Yesterday I finally received a portion of King County's voter database transaction log. It was weeks late, incomplete and issued only after I sued the county. These records confirm more elements of my recent article in The Stranger -- that elections officials knowingly and unlawfully counted ballots from ineligible voters last November and then modified computer records to cover it up.
Here is just one example of a voter's provisional ballot envelope that was unlawfully counted and her registration records [large PDF] which show signs of record tampering --
This voter did not sign her registration form. That was noted when her registration was processed on Oct. 9. (p. 5 of registration records). Her provisional ballot envelope was appropriately marked "fatal pend / sig" (meaning ineligible registration, missing signature). Interestingly, somebody else, perhaps a supervisor (initials JM) overrode "fatal pend" notation, by marking the ballot envelope "OK".
Now look at p. 7 of the registration records, which shows the transactions on the provisional ballot record. The employee who processed the ballot on 11/9 correctly changed its status from "A" (active voter) to "F" (fatal pended voter). On 11/16 somebody changed the status back to "A". That is consistent with the story I reported in The Stranger that the ineligible "fatal pend" ballots were set aside until the two days before the 11/17 certification when Bill Huennekens ordered them to be counted. Even more intriguing -- while most transactions are attributed to users whose DIMS user names resemble their real names, the 11/16 transaction, like many others I've seen, was performed by user "tester02".
Now go back to p. 5 of the registration records. Consistent with what I've seen in other records, on January 6th between 3pm - 4pm there was a batch job that updated certain registration records. Among other things, it changed the registration status of fatal pend provisional voters from "F" to "A" [p.5, line 17]. The "reason" code for updating the status was "PROVISIONAL BALLOT". A provisional ballot is not an acceptable method of curing a missing signature. The signature has to be submitted by signing the oath on a voter registration form. There is no evidence that this voter returned a signed registration form. By comparison, a different voter corrected their fatal pend with a registration form and their transaction log has a much different pattern (this page, lines 1-11)
Put the Jan 6th batch job in the context of King County's issuance of an updated voter registration file on January 7. This file supposedly reduced the discrepancy between votes and voters that was discovered in the earlier voter file.
I observed at the time that the new file included several hundred voters who were not included in the earlier file. As it turns out, a large number of these magical mystery voters were ineligible to vote, like the subject of this post. Their provisional ballots were unlawfully counted and their registrations were unlawfully activated in order to help Dean Logan "reduce the discrepancy" between votes and voters and cover up the evidence of illegal vote counting.
Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at October 29, 2005 03:45 PM | Email ThisInstead of Shark, your nickname should be pit bull...Lord knows you won't let go.:) The only reason I can see why the Feds haven't spent a dime looking at this, is because they've written off WA as a salvageable place. It will be left up to the people to overrun the place (and, no, I'm not talking about armed conflict, you leftist morons).
Take a look at the cess pool that was/is Louisiana. It was abandoned and left to its own devices long ago, and look at the utter ineptitude of it it's response to Katrina. I fear that WA would respond in like fashion.
NOT the people of WA, but the leadership of WA. There is more than enough evidence and information to justfiy a Federal investigation. There is, however, no will. Keep on telling the story, Stefan. It will not return to you void.
Posted by: Danny on October 29, 2005 04:39 PMStephan, you go right back and demand a complete log, with evidence you have that it is incomplete. You have them running and hiding, they will screw up bigtime if you keep the screws a turning tight.
With Dean Logan's job depending on Sims being relelected, he now well knows you are always looking over his shoulder with a microscope as our Sherlock Holmes of King County!
Let's see him throw this next election!
Posted by: GS on October 29, 2005 05:26 PMDino Rossi won. This is crazy. How do these people SLEEP at night????????? You can't just fake up a result just because you didn't like how the real one was going!!! Dino was robbed.
What is it liberals like to scream?? oh yah--SHAME! SHAME! SHAME! SHAME!
Posted by: Misty on October 29, 2005 05:55 PMMr. Shark, we need an MSN with your talent and ethics. God Bless your outstanding work.
Our hometown fraud is easier to find, look for the man handing out burbon and country ham outside the polling place.
What happened at the hearing on your FOIA request that was scheduled for last Friday?
Posted by: Matt from Olympia on October 29, 2005 06:26 PMKidding of course, I am not shocked at all. The only thing that would really shock me is if a reporter from the PI and Times would take your research and do some real investigative journalism.
My only guess why they even gave you partial transaction logs is they knew the local media wouldn't pick up on anything you found. There is literally no one holding Sims and Logan accountable for anything at this point.
