It looks like I'll be going to court next week in order to compel Ron Sims and King County Elections to release the documents they don't want to release.
Among the items that I'm going to the mat about --
* The transaction log for the voter registration database, which would explain the who, how and why of the many suspicious changes to voter registration records that are associated with the unlawfully counted ballots.Of course, if they had nothing to hide, Ron Sims and Dean Logan would be more than happy to release these documents and settle the questions I'm raising. On the other hand, every time they do release documents (and usually only after stonewalling and dragging their heels for months), those documents only prove that they screwed up the last election far more seriously than they had previously admitted.* Several hundred provisional ballot envelopes which I suspect will prove that there were even more unlawfully counted provisional ballots than I discovered earlier.
* 91 absentee ballot envelopes from voters who the database records say returned both an absentee and a provisional. I've been asking for these envelopes for more than six months, but I've never received either the envelopes or an explanation why they haven't been produced.
So here we are, only 19 days before the coming election and Ron Sims and Dean Logan will do whatever they can get away with to prevent the public from getting access to more incriminating information about their appalling misconduct. As usual, Norman Maleng will supply the publicly-funded services of his office to help Ron Sims and Dean Logan conceal the public's documents from the public. The public has only my time and donations from readers like you to help me hire an attorney and fight back against the Sims/Logan cover-up. Please toss a few bucks in the tip jar and let the truth come out.
Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at October 20, 2005 04:16 PM | Email ThisIsn't this getting a little like shooting fish in a barrel?
Posted by: BananaLand (aka Iguana) on October 20, 2005 05:40 PMWhen Ron gets voted out of office and then they find that he was stonewalling again and has to pay a fine...it will be you and me, John Q public, that will end up paying for it. Ronnie boy believes that we are his Surfs and should be pleased to pay. I'm disgusted and the residents of Fremont should be too...if they are not too drunk on cool-aid.
Posted by: Dengle on October 20, 2005 06:22 PMI will be contributing! Your efforts are a worthy investment...
Posted by: Deborah on October 20, 2005 06:55 PMI'd love to see King Sims get busted - my prayers are with you and for truth and justice.
Posted by: KS on October 20, 2005 07:09 PMThe messed up processes and handling that Stefan is exposing disenfranchise all of us. If we don't come down hard and clean it up now, we can expect the mishandling to grow until it becomes an even larger problem - maybe even next time adversly affecting a candidate or issue you support. Elections should be won cleanly and fairly. That is all Stefan and most of us are expecting.
Posted by: SouthernRoots on October 20, 2005 08:36 PMPolitically motivated????
You are insane! What do you call Queen Gregoire snarling traffic with news cameras on a 405 overpass at 4:00 pm two days ago to *sign* the nickel project, (already paid for and long ago signed for) for a new Totem Lake interchange. Then pointing the news cameras at an anti-912 mouthpiece to claim that all further 405 work was "off the table" if 912 passes.
How about HA and their very one-sided slam against Irons. How about King Ron touting the new insurance bond rate against flooding....
Shall I continue?
Posted by: MSRedneck on October 20, 2005 08:38 PMBecause Sims and Logan have been covering up evidence of misconduct for that entire period and have stonewalled my records request for months.
Tim
Posted by: timman on October 20, 2005 09:32 PMCome on now, we all know better. You could have brought this lawsuit much earlier than now (I've been involved in PDA lawsuits, I know how they work). You could easily have filed a complaint and moved for an order to show cause months ago. There was no reason for you to wait. You intentionally waited until weeks before the election to bring this lawsuit and you know it. It makes it look like you are making a political statement and it seriously undermines the merits of your claim.
Posted by: Claire on October 20, 2005 09:59 PMIt is incredible that you have to keep the lawsuits flowing to force the public disclosure. Maybe they know what you will find in those transaction logs....... Just like they knew what you would find on those envelopes. Green ink doesn't show up too well on copied files.......
My truck is full of gas though, if you need help looking at the envelopes.
Claire, are you Lucy in disguise?
