Thanks to Stefan's trusty voter database, most Washingtonians can quickly check to see if their ballot was counted in the last election, a resource that King County itself has not provided directly.
Lt. Bryan Suits, recently home from combat in Iraq, used it to discover that his general election absentee ballot was not counted. Actually, what he saw in the database search result was a hash mark... curious, he called King County elections, who confirmed that although his vote was counted in the primary, he was not credited with voting in the November election.
You ask: "maybe it didn't arrive in time?" Well, to ensure that it was counted, he had sent the completed absentee ballot to his wife (a police officer, by the way) who made sure it was in the postal system well in advance of election day.
Perhaps the post office lost his ballot? How many absentee ballots do you suppose the post office loses during a presidential election? Probably more than either the post office or election officials want to admit. Did Diebold lose the ballot?
Will the long-awaited audit logs show how many pieces of mail come in one door from the post office, and out the other to King County? Where is King County's Absent Ballot Audit Trail (which would show the date any particular ballot was received, if in fact it was received) when you need it?
Remember the 93 ballots discovered on April Fool's Day? Lt. Suits believes he voted in an Issaquah precinct from which two of these ballots were found. Hmm. [Update: he has determined his was not one of these. Still, King County won't tell him what happened to his, and hasn't tabulated those new ballots.]
Oh, incidentally, Bryan is back at his job as a talk show host on KVI 570, nightly 6-9 pm. During his time in Iraq, he gave boots-on-the-ground reports to KVI, Fox News, Tony Snow's radio show, BBC, and other media. Of all people to be disenfranchised... they picked the wrong soldier. And his wife knows a thing or two about law enforcement: Suits was active duty military-- his vote was quite probably mishandled by the elections department, and he has an unimpeachable witness to that possibility.
This is now a federal matter, and the FBI can investigate it.
That's the first call he's going to place tomorrow.
King County may have just reaped yet another whirlwind.
(Updated and edited 4/7 )
Brings back memories of the "Felons vote, soldiers don't" chant, doesn't it?
Posted by Brian Crouch at April 06, 2005 07:34 PM | Email Thisand Welcome Home.
Semper Fi
MikeF
I feel like I should be expressing outrage, and I do feel that for all other service members similarly affected...
But really, Lt. Suits? Married to a cop?
You can't write screenplays this good. I'm hitting Costco in the AM and laying in a supply of popcorn.
Sorry about your vote, Bryan. I really am. But go get 'em!!!
Jeeze, there's gonna be some long faces and sleepless nights. 'bout time.
Bryan...if your listening...thank you for your service...you can't possibly know how many people appreciate your reports and were keeping you in their prayers. Again, thank you.
Posted by: scott158 on April 6, 2005 07:42 PMKing County certainly won't enact the sort of true election reform that's needed here. Quite the opposite. Ever since installing Gregoire they've consistently gone the wrong way, with stonewalling, deception, efforts to gut opponents first amendment rights (deprive BIAW of funds), get more felons and homeless voters, more (all!) absentee ballot voting and so on.
HA! Right now a caller is praising SoundPolitics.com and asking voters to check the database and follow up if they see problems like John's.
Congrats, Stefan!
Go, John! Let's get the FBI in here and see what some subpoena's reveal!
Posted by: Chuck Miller on April 6, 2005 07:51 PMGo get 'em Brian!!! SO glad to hear you back on the air and have you home safe and sound.
Posted by: megs on April 6, 2005 07:53 PMWell N E L S O N, yawn, how 'bout dem apples? Getting more rotten by the day!
I can hear Nelson saying, "It ain't over till it's over." Well it's the bottom of the ninth, two out, no one on, and you got two strikes Nelson, and you bat is made of balsa wood. Oh I forgot, you can play with your windmill!!!!
Ha Ha Ha
"NUFF SAID!!!!
Pudster
Posted by: Puddybud on April 6, 2005 08:07 PMHey PI and Times, ...No story here!!!!!
Posted by: Brad on April 6, 2005 08:10 PMand Democrat legislators and Sam Reed STILL want to go to all-mail balloting??? Are they crazy??? They can't even tell Bryan what happened to his mailed ballot! Someone like Bryan will likely be VERY interested in going to the polls next time (as long as he's not overseas again) because then he could at least have the comfort of knowing he put his ballot into the hopper himself. Why do Reed and the Democrats want to take that option away from him and others??