Hopefully, they feel some heat that someone is watching and that will prevent SOME of the illegal votes allowing for an Irons victory.
When you have an elections director that is hell bent on breaking even the most basic state election laws is it really that far fetched to believe that he will do almost anything to protect his job this time around?
Posted by: Joe on October 29, 2005 06:37 PMIs there another explanation for this data? Of course, the "other side" will now try to move the goalposts, or yell that it doesn't matter, or that Stefan is so partisan that no matter what the transaction record actually read he would skew it his way, or...
Perhaps if they could explain just what the record *really* showed, in a good cogent argument based on those factual bits of information, I (and many other readers here) might be persuaded.
Will "tester02" please come forward? The judge will likely want to ask you some questions...
Methow Ken
Posted by: Methow Ken on October 29, 2005 07:12 PMBut at this point, I'm not sure what you plan on DOING with this data?
I started following this blog from coastal Georgia to concentrate on one state's election troubles - there are too many states with election fraud and too many blogs for me to read, so I decided to stick with one, and you're it. Believe me, I've learned an awful lot about what makes up a good investigation.
But what's the next step for you? You have all this wonderful evidence, but what are you going to DO with it? Or is just the exposure of this data to the blog-reading public enough for a change? And is the size of the blog-reading public enough to actually make a change?
What's the next step?
Posted by: David M. Hartzell on October 29, 2005 07:24 PMIt's there! Plain as day!
They couldn't have been more obvious if they would have typed "Need this vote to win by fraud" in the reason for changing the voters status!
I hope everyone is getting nervous now....Because this is "in your face" fraud and there is NO sign of the Feds...
I like to think that the Feds are just allowing Stefan to build their case for them and do all of the legwork....but there comes a time when it becomes too late for them to act....
In less than 2 weeks, we will have another election.. Very likely this election will also be manipulated. Everything is in place for fraud on an even larger scale than we've witnessed in the past. Ron Sims and Dean Logan did nothing to correct the many loopholes for fraud that exist in King County. They actually increased the ability for fraud over recent years and they have created specific precincts for it! They have manipulated illegal votes in the DIMS system to make them appear legal. They are on the verge of making King County *All Absentee voting* - which will increase fraud by making the Identification laws obsolete and by allowing people to continue to use mail box rentals as their residence address without the worry of verification or validity...
I hope people are nervous and very, very...angry!
Posted by: Deborah on October 29, 2005 07:43 PMWhen are you going to get your lawyer to do something? My wallet is feeling very drained if you know what I mean ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
Timman
WHEN ARE WE GOING TO SEE THIS IN THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA?!!?
It needs to happen before the election!!!!!!
Posted by: Scott in Carnation on October 29, 2005 09:44 PMWhat do you mean? He filed suit last week. He also filed a "Motion to Shorten Time" to expedite the timeframe and get a hearing ASAP.
Posted by: Stefan Sharkansky on October 29, 2005 09:47 PMIt's disgusting. Their blatant immoral disregard for the laws, the will of the citizens and any sense of decency is disgusting. It is of little recompense to be in the majority nationally when we are subverted by gleeful liars, cheats and thieves at home who suffer no consequence except to continue to "win" whether legitimately or not.
Who could have imagined that in a bright, new century, in the age of exploding media, our miserable county, our miserable state would be the living likeness of the Daly/Chicago or Huey Long/Louisiana of the early 1900's?
The push for a new county, Cascade County has been sailing quietly under the radar. Perhaps, after TaxMax Ron Sims is "re-elected" (wink, wink.. read "wins by thuggery") it will be time to be VOCAL about seceding from this corrupt sewer of liberals.
Posted by: Cheryl on October 29, 2005 11:01 PMI _thought_ the registrations were being monkeyed with - you've demonstrated it.
Please tell me you have a copy of what is supposed to be the entire database for 15 days prior to _this_ election, such that we can challenge each and every voter that isn't in it PRIOR to certification this time?
Posted by: Al on October 29, 2005 11:17 PMThe people of King County who don't read SP, need to be made aware of how Sims and company are running the sham of an honest elections department. A few primetime spots on this would be enough to sink Sims once and for all.
Posted by: Jeff B. on October 29, 2005 11:28 PMFox news would be nice too.
Take a look at his site, WATCH HIS VIDEOS and lets start a campaign to get him, or someone just like him, HERE.
Posted by: Cheryl on October 29, 2005 11:50 PMYou asked: "What does VNC mean on page 5?"
"VNC" in the transaction log apparently means "Verification NotiCe" -- the notice that must be sent to a person who has submitted an incomplete voter registration application.