Posted by: sgmmac on October 20, 2005 10:06 PMTim
Posted by: timman on October 20, 2005 10:20 PMThis may shock you, but not everyone files a lawsuit at the first hint of trouble. But when a guy's got one thing he's been getting stonewalled on for six months, and then another couple of recent things that look like they're going the same direction... what do you want him to do? Wait until after King Ron steals another election, to avoid the appearance of political timing? Your arguments are specious, and you should have the integrity to admit that.
Here's a little quiz I invite you to take:
1. RON SIMS AND DEAN LOGAN SHOULD COMPLY WITH ALL APPLICABLE LAWS, INCLUDING PDA. (YES) (NO)
Please feel free to give your answer to this quiz before posting anything else. (Hint: It's not an essay question.)
Posted by: TB on October 20, 2005 10:22 PMI can't quite believe what you're saying.
Stefan has to take the matter to the courts because Ron and Dean won't comply with the law. Are you capable of understanding that? Ron and Dean are violating the law. Does that not matter to you? I'm sorry, of course not. You're a liberal and staying in power to keep us evil Republicans out of office is all that matters. Laws be dammed, your kind needs to stay in power so that you can bring light to the miserable existence of your subjects.
So the timing of the lawsuit has a bearing on the merits of the claim? If someone were to assault you would you say that a filing of charges against the perp the day before the statute of limitations expired would make the charges less heinous?
Stefan has made numerous requests for public information. Your friends are denying these requests. We can only believe that they're doing this because they'll be caught in a lie.
Publish your name and email so we can have an honest debate, and quit hiding. What are you afraid of? An honest discussion?
There are only two reasons why this lawsuit is happening at all. The first and foremost is that King Co. either botched the election or there was fraud. If people hadn't cheated, or, if you don't think there was cheating, at least done a credible job of election management, none of this would be happening now. Second, if the officials who were asked to produce the public records would have complied with the law in a timely manner, the suit would not have been brought. The plaintiff in this case bears none of the blame for either of these two foul-ups. Blaming the plaintiff is akin to blaming the victim of a crime.
Posted by: Interested Observer on October 21, 2005 06:03 AMThat is such a stupid thing to say. I have to conclude that Claire is either a complete idiot, or a Sims campaign operative in desperate attack mode, or both.
The main objective of this particular action is to obtain the transaction log. I only realized how important this was last month, after reviewing documents that had finally been released after they stonewalled me for months. I first asked the Executive's office for the transaction log on September 30. I don't think I could have acted any more quickly. As it is there is so little time between now and the election that King County could still drag this thing out long enough to conceal the information from the public until after the election.
Again, the only people to blame for the timing of this are Ron Sims and Dean Logan who are obviously trying to cover something up.
Posted by: Stefan Sharkansky on October 21, 2005 07:24 AMCan you answer this? Or will you hide?
Posted by: RealMen on October 21, 2005 07:48 AMAnd you Claire, are a troll!
It's obvious from your numerous postings that you do not care a whit for law or for voters' rights.
Either that, or you have your head buried very very deep in the sand.
Posted by: Bostonian on October 21, 2005 08:22 AMIt is your brash statements that are "dishonest and insulting". Fact is, no one gives a hoot about your so-called disappointment or indignation.
Now, go make me a sandwich.....
Posted by: alphabet soup on October 21, 2005 08:43 AMBy not complying with legal records requests, it is KC that is in violation of the law Clair, not Stefan. Dean Logan frequently brags that he runs an open and transparent elections department, so where is the open and transparent access to public records that citizens are legally entitled to review?
You, clueless Clair, apparently have no moral or legal objections to your local government lying, cheating, and deceiving you...but the rest of us are tired of it. If you don't like the situation or the timing, put the blame where it really belongs...if Mr. Logan had complied with the law 6 months ago, this would not be an issue just before the election.
PS - Still wondering how can Dems convene multiple grand jury investigations against DeLay, but Washington citizens cannot even gain access to records they are legally entitled to...much less an official investigation.
Posted by: dl on October 21, 2005 09:07 AMMy contribution to Stefan is en route. Appropriate sentiments to 'Clair' likewise.
Tick, tock.
Posted by: Hank Bradley on October 21, 2005 09:08 AM"It is not proper for Stefan or anyone else to use the courts to make political statements."