Posted by: Michele on April 6, 2005 09:06 PMFirst of all, Stefan's voter database only covers 12 out of Washington's 39 counties. Although it does have the eight largest population counties and probably covers well over 80% of the registered voters.
Second, as I understand it, the 93 inner ballot envelopes were recovered from outer absentee envelopes that had already been accepted, credited and opened. But the ballot envelopes were left inside the mailing envelopes (by mistake?).
Brian Suits was not credited with voting in the general election in November 2004:
King County Last Name First / Middle Name Number Street City Vote Type PAV Mail RegYr
SUITS BRYAN DAVID 47o MT KENYA DR SW ISSAQUAH - Y - 2000
SUITS RACHEL M 47o MT KENYA DR SW ISSAQUAH - Y - 2004
SUITS RACHEL M 140o TAYLOR AVE N SEATTLE Abs Y - 2004
Third, as far as I know, Stefan's database does not have any information about who voted in the September 2004 primary. That information would have had to be obtained from another source.
What I find interesting is that Brian's wife is registered twice -- probably through no fault of her own. She only voted once, however.
To change your address, you have to fill out the same form which is used to register new voters. If King County Elections does not cancel your registration at the old address, you end up being registered twice. Same situation happens if you change your name.
At least Rachel M Suits only voted once. Although it appears she voted the Seattle ballot, and not the Issaquah ballot for the precinct where she and her husband live.
One interesting thing -- ask Rachel what ballot she voted. She could have returned the Issaquah ballot in the Seattle envelope. It would still get counted. But she would be credited with voting in Seattle, and that precinct would have one more voter credited than ballot counted. At the same time, the Issaquah precinct would have one more ballot counted than voter credited.
This could lead to all sorts of fraud. Let's say there is a close legislative race on the Eastside. The Dems get 500 of their supporters in that district to complain about not getting their absentee ballot. KC Elections mails out 500 new absentee ballots for these supporters.
Of course, these Dem supporters in the Eastside district only vote one of these absentee ballots each. But they give their extra absentee ballot to their local PCO, who then sends them to the Dem organization in a Seattle district where there is no serious legislative contest (i.e. where the Dem will win with 80% to 85% of the vote).
You then have 500 Dem supporters in the Seattle district place the extra Eastside ballot, instead of the Seattle ballot they were actually mailed, inside the inner security envelope. Since the inner envelope is separate from the outer envelope before counting, there is no way to trace this fraudulent act. The Dems now have an extra 500 votes in the Eastside district, which could make the difference in a close race.
Posted by: Richard Pope on April 6, 2005 09:08 PMI do not believe that they were ever counted into the mix.
Go get 'em Bryan!
Posted by: alphabet soup on April 6, 2005 10:02 PMWelcome home Lt. Suits!
Posted by: Deborah on April 6, 2005 10:28 PMThere is plenty of other evidence of incompetence in this election, of course, and this further supports that. Voters and legislators can choose to clean house and/or tighten procedures, and courts, if they're convinced it's bad enough, can order changes or even throw out the election results. But I can't imagine what the FBI could or will do with this information.
Posted by: Bruce on April 6, 2005 10:58 PMOOOOOOOOO.....Busted.
What a movie this will make.
REVOTE.
Posted by: niceville on April 6, 2005 11:21 PMLt Suits, welcome home, but I'm sorry, you are to be re-deployed. You have a new mission. This mission will allow you to sleep at home this yr. The RoverEchoMikeFoxtrots will not win this battle nor the war. You got point. Lock n load. HOOAHH
I cringe everytime Lt Suits talks about his Canuck family, because sadly, he's bang on when describing that pseudo-country. I know, I only escaped the soviet of BC in 99. Now I see they have nothing on Kiev county.
The fact that it happens is enough reason to not to an entire vote-by-mail program. They're not taking the right steps to enable a secure election, just masquerading the problem.
Posted by: Brent on April 7, 2005 08:16 AMA technical question.
