All six Republicans on the King County Council today called on Ron Sims to get out of the way and invite Sam Reed to run the county's elections this fall.
I'm certainly in favor of taking the election out of the hands of Ron Sims and Dean Logan. Whether we can trust the Secretary of State's Office to do an acceptable job is another matter.
Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at August 05, 2005 07:33 PM | Email ThisHaving the Secretary of State's office run KC elections will be no better than what we have now. Most of the staff of the Secretary of State are from small counties: Thurston, Lewis, Mason, Kitsap, etc.
I am always amazed at the cache that having worked "for the state" seems to bring -- these state-level staffers are functionaries, not managers, who write policy and have little hands on experience running elections. What hands on experience does exist was often earned in tiny counties such as Mason county (Bill Huennekens home county), where they are never exposed to the breadth of complexity that exists in a large urban county such as King.
They have zero experience running an operation the size of King County, which is truly in a size class of its own in this state - the next largest operation, Pierce County, is one-fifth the size of King. Also, these people do not have the established connections with King County to be able to successfuly manage the bumps in the road to the satisfaction of the electorate in this county.
Dean Logan was former STATE DIRECTOR of ELECTIONS and a protege of Sam Reed. Doesn't that demonstrate anything?
The best idea would be to bring back the last successful Records and Elections manager - Bob Bruce (yes, a republican), and have him put a team in place to right the ship. As a retired Navy Captain, I bet he could stop even the Titanic of election offices from sinking.
Posted by: Good Grief on August 5, 2005 07:49 PMWhitman County Auditor's office just got their new computer system up and running. They are saying there will be problems with precinct designations because the new computer will automatically designate which precinct a voter is in. They are saying if you go to the polls, like you have for years, and your name is not in the book to vote provisional. If you have voted by mail for years and don't get your ballot, you are to call the elections department to arrange for an absentee ballot.
The "theme" for this year is going to be educate, educate, educate, says the elections supervisor.
I am anxiously awaiting the outcome of this primary election here in Whitman County. It will be very, very interesting.
Reed/Sims, to me, one and the same, just different parts of the machine.
Taking the KC elections from Ron Sims is absolutely necessary! But giving it to Sam Reed's office? After what they pulled in the election contest? And how complacent Sam Reed has been with election law enforcement? Pah!
The election must be taken out of Ron Sims control immediately - but I think it should be given to a Federal Election Commission. The people of this state have lost confidence in all levels of our election system.
If 6 members of the largest populated county in the State of Washington are calling for the elections to be taken away from their County Executive, it should warrant immediate action from the Federal Election Commission! This is a major red flag that there is something terribly wrong with the current election system in King County!
How loud do the Feds want King County to scream for help before they intervene?
Posted by: Deborah on August 5, 2005 10:00 PMBut since it's stricty along party lines, we'll just have to conclude it's another obvious partisan attempt to embarass Ron Sims and affect the upcoming elections.
Posted by: Unkl Witz on August 5, 2005 10:08 PMYeah...I suppose someone who hasn't lived here through the past several botched and highly questionable elections - might be inclined to think it is simply a partisan attempt to embarass Ron Sims.....
But come on! Ron Sims history of messed up elections just can't be ignored or denied! Even by a Liberal Democrat partisan hack! Ron Sims is no John Bolton...
Ron Sims has a well documented history of failure and the creation of a culture of fear with regard to his handling of the King County Elections.
Sorry....but this is going to make the people wonder about the blind partisanship of those Democrats on the council who choose to ignore the election problems!
Everyone KNOWS King County is a mess! Everyone KNOWS Ron Sims is the cause!
Posted by: Deborah on August 5, 2005 10:26 PMI should clarify that after Bob Bruce retired from the Navy with 25 years of service at age 45, he devoted 20 years of service to King County -- 14 of those years leading the elections office during a time period when it ran well and was a nationally recognized example of an excellent operation.
Ron Sims forced him out to replace him with an ethically-challenged, hand-chosen Democratic political hack, Bob Roegner, and it can almost be counted to the day when the King County elections office started to fall apart.
There are a lot of bit players in this mess, but Ron Sims bears personal responsibility for the failure of the elections office for removing Bob Bruce in the first place.
Posted by: Good Grief on August 5, 2005 10:28 PM(I had a job in Pullman, so I didn't go home for summers, I stayed there.)
You folks in Whitman have quite the rich history yourselves, in the past few years. What with your Auditor disappearing suddenly a couple years back, and people quitting...
Posted by: Good Grief on August 5, 2005 11:12 PMI think a lot of us here in King County feel like we have a responsibility to the rest of the state to put the right pressure on elected officials, to elect the right people this fall, and otherwise to do what we can to clean up our county, because we know what happens in King impacts all Washington citizens, not just us.
