A public service announcement --
Remember, all absentee ballots have to be postmarked by election day. Not placed in a mailbox, but postmarked. I found that last November, hundreds of ballots were postmarked the day after the election and were (correctly) rejected.
I infer this happened because the voters assumed that a ballot placed in a mailbox on election day was timely enough not realizing that the mail might not be postmarked until the next day, causing their vote to be wasted.
If you vote by absentee (and don't get me started), and you haven't mailed your ballot yet, do NOT just put it in the mailbox today. Drop it off at the nearest polling place, or bring it to a post office and make sure that it is postmarked on election day.
Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at September 19, 2005 09:00 PM | Email ThisTime to get off your high horse. As Mr "want a perfect election," your real purpose is clear: to get your favorite politicians elected at all costs.
There is no such thing as a perfect election -- yet you showed no desire for aiming for such after Florida 2000 (instead, celebrating a ridiculous supreme court intervention in your otherwise precious state rights).
So..this whole thing about finding individual voters whose votes shouldn't count should be shown for what it is. A thin, vaccuous attempt to get republicans elected by creating the false impression of widespread fraud, deceit, etc. The truth, which you ignore, is all elections are flawed and you just didn't like the outcome of this one.
Get a real job...please.
Posted by: Leslie Thomason on September 20, 2005 06:17 AM1. I'd rather ride a high horse than a low one. No, we cannot expect "a perfect election", but the low horse you ride gave us the most disgusting example of fraud and incompetence in the history of this state. King County Elections' performance before, during and after the November '04 election is a disgrace that all Washingtonians should be ashamed of.
2. And you don't want YOUR candidate to win? The difference is that Stefan and most who post on this site are willing to accept opposition party candidates elected to office in a fair and honest election, while you prefer the "win at any cost" tactics employed by Democrat King County Elections personnel.
3. The reference to Florida '00 is laughable. Gore wanted to re-count only the Democrat-heavy counties, rather than the whole state. Even the leftist newspapers who conducted independent audits of the election agreed unanimously that Bush won Florida in '00.
So why don't you and the rest of your ilk jump on your "low horses" and ride off into the sunset. We don't need your type in Washington.
Posted by: Saltherring on September 20, 2005 06:48 AMI knew nothing about this last November. Since January of this year I discovered on this blog, my local auditor mishandled 783 provisional ballots, mostly from WSU and felons were allowed to vote.
My daughter tried to change her registration for this primary from Whitman County to Pierce County. No only did she receive ballots from both counties, she received the previous owners' ballots at her new home in Pierce County. My daughter now has in her possession, FOUR absentee ballots for this primary election. Of course she isn't going to vote them. She is honest. But we found out last November, through the fine work of Stefan and others on this board that helped him, there are just enough dishonest people out there to throw an election.
Is this what you want Leslie Thompson? Do you really want the stain to be there for all to see?
Election reform is a joke and we all know it.
Posted by: cc on September 20, 2005 07:40 AMIf you mail your ballot, remember to check the mail pick-up times on the drop box. Some around here have recently changed to earlier times. Happy voting everyone!
Posted by: dl on September 20, 2005 08:00 AMAll the polling places are shut down except those in the appropriate Port district locale.
In my opinion, this is a disgrace that many, many local races are contested both in the primary and some in the general. What did we have, citizen burnout after the last presidential election?
All politics is local.
Posted by: swatter on September 20, 2005 11:06 AMHave fun at the polls!
Posted by: Dum Bass on September 20, 2005 11:24 AMHave fun at the polls!
Just kidding, of course.
Posted by: Dum Bass on September 20, 2005 11:26 AMAs for Florida (again), the main SCOTUS decision was 7-2 to overturn the Florida Supreme court on Constitutional grounds - hardly a Republican plot. The 5-4 decision was on the remedy:
"The Supreme Court of Florida has said that the legislature intended the State’s electors to “participat[e] fully in the federal electoral process,” as provided in 3 U.S.C. § 5. ___ So. 2d, at ___ (slip op. at 27); see also Palm Beach Canvassing Bd. v. Harris, 2000 WL 1725434, *13 (Fla. 2000). That statute, in turn, requires that any controversy or contest that is designed to lead to a conclusive selection of electors be completed by December 12. That date is upon us, and there is no recount procedure in place under the State Supreme Court’s order that comports with minimal constitutional standards. Because it is evident that any recount seeking to meet the December 12 date will be unconstitutional for the reasons we have discussed, we reverse the judgment of the Supreme Court of Florida ordering a recount to proceed.
Seven Justices of the Court agree that there are constitutional problems with the recount ordered by the Florida Supreme Court that demand a remedy. See post, at 6 (Souter, J., dissenting); post, at 2, 15 (Breyer, J., dissenting). The only disagreement is as to the remedy. Because the Florida Supreme Court has said that the Florida Legislature intended to obtain the safe-harbor benefits of 3 U.S.C. § 5 Justice Breyer’s proposed remedy–remanding to the Florida Supreme Court for its ordering of a constitutionally proper contest until December 18-contemplates action in violation of the Florida election code, and hence could not be part of an “appropriate” order authorized by Fla. Stat. §102.168(8) (2000)."
If the Rossi voters should "move on" after less than a year, then surely the Gore voters cam "move on" after five years.
When the tables were reversed, as you pointed out, the Rs sounded off about people speaking and votes counting. However, when faced with the same problem, they revert to pretending they were wrong the first time!
Go Leslie..don't let these negative nabobs derail you --- you are right..they are interested in power and power only.
Long live the voices of the people!
Finally: your point about no election being perfect is right on. Only those who didn't like the result would harp and harp as the folks here do. All the other elections throughout the centuries seem to be just fine....HMMMMMMM...same processes, just different results.
***
Hearing the voice of the people is exactly what this is all about.
As an ex-Democrat, I am amazed to see how reactionary the Left really is, if Harry & Leslie are a sample.
Posted by: Bostonian on September 20, 2005 05:37 PMWhadda ditz ;'}
Posted by: alphabet soup on September 20, 2005 07:53 PMPosted by: Laurie on September 21, 2005 09:09 AM