Like Mount St. Helens, the various county election departments keep spewing forth an endless stream of reports on errors and improprieties.
Pierce County Auditor Pat McCarthy admitted under oath yesterday that her department screwed up in November, leaving 50 uncounted ballots on the table. The fact that a partisan Democrat Auditor "forgot" to count a bunch of ballots in a county that went for Dino Rossi only helps Rossi's case. So naturally, any Democrat with a shred of common sense would decline to comment on this one. And then there are certain Democrat bloggers who believe this discovery somehow helps their case. You know who I'm talking about.
King County, meanwhile, has identified 648 felons who voted in November. And counting!
UPDATE: Today's Seattle Times has an interesting observation about the differences between Pierce and King counties' respective handling of provisional ballots:
Pierce County, like King County, has acknowledged a problem with provisional ballots being counted at polling places before voters' eligibility was verified.King County election officials, on the other hand, concealed this information from the canvassing board. Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at April 28, 2005 11:54 PM | Email ThisBut unlike King County, Pierce officials gave a detailed report on their 164 mishandled ballots and other vote-counting problems to the county canvassing board before it certified election results in November.
That claim was reported before, but I don't think it's what Bridges actually ruled.
Posted by: Bostonian on April 29, 2005 06:19 AMMs McCarthy stands before us today with a stench eminating from her competency glands!
Posted by: Mr. Cynical on April 29, 2005 06:28 AMIf the PI claimed that the sun was going to rise in the east tomorrow morning, I wouldn't believe it unless I could independently verify it.
Posted by: Danny on April 29, 2005 06:55 AM". . . The Democrats will host former presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry in a fund-raiser this weekend . . ."
http://www.theolympian.com/home/news/20050429/topstories/134751.shtml
Somehow, it's fitting -- former Prez-candidate supporting former AG.
Didn't get my paper this am, I suppose the delivery person was too busy putting glue in coin slots to bother. Sigh.
Posted by: starboardhelm on April 29, 2005 07:25 AMOuch (just read same stuff in an Enron book)
Posted by: Righton on April 29, 2005 07:49 AMI'll be sure to use that excuse the next time I'm pulled over for speeding in KC..."hell, I didn't know I was breaking the law!"
I guess ignorance of the law IS an excuse.
Posted by: Danny on April 29, 2005 09:46 AMI think when you vote twice,and when you vote DEAD, and when you vote NON-CITIZEN, you darn well KNOW you broke some kind of law.
Posted by: Michele on April 29, 2005 09:58 AMSo when will Logan be indicted?
Posted by: iconoclast on April 29, 2005 10:42 AMI found more info on "The Companion Flag" at (http://www.companionflag.org/updates/20041113_smithtower.htm. It is iapparently a modern version of universal flag for all peoples and nations. The website states "The Companion Flag is a gift from one generation to the next -- a gift of comfort and understanding which parents throughout the world will give countless times a day, whenever a child asks, "Pappa, why are there so many white flags?"
This is higly offensive to me
Posted by: Michael on April 29, 2005 11:01 AMTime-out here!
Dean Logan is a "nationally recognized" election expert per Ron Sims and other Yankovic-lovers.
Listen to these words--
Logan KNEW OR SHOULD HAVE KNOWN that he was breaking the law. Logan has held himself out to be the "expert". Reed and other County Auditor's have praised him endlessly as the "expert".
Now all of a sudden Logan is a dork and should not be held accountable for his illegal actions????
GIMMEE A BREAK DANNY. Did the doctor mistakenly remove your logic and common-sense glands?
Posted by: Mr. Cynical on April 29, 2005 11:13 AMThe flag of the United States of America should be at the center and at the highest point of the group when a number of flags of States or localities or pennants of societies are grouped and displayed from staffs.
When flags of States, cities, or localities, or pennants of societies are flown on the same halyard with the flag of the United States, the latter should always be at the peak. When the flags are flown from adjacent staffs, the flag of the United States should be hoisted first and lowered last. No such flag or pennant may be placed above the flag of the United States or to the right of the flag of the United States. When the flag is half-masted, both flags are half-masted, with the US flag at the mid-point and the other flag below.
source: http://www.ushistory.org/betsy/flagetiq.html
Semper Fi
MikeF
For example, the article doesn't explore the fact that almost all election departments stop counting absentee (not vote by mail) ballots once they feel the outcome of an election is no longer in doubt. In fact, California stopped counting absentee ballots (in the millions) when they felt that the PERCENTAGES of ballots already counted showed would not allow Bush to win that state. Also works for all those who forcast outcomes of elections on the news. If the MSM wasn't biased, they would report such information.