In the Mills case, she didn't sign the registration application, so it was incomplete; thus a verification notice needed to be sent to her to see if she would supply the missing element of her application -- namely a signed oath.
If she didn't complete her registration application, she wasn't eligible to vote in the 2004 general election.
Posted by: Micajah on October 30, 2005 10:40 AMWhat hell degree did Goldstein get? Probably some damn poly sci major who can only spew crap and doesn't know anything about computer science.
Good job Stefan. I knew once you went after the transaction log you could track it down.
If this is an Oracle based system, you should be able to determine the actual terminal from which the commands to falsify the records were entered. Even though the user name was "tester" it traces back to a MAC address and a windows machine name.
If the Democrat bought and paid for propagandist won't give you research any press, then write a book. List out all the evidence. It would be a great way to get the word out about the Seattle version of Tammany Hall.
You could call it "How the Gregoire Stole the Election"
Or "Politics behind the iron curtain of liberal oppression"
Unfortunately with the fluff and puff that Sims gets from media.. I don't think he will. Too many simple minds that can be persuaded by the press...
Posted by: Times Endorsement of Sims on October 30, 2005 11:21 AMThank you for your pit-bull devotion to the truth.
It is clear that the last election was both stolen and much of the problems covered up by a group of boobs. I am reminded of the old saying about lies being so difficult and complex to maintain and more and more lies need to be told and tried to made consistent with the first set of lies.
It is becoming very clear that the federal prosecuting attorney, the Sec of State and the State Attorney General are in full "three monkey" mode (hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil).
I suspect that the only thing that will make them move is "national" public attention.
While it might be a long shot and not worth the email or telephone call, you might want to call "CBS 60-minutes" (how I cringe at even discussing Dan-the-Democrat-for-life-Rather's old show). Tell them that you will provide them with documents, historic facts, etc. that would allow them to do a Pulitzer show on how "Keystone-Cop Corruption" stole the Governor's election in Washington State and how they are still trying to cover it up.
It will take national media attention before any judicial inquiry occurs.
In the absense of an organization like 60-minutes, you might try Mr. John Fund over at the Wall Street Journal. Unfortunately, he doesn't have quite the same level of public following that 60-minutes does.
Sooner or later someone will want to pick this story up and when they do the house of cards will come tumbling down very quickly and lots of folks will likely end up in jail. When that happens, our Secretary of State and Attorney General will look like the fools and RINO's they are.
Posted by: Bob on October 30, 2005 12:13 PMGet the lawyer on Fox.
Posted by: holt on October 30, 2005 12:47 PMEnvy is right. I'm sure banks wish they could get away with this much fraud and manipulation with so little punishment.
Posted by: Andy on October 30, 2005 01:31 PMBefore I moved back to Washington I lived in Oregon where I was deeply involved in both Republican and Initiative politics. The city of Portland more specifically.
What has happened down there is not only have the Democrats taken over but they have become more and more brazen in their "aggressive," use of elections divisions. They have not only become more Democratic but more and more liberal in the Democratic party.
I would not hold your breath about the Feds comint to our aid as Oregon is a lap or two ahead of us in corruption.
Posted by: Coyote on October 30, 2005 04:07 PMACK! 60 Minutes? NEVER!
OH yeah...This is how 60 Minutes would play it:
Washington State has election problems.....or do they? We investigated reports of continued abuse and fraud in King County elections division in the state of Washington. These allegations of fraud and abuse were launched by blogger Stefan Sharkansky of Sound Politics... We spoke with Ron Sims, the Executive for King County, about these charges.. He was sympathetic to the complaints but insists the problems of the elections department are a thing of the past! This was backed up by Dean Logan - current Director of elections for King County... We then spoke with several members of the County Council. Council chair - Larry Phillips, laughed and assured us that this was such a non-issue and Sharkansky was a troublemaker! Julia Patterson and Larry Gossett - also on the County Council, seemed to agree with Phillips! So there we have it! One man believes there is a huge problem with County elections - yet he appears to be alone in that belief....End of story.
They will not feature all of the evidence and proof and history of the fraud....That's not how 60 minutes works (f they want to spin a story..)
Just as they did with their feature on home schooling, Christmas in the public school system, The Boy scouts against Gay leadership, etc....
Anything that begs to champion moral and right issues.... will be spun in favor of the left...every time. Or the issue itself will be neutralized so much it will become a non-issue.
Irons repeatedly attacked Sims for a lack of leadership on issues like Elections, Transportation, CAO/Property Rights etc.
I was very impressed by David Irons…..I didn’t know he had it in him!
It literally took the stuffing out of Sims!