Spoken like a true liberal. Rules and laws a grey for your kind but black and white for everyone else - everyone else being those who don't agree with you.
You forgot the two most overused liebraleze buzz words in your diatribe. You failed to mention you're "embarassed" and that Stefan is "mean-spirited."
Several people have tried to make this point, but I will make another attempt so that maybe you will be able to more directly respond.
Question 1: You claim to know about PDA requests. Is the request that Stefan is making a valid request that should be complied with without the need to force it through legal action?
Question 2: If it is a valid request, who holds the responsibility for "forcing" the lawsuit in the first place?
Question 3: If there is no incriminating evidence to be found, what benefit do Logan and Sims have in denying the PDA request?
Question 4: If there is incriminatig evidence to be found in the transaction logs, does it serve the public interest to bring this to light before the accused parties' election occurs or do we wait until after they are given 4 more years and the evidence is essentially moot?
The upshot is, if Logan wants to live up to his statmement of "fully transparent" accountability, he will release the data as per requested. If he has something to hide, he will attempt to stonewall. If this means that an 11th hour law suit is the result of his "choice", then he has only himself to blame. The only way the Logan benefits from stonewalling is that there is something to hide. Don't go blaming the messanger because you don't like the news.
Posted by: Eyago on October 21, 2005 09:45 AMRegardless of when Stefan requested the transaction log....
IF KING COUNTY AND RON SIMS WOULD DELIVER THE TRANSACTION LOG, THERE WOULD BE NO BASIS FOR A LAWSUIT, NOW WOULD THERE?
Idiot. Ron Sims and Dean Logan could make Stefan look like a FOOL if they delivered the log post-haste and there was no wrong-doing discovered. They won't provide the log - which means they are covering something up.
Posted by: Larry on October 21, 2005 10:31 AMHe can give you some great pointers on what to ask for.
Posted by: Hank Bradley on October 21, 2005 01:16 PMPublic Records requests of government employees are a waste of time and money. Your taxdollars, my unpaid time. The election fiasco had it's cause in a lack of money, new requirements for new technologies that no one understood. They were implemented by well meaning but ineffective managers. The old system wasn't broken. That is the track record for 99 percent of government projects. You can't buy good leadership for $80,000 a year. So Ron Sims has to trust someone. But we find out that the salary requirements dictate mediorce management. You pay for all those records requests. If you are willing to pay double or triple your current property taxes. You can buy some $200,000 a year managers and some Oracle databases, and fail proof and tamper proof electioneering widgets. (they don't exist except in Canada apparently)
My real question is why does the mayor execute on strip clubs but not on crime in my neighborhood? I am starting to think that a strip club in the north end would be safer then Pioneer Square anywhere. Strippers seem pretty harmless to me. I wonder what moral reasoning lead him to this decision? Is he a fundalmentalist Christian and I don't know it? Or does this news just hide ineffectiveness in crime management in other area of the city. I do notice a penchant in the Mayor though for wanting to get into other peoples pants and manage their thought process for them.
One hidden problem in the bad delivery of elections is the inability of employee unions at the county to be fair or flexible. There is a lot of cronyism going on. You would find county employees using their union contacts to secure their own well being at the expense of their fellow employees. If there was ever a reason to call in a sick day, it's the day that that bad crony needs the paperwork help to meet a records request. See if you can get a few more employees to comment here. the county has a few open place for suggestions.
Posted by: rolt on October 21, 2005 01:46 PMDoes anyone else see that what Mr. Sharkansky is doing is investigative reporting? Sure, he doesn't have a newspaper, but he is still doing the same work as Woodward and Bernstein, albeit at a State level, not Federal.
Blogs will come into their own for the gathering and dispensing of the truth, and Mr. Sharkansky is actually riding the crest of this wave.
Keep up the good work, know that whatever happens, you're going down in the history books---um---blogs.
Posted by: HappyGoLucky on October 21, 2005 03:39 PMBoth Parties keep a log of the known leanings of individual voters. Have you tried to compare the names of double voters and those who cast valid uncounted provisional ballots with those lists? It would be very interesting if the parties agreed with each other and the doubles were skewed one direction or the other.
Posted by: Ron A. on October 21, 2005 05:08 PM