Why not apply the same logic in reverse to the illegal vote--over time and quantity, the percentage of ballots cast can predict an outcome ahead of finishing the count. Therefore subtract by those same percentages, and behold, the illegals are out and the every ballot that should count is counted.
In the meantime, keeping jesting and jousting. One does need a laugh occasionally.
Posted by: Larry T on April 29, 2005 12:53 PM
Mr. C, surely you recognize irony when you see it.
I wonder if Logan really is so dumb that he believes even half of what he says about the canvassing board's legal responsibility -- and his own duty as the chief elections officer.
It's nice to hear that Pierce County gave their canvassing board an opportunity to consider what to do in light of their discrepancies. That's how the system is supposed to work according to the law.
Logan's gang short-circuited the process and kept the canvassing board and the public in the dark.
Posted by: Micajah on April 29, 2005 12:55 PMfirst of all, I do believe that Stefan has uncovered several facts that indicate Logan was fully aware that the information provided to the canvassing board was incorrect.
Only shows that public was misled, not canvassing board, but indicative anyway of the mindset:
http://www.soundpolitics.com/archives/004249.html
More evidence that canvassing board was not fully informed while Logan was:
http://www.soundpolitics.com/archives/004233.html
and this evidence of just some of the information that was not provided to the canvassing board:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2002233762_election07m.html
And of course, the coverup:
http://www.soundpolitics.com/archives/004119.html
Someone should do the perp walk here, probably Logan. At the very least, start the criminal investigation with Logan and go from there.
I think the Democratic Strategy is to spin statements such as this continually as a sort of propaganda that if heared enough, people will believe this as fact.
On one hand, it is effective as many people do not think critically nor bother to research unqualified statements (as demonstrated here by the PI). Eventually statements made by one official, then by a news source, then by citizens propogate these rumors till they appear as fact.
Remember, this was being spun way back at the beginning of this challenge.
On a completely off the subject sort-of side note:
I also think I just want to hear Gregoire eat her "Mulligan" comment after her position is vacated.
Surely you don't believe that absentee ballots are intentionally left uncounted after the outcome of the presidential election is apparently determined.
There are other offices on those ballots. Who among those candidates for the other offices do you believe would sit quietly while their own chance of election is sabotaged?
There are often ballot measures, too. Who among the proponents and opponents of those measures would sit quietly while the outcome of the election regarding their issue is determined without counting the remaining ballots?
Can you provide any source for your belief?
Posted by: Micajah on April 29, 2005 01:24 PMAre you sure of the counting process? There are many initiatives that were close and local elections. I suspect all ballots were counted.
dB
Posted by: larry t on April 29, 2005 01:32 PMI vaguely remember that in the 2000 election there was a report that hundreds of thousands of late arriving absentee ballots (I don't know how late) were not counted, particularly in CA. I don't know whether that report was accurate or not, but someone used it to claim that Gore's popular vote plurality was not as great as the D's claimed.
Posted by: MIMike on April 29, 2005 02:17 PMIf this is myth, I open to correction and I'm not saying that close races are left uncounted.
My point to Headless Lucy remains the same though if you keep only the example of news organizations calling elections based on a very low percentage of the precincts reporting. They are generally correct with very few exceptions. I would even say that if fraud were occuring in King County the cheaters used the same statistical analysis to determine how many votes they needed to "find" in order for Gregoire to win.
Maybe you are just falling prey to the Nelson hit and run tactic. Say something stupid and then leave since you don't have the knowledge to make an impact and are too embarrassed to stick around.
Posted by: Mark Beyer on April 29, 2005 03:49 PMI'm sorry to hear this idea offends you, but I did want to post this so that people got a little better idea of what this initiative (based in Seattle, but spreading around the world!) is all about. Because the CF represents ONLY what human beings everywhere have in common, it specifically does NOT represent any political, philosophical, or religious viewpoints. It is not, for example, a one world government symbol, or a "we're all the same" symbol. There's both a paradox and an irony here: The paradox is that we humans are BOTH different and the same; the irony is that we have inherited from our forbears flags that speak only to our differences.
You asked about the Smith Tower. They wanted to fly the CF below the US flag (as many others are doing), but the light at the top of the tower is a bluish-white light, and illuminating the US flag at night with anything but a true white light is improper flag etiquette. Our dark green state flag is not affected by the blue light, so that's why the Smith Tower chose to fly the CF below the state flag.
Anyway, there you have it! I hope this answers your question.
Best,
Scott Wyatt, President
Companion Flag Support International