Sims was defensive the whole time…..and incredibly disoriented.
Irons did not sit back when Sims misrepresented him….Irons stood up and corrected Sims lies….citing specific refutation.
Irons looked like a confident, well-prepared Leader.
Sims looked every bit the LOSER!!!!!!!
Way to go Goldy—–you may have undone Sims singlehandedly!
I really didn’t think David Irons had it in him…..and more importantly, neither did Sims!!
Thanks for the reminder! (and the channels)
I can't wait to see it!!
Robert Mak's been running a teaser on this debate all week and I almost missed it!
Posted by: Deborah on October 30, 2005 07:06 PMGo David Irons !
Posted by: KS on October 30, 2005 07:46 PMI'm impressed!
This is what happens when you mess with a man's mother....Ron Sims simply has NO clue...He is so lacking in moral clarity that he honestly felt that David Iron's family problems were fair game in an election....Duh!
Ron Sim's and his slimy tactics may have awakened a sleeping bear...
Go David Irons!
Posted by: Deborah on October 30, 2005 10:05 PMDon't sweat it! I'm sure it was just that *tester02* wasn't working the night your regisration needed...*fixing*...
Posted by: Deborah on October 31, 2005 12:35 AMGreat work. Keep it up.
By the way, where are the trolls?
1) King County decided that voters who had not signed their voter registration forms but did sign their absentee or provisional ballots were allowed to vote, and
2) The signature on the absentee/provisional ballot was considered in place of the signature on the voter registration form.
This doesn't sound like fraud to me. It sounds like a disagreement over what should be considered a legal registration.
Has this policy been changed since the 2004 election? Has anyone challenged it? Has any determination of the legality of it been made?
If not, presumably the same thing occured in hte 2005 primary, and will occur in the 2005 general and future elections.
http://gatewaypundit.blogspot.com/2005/10/ghosts-in-detroit-voting-democrat.html
Posted by: Shannon K on October 31, 2005 01:16 PMGet a list of all the people who had access to the program to make the needed changes. Not just those with permission, but anyone with access.
Go through and figure out when tester was on. Those records may have some sort of timestamp on them.
Also go through the legit records with legit users. Where the legit users overlap with tester, that user can be eliminated as the "tester".
Once you get a few people's names, then start looking into those specific persons activities a lot deeper.
And keep in mind, you start getting this close into nailing the correct person pulling the strings, your life quite likely may be in danger. Take proper precautions.
I know the above steps will help and if very fortunate and done really well (be sure to document everything well), you might be able to find the person(s) who is/are guilty and with your documented data, help with a prosecution.
I wish you luck.
Posted by: Shannon on October 31, 2005 01:56 PMIf "they" can't provide a complete report and or accountability for the voting resuts, then at least minimumize future failures and put someone in there that can do the job. They get incomplete for their grade and are failed even in the colleges from whence they hail, do they not. Pull them out!
Posted by: forest hunter on October 31, 2005 03:00 PMI am also worried that they will "count every vote" to defeat 912 and pass the monorail....
Posted by: sgmmac on October 31, 2005 03:45 PMThe Sec. of State's office is worse than worthless. They think their job is to make the county auditors look good by covering up their crimes and mistakes.
I would just prefer it if he would do his job. I was looking for the Attorney General's email address and couldn't find it.
Sam Reed is: sreed@secstate.wa.gov
Nick Handy (our state elections director) used to work at the Port of Olympia and they had to buy him out to get rid of him and then his buddy Sam gave him a job...........
Posted by: sgmmac on October 31, 2005 05:57 PMDon't be so sure that tester02 cannot be tracked down. Most enterprise wide databases record everything about every terminal that connects to them. I know for a fact, in Oracle at least, you can get the mac address and the OS machine name. That will tell you which physical device was used. Then a forensic examination of the computer used should reveal enough evidence to locate the perpetrator.
Posted by: pbj on October 31, 2005 11:05 PMDo you know the database system used? Is it Oracle, SQL Server , IMS?
Posted by: pbj on October 31, 2005 11:07 PMI can certainly imagine that a serious investigator could discover the identity of tester02, or at least narrow the list of possibilities down to a small number of suspects. But that assumes someone was doing a serious investigation. You know, someone like the FBI, or State Attorney General, or (cough) perhaps even the King County prosecutor.
But seriously, it has been 11 months since the likely crime, and from what I can see, no one but SS has done any serious investigation.
Nope, I can't see the identity of tester02 being discovered anytime soon. Too bad. There's nothing to see here. Move along.
Posted by: huckleberry on November 1, 2005 07:28 AM