A Pierce County resident named Katrina Lewis reports what she and her husband found when they went to their local polling place yesterday to vote on the school levy measure:
We arrived at Graham Elementary at 6:45p.m. to cast our votes on the Property Tax/Levy Issues. We first noted that immediately outside the school, a barbecue grill was set up and being attended by a couple of individuals wearing green and white "Vote Yes for Bethel Schools" T-Shirts. Inside the school, there were people gathered in the gymnasium, but more importantly people were standing in the foyer area, and in the hall immediately outside the door for the library, where voting takes place, sporting "Vote Yes for Bethel Schools" T-Shirts. First, we had to walk through the crowd to get to the library, but even in the school, the Pro-Levy promoters were within 5-10 feet of the Library door.This sounds like some clear violations of the statute on "Acts prohibited in vicinity of polling place". But everybody knows that school levies are "for the children", so I wouldn't expect any of the adults who broke the law to be held accountable. Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at February 08, 2006 12:47 PM | Email ThisWe were under the impression that polling places were to be kept free of campaigning and it seemed deliberate and obvious that whatever gathering they decided to have, had the explicit purpose of promoting voter turnout for PRO-LEVY supporters and to promote their particular position. We found it offensive that our tax-payer supported school was allowed to be used to promote the levy during the one evening when a neutral time of voting should have been allowed to take place.
Of course, those who observed this should take action other than reporting it here. They should file a formal complaint.
Posted by: Janet S on February 8, 2006 01:10 PM"(5) Any violation of this section is a gross misdemeanor, punishable to the same extent as a gross misdemeanor that is punishable under RCW 9A.20.021, and the person convicted may be ordered to pay the costs of prosecution."
Seems to me a citizen's arrest might have been in order....
Posted by: Jeremy on February 8, 2006 01:19 PMI still vote NO.
Besides the incredible disingenuousness of trotting us all through the school, it's clear they put grabbing that vote money ahead of the safety of the students with hundreds of strangers traipsing through. It infuriates me.
Posted by: Cheryl on February 8, 2006 01:23 PMAs for the rest of the people who passed levies all over the region, you are clearly uneducated. Results show that our students are not doing very well when compared to the rest of the US, or International students, yet time and time again, everyone from legislators, to voters, to teacher unions just throw more money at the problem.
What it shows is that most people really don't care at all about children despite the rhetoric.
Most of those who ignore this problem are only making sure that their kids won't be able to compete in the future against the kids from other countries who immigrate to the US to feed the ever growing US economy. And they also won't be able to compete against the kids who are private schooled.
Oh well, at least my kids will be getting served dinner and having their cars washed by your kids.
Posted by: Jeff B. on February 8, 2006 03:04 PMAnd before you take up the battle cry of how underpaid the teachers are, file a FOIA requesting a list of all teacher salaries in the Seattle school district. And let's not forget the "who cares" attitude towards parents who try to work with this miserable system.
Back to the issue of illegal campaigning, the state doesn't enforce the law that teachers can't strike, so there is no way anything is going to be done about this. One way to fix the strike problem is to dock the teachers one week's pay for each day of a strike. It sure worked in New York.
Posted by: Burdabee on February 8, 2006 04:14 PMMaybe they vote no because they like their votes to count more. After all if you vote no you win with only 41% of the vote.
Posted by: John on February 8, 2006 04:33 PMMr Sharkansky you should take the advice you give to Mr Ramsey and stick to writing about elections "a topic on which" you "actually tend to make sense". In education subjects you seem less than educated and more on the snide side. Including your sarcastic response in the last paragraph of the article.
How bout offering up a few solutions if that is not too taxing for you. Local taxes are the worst way to pay for state mandated education programs. Lets get the legislature to cut the programs or God forbid fund absolutely everything they pass concerning education. Sarcasm and failing local levies do not move us forward in solving way the state manages education.
Posted by: Charlie on February 8, 2006 05:53 PMThe results of the levy elections across the state might be some good reading fodder for Ron Sims and his pro all-mail voting machine. In our county where we now have all-mail voting, schools that year after year have their levies succeed are now failing by the slimist of margins.
We figured all-mail balloting would reduce the percentage of yes votes in a school levy by 2-5% and I think it is showing now.
So for those of you who don't support your public school for whatever reason you have, all you really need to do is support all-mail balloting and you might not have to pay those property taxes anymore.
Posted by: Doug on February 8, 2006 11:47 PMDo not stop him he is on a roll...
a) We truly need to move elections (as in polling booths and ballot pick-ups) away from the educational industrial complex. Churches and city halls do just fine.
b) Vote-by-mail worked better in rural Skagit County than in King County, I take it.
c) As to election law violations: do not call 911 - send an e-mail to the county prosecutor, your state legislators + the nearest Republican state legislator, and Attorney General Rob McKenna about it. Try to take digital pictures and/or video if you can - that always helps bust educrats like an AGM-65 Maverick from an AV-8B...
On that note, and please pardon the divergence, Marsha Richards is getting married (HERE, last page of PDF) and I want to send my sincerest congratulations on. She's a world-class educrat-buster and I thank God she's on our side and loves Liberty just as much as us.
We can only hope Mr. Marsha Richards lets our Mrs. Marsha Richards stay in the fight - she's the equivalent of an Amphibious Ready Group (ARG) full of Marines ready, aye, ready to storm the beaches for Lady Liberty!!!!!!!!!!! 3 Cheers for the Marsha: HOO-RAH!!!!!! HOO-RAH!!!!!! HOO-RAH!!!!!!
And remember I-884 - she won that good fight!!
Posted by: A Watchdog on February 9, 2006 08:29 AMYeah, and what happens when the disruptive kids make the good kids learning worse?
Posted by: A Watchdog on February 14, 2006 01:09 PM