is a separate issue from investigating the election and prosecuting any illegal activities. I've come to the conclusion that if there was fraud perpetrated by anyone in the KCEC office, or other county election boards, nobody will ever know without the Feds coming in and investigating. Certainly we can't count on Ron Sims nor Dean Logan to clean house.
In this case, I’m personally thankful that our federal government is there. It’s kind of like the fairy tales, where the long-oppressed people are about to be freed by a knight in shining armor after being held under some dark evil force for many torturous years.
Posted by: manderson on April 5, 2005 09:53 AM