Last week I mentioned that King County was conducting a criminal investigation against former Superintendent of Elections, Julie Anne Kempf. I posited that this was politically motivated and partly intended to intimidate current election employees from speaking out. I keep coming up with more information that supports this.
The Sheriff's Office doesn't normally announce investigations until after charges are filed. And no charges have been filed yet. The Sheriff released this announcement of the investigation last Tuesday, July 12. Spokesman John Urquahrt said they made the earlier than usual announcement because reporters from the Times and P-I had already learned about it and were asking questions. But who tipped the reporters off? If it wasn't the county officials who ordered the investigation, it was probably disgruntled employees who were harrassed by the investigators. Also on July 12th, county fraud detectives were interrogating elections workers. Although the investigation supposedly "involves falsified e-mails" that Dean Logan is apparently trying to claim that Kempf sent, the interrogations were quite a bit broader. One elections worker who was questioned described the whole thing as "weird" and that it seemed to be designed "to see who is leaking what". Workers were questioned about their contacts with Kempf and also whether they knew about the various anonymous e-mails that were purportedly sent by elections workers. The elections worker concludes
My guess is that this investigation is being pushed from someone higher than Logan, probably Sims and is meant to intimidate the employees into keeping shut.Ironically, one of the more disturbing criticisms of Dean Logan that came out in the task force employee survey was that the Elections office was being managed through a "culture of fear". It's hard to see how sending detectives to interrogate the workers would allay the climate of fear. Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at July 19, 2005 04:48 PM | Email This
The latest wrongdoing is the intentional decision by DDES and/or DOT and/or Sims himself, to stop measuring traffic on Novelty Hill Road in eastern Redmond. Fearing that Redmond Ridge permit conditions have been violated since early last year requiring the county to halt permits for Weyerhaeuser, the county now alleges that they simply stopped measuring traffic and won't count cars on this congested roadway again until the end of the year.
15 months and going on refusal to count the traffic after counting it regularly until it reached levels just 10 cars per hour from the mandated limit in April 2004.
Sims sits atop a machine that works for someone, but certainly not for us. Ron Sims lives by the philosophy that if something is in the way, either smear it, attack it, or simply ignore it.
Posted by: Mike on July 19, 2005 06:25 PMSims and Logan are so flakey - they would initiate a bogus investigation - directed at a former employee just to hide their perpetration of election fraud! Kempf is their red herring! They want investigators to "look over there!"...don't look at that man behind the curtain......
In a way - this is a good thing...as it shows Ron Sims and Logan are scared of something!
Posted by: Deborah on July 19, 2005 07:55 PMYep Dan...
So was Ron Sims! Guess what? Kempf left a few years ago and the *magic* votes grew in number in subsequent elections! What do you think that means?
In fact - the King County Elections Department seems to have a history plagued with terminations, resignations and demotions...yet those *magic* votes continue! The only person who has been in constant control of the election department during all of these *questionable* times has been......Ron Sims! Go figure!
Posted by: Deborah on July 19, 2005 08:20 PMSlade did whup Sims' butt in the debates -- perhaps 2000 was his revenge (how's that for a conspiracy theory?).
Posted by: seanod100 on July 19, 2005 10:00 PMTime to make a clean sweep. I am certain Irons needs to defeat Sims by an 8,000 + vote margin to actually WIN. The shenanigans will be in full swing because for Sims and the KC machine there is much at stake.
Even worse Logan is in charge of the very system that will "pick" the next winner and his employment status is going to depend on the outcome of the race. Dean will try to deliver the executive position back to Sims!
I have to hand it to Sims he is great at doing things the dirty way, and pressing to keep Dean Logan head of elections was genius move. It all comes down to the "favor" and Logan owes Sims BIG!
Posted by: Joe on July 20, 2005 12:11 AMPlus plenty of other untermensch around the country throughout local gov around all the big 'RATS NESTS
Posted by: Bill on July 20, 2005 07:36 AMNo, fish brains, the information comes from several sources. But your speculative comment is consistent with your usual standards.
Posted by: Stefan Sharkansky on July 20, 2005 08:43 AM