Posted by: Good Grief on August 5, 2005 11:15 PMI have no doubt that if we are close that there will at the least be situations where they can manipluate the system to give them an edge.
The major issue for me is that here we are 10 months later and NO ONE has been fired, not even those that knowingly filed false documents.
When I am elected a first priority is a complete housecleaning of the elections department.
Posted by: Steven Pyeatt on August 5, 2005 11:31 PMDean, Bill, Bobbie, Sherril, ALL lose their high paying jobs if David Irons is elected.
Do you really think that a team from the SOS is not going to try to ensure that Sims wins re-election so their good friends' jobs are protected?
Posted by: Good Grief on August 6, 2005 12:02 AMIf Ron Sims is defeated, this state may be on its way to a balanced and less obtrusive government. However, it will take a concerted effort - starting right now !
Posted by: KS on August 6, 2005 12:08 AMIt is said that in the sixties life was normal and if you wanted to get weird you would take acid and now life is weird and if you want to act normal you have to take Prozac, anybody have any extra.
Unfortunately, it will not be so easy to trip up the ballot stuffers this November in King County! Their tally will not need to be adjusted per statewide totals.....and I just don't see enough KC election employees having the guts or moral clarity to blow the whistle...
Posted by: Deborah on August 6, 2005 12:47 AMUnfortunately, I think the problem with finding whistleblowers will be more a problem of intimidation than moral clarity.
There were some courageous people leaking information this past year, which is where many tips that the GOP and Stefan published came from. But this year, with Ron Sims arresting his political enemies without cause, and smearing people who have dared to speak out against him, and demoting and reassigning the election staff that they suspect of being the "leaks", all while never so much as laying a finger on the staff members that falsified reports and lied to the newspapers and the media...
I'm afraid that it would take an uncommonly brave person to risk their jobs, careers, and public reputations to try to singlehandedly report the problems in the election office.
Posted by: Careful Observer on August 6, 2005 01:34 AMCareful Observer,
You are correct about the many courageous employees of King County elections - who have risked their jobs to report the misdeeds of their departments! And yes, there have been job losses, arrests made in an effort to curb further whistle blowing......When I speak of a lack of moral clarity - I guess I'm talking about the remnant in the election department who choose to keep their mouths shut and who choose to be a part of the corrupt machine.
I have to wonder...(I do this a lot! heh..) how I would feel as a King County elections employee - knowing that I reported the suspicious and down right fraudulent operations going on in King County - only to have my report ignored - or worse - given to my boss so he could retaliate!
I wonder who these people have filed reports and complaints with? Which law enforcement department? Did they go to the Feds? Did they contact the National Election commission? I'd like to know which Law Enforcement department is throwing these whistle blowers under the bus?
In my many years in banking, I blew the whistle on several departments in several banks. The first time - the bank was in the middle of a merger and had their damage control people in place to put out fires (from whistle blowers) so as not to interupt the merger... There was a person designated to take reports and complaints about any suspicious activity at any of the branches....That person was to pretend as though they were handling the matter until the merger was complete so the complaining employees would stay silent. The subsequent incidents..I wised up and took my complaints outside of the bank...
In the cases of the King County employees - if they are reporting illegal activity to a King County superior - they may want to go outside of the county! If they have filed their complaints with the Feds and are being stonewalled or backstabbed..then we are all in trouble!
Posted by: Deborah on August 6, 2005 01:59 AM'Oh, we can 'attach' this 'thing-a-ma-bob' and it will make everything 'OK'.'
The fact of the matter is that using 'BAD' parts in an engine (like politics), ruin the good 'parts'. The bad 'effects' are still there.
(TFT)(Translation For Trolls): Pouring the 'poison' into a new glass will NOT change the end result.
Posted by: arky on August 6, 2005 05:35 AMI don't know who to trust at this point to run elections. I STILL don't see anyone punished, fired nor run off on a rail. Speaking of rail, the ony way to change that Machine is to keep up the sabotage from within, like the Resistance. Keep whistleblowing. Did resisters stop at one section of track? No. Keep blowing up track and finally derail the corrupt elections train. Justification? Well, any boss who stifles honesty and punishes you for it deserves what he gets--
Posted by: Jimmie-howya-doin on August 6, 2005 09:08 AMFactor in the findings of Judge Bridges, several judges who made rulings on other election 2004 issues, the In-Kind Contribution Judge, and clear picture emerges of the political activism and idiocy of Washington Judges.
Posted by: dl on August 8, 2005 10:18 AMscary part is passing under him in my little taxpayer ship; will he hold his brave stance? Will he relieve himself on my little ship? Zeus only knows!!