I attended Ron Sims' press conference this morning on his mail-only voting proposal. His people handed out Dean Logan's report "Moving to Vote By Mail". The report claims that one of the county's goals with mail-only voting is to "Be a model jurisdiction for accountability, accuracy and transparency". The report uses the word "accountability" 18 times and the word "transparency" 6 times. The lady protests too much, methinks.
If Ron Sims and Dean Logan really want to be accountable and transparent, they don't have to close the polling places first. All they have to do is, well start being accountable and transparent, which are the last adjectives any sane person would use to describe either one of them --
At this moment I'm preparing to resume my lawsuit against Ron Sims for violating the Public Disclosure Act. (I'll have more to say later, but back on September 30 I requested the audit trail of all transactions on the King County voter database. What Dean Logan gave me is provably missing hundreds of thousands of records. He refuses to release the rest. Among other things, the partial transaction log I received indicates that the number of improperly counted provisional ballots from ineligible "fatal pend" voters is more than I realized earlier, upwards of 200. The unreleased records would contain, among other things, more specific details on the fatal pends, so I can understand why Logan would be motivated to break the law and conceal that from the public).
I also discovered last night with the help of the new statewide database several dozen more cases of people who voted twice in Nov. 2004. King County officials certainly knew about much of this even before the Wenatchee trial, yet they concealed what they knew from the public and the litigants (more