Are there any, outside or inside, identifying marks, characteristics or otherwise "cues" for election workers to be able to easily "lose" absentee Military ballots?
Chas
Posted by: Charles on April 7, 2005 10:30 AMIs there a record of which party signed up certain illegal voters? That would be interesting.
You ask "Why is it so hard in Democratic counties to verify that a person is a citizen, Not a felon." Do you have any evidence that it is harder in D counties than R counties? I think it has been well-documented why it is hard. I don't think there are national databases of citizens, felons, or felons whose voting rights have been restored. Perhaps counties (or the state) should spend more money to try to do better at this, but it would still be imperfect. This is a reasonable thing for the legislature to consider. But I don't believe there is an existing mandate or precedent for it.
If you have evidence about either of these matters, that would be interesting. Otherwise your post is just a bunch of conspiracy theories.
Brent:
You say that we shouldn't do vote-by-mail due to these problems (I'm not sure if you're referring to fraud or incompetence). I don't think the method of voting affects the effects of incompetence, which I agree is unacceptably high in King County at least. As for fraud, I think the real problem is *allowing* absentee ballots other than for limited cases; once you allow them, you make it much easier for people to commit fraud, and requiring voting by mail shouldn't increase fraud since the cheaters would already be cheating. Allowing widespread absentee ballots is a clear tradeoff between making it easier to vote and making it harder to cheat. Historically I believe this is viewed as a public policy choice that the people (through their elected officials) get to make. Most legislatures in the US seem to be moving more in the direction of ease of voting, and I believe this reflects public opinion. You can certainly try to change this, but you will be more convincing if you acknowledge that there is a tradeoff between desirable goals, rather than accusing anyone who disagrees with you of favoring fraud.
Posted by: Bruce on April 7, 2005 11:15 AMThanks for your service. Time to kick some local democrat a$$.
Chuck Miller,
I don't think this is about states rights at all. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I belive that the fact that Ms. Suits posted Brian's ballot here in the U.S. mail even though it was within Washington State, anything that happened to it from post to destination would be considered Federal mail fraud.
Democrat degenerates like Danw and others need to be put in prison for this type of activity, and I think federal prison is as good a place as any. The reason they do this is because no one ever does anything about it.
Danw,
Tom Delay,Tom Delay,Tom Delay,Tom Delay. Good job.
Posted by: Amused by liberals on April 7, 2005 11:31 AMThere are many available databases for determining if someone had committed a felony in another state (FBI NCIC, Intellius, etc.). Certainly there is easy access to the regional databases of felons (OR, WA, ID, AL). Once someone is on one of those databases, it is their responsibility to provide the documentation showing that their voting rights had been restored. That one seems very simple.
Of course, verifying citizenship should be even easier. When registering show definitive picture ID + valid birth certificate or show a US passport. When voting show valid picture ID (which probably eliminates using WA state driver licenses). And do a special citizenship check on anyone requesting a ballot in any language other than English.
As for vote by mail, I see three major problems with it. First, the handling of absentee ballots by poll workers provides an easy way (easy compared to voting in person) for fraud/incompetence to sneak into the process. Second, there is little assurance right now that identification approach for absentee ballots--signatures--is sufficient to ensure that the person filling out the ballot envelope is indeed the registered voter.
Third, universal mail-in ballots have absolutely no protection against vote buying/vote influencing. This has been a severe problem in the past, one which several laws preventing contact with voters while in the voting booth were intended to prevent. As long as a thug/briber could not see the actual vote, the voter and the vote was protected. Absentee ballots allow that kind of vote fraud to sneak back into the process.
All in all, more than enough reason to oppose the adoption of universal mail-in voting.
Posted by: iconoclast on April 7, 2005 12:05 PMNaw, it must be a conspiracy.
How's that tin foil hat fitting?
Posted by: Zoophagous on April 7, 2005 02:57 PMIt takes a single person.
Posted by: Bostonian on April 8, 2005 08:38 AMI do wonder how long the MSM is going to continue ignoring this election debacle?
Posted by: BikerDad on April 8, 2005 09:55 AMHave you checked to see if the text files of voter ID numbers contain a record of receipt of Suits' ballot?
Posted by: Micajah on April 8, 2005 02:25 PM