Snohomish County Auditor "Sideshow Bob" Terwilliger wants to move to "all-mail voting" . Of course he does. Lazy, incompetent and/or fervently partisan elections officials like Sideshow Bob prefer to process ballots in secret, with party "observers" roped off and unable to actually watch what's really going on, rather than conduct elections in public where citizen poll judges and observers are an integral part of the process. The Democrat County Executive Aaron Reardon naturally favors all-mail voting
he said mail-in ballots increase voter participation.Yes, in some cases it does increase voter participation.
The Snohomish County Council will hold a meeting on the topic, tomorrow, Wednesday, August 17th at 2pm. If you live in Snohomish County, contact your Councilmember, Executive Reardon and Sideshow Bob and encourage them to be responsible and preserve public poll voting.
Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at August 16, 2005 11:38 AM | Email ThisIs anybody really surpised?
Posted by: BrianD on August 16, 2005 12:26 PMA confession- I succumbed and reregistered after my move and went to absentee. It was too easy. I am sorry. I wonder what I will feel like on election day and when I get the compulsion to vote and will realize I have already voted.
And frankly, Mr. Reardon, I don't think more voter participation is the ideal. The ideal is for a more informed voter and your election tactics don't help out one iota. (Neither do the Reps either, BTW)
Posted by: swatter on August 16, 2005 12:39 PMI will admit that something like this was not tried here in Kitsap. Perhaps you have time to try it in Snohomish.
Posted by: Jeremy on August 16, 2005 02:09 PMNo Kidding?????????????? Look, labor unions have been using the mail referendum technique for (s)electing their labor officials for decades. Its the ONLY tried and true version of ballot tabulation that allows for complete fraud. And that's how labor bosses stay in power. This isn't rocket science, folks. Snohomish County is a bit behind the curve, I'd say. Let the union bosses show them how its done.
Posted by: the gorilla on August 16, 2005 04:09 PMA lifelong Democrat, he struggled to get the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party -- a mostly black delegation -- accepted to the '64 convention. They were finally fully accepted in '68. Last year, the group was honored at the Democratic National Convention for its struggle to make sure everyone has a voice and is represented.
He has spent much of the last few decades observing elections, making sure everyone has fair and equal access.
I saw him again just last week, and he was expressing how incredible it is that people don't want to be identified when they vote, and how all-mail-in voting just invites fraud. Here is a man who has sacrificed and spent his life for the cause of democracy, mostly on the Democratic side of the aisle, and he is saying that voter identification and voting at physical polling places are an important part to a functioning democracy.
I don't think he is in town tomorrow night, or I might try to drag him down to the Council meeting. But honestly, I think our Republican members of the Council -- who constitute a majority -- will have none of Terwilliger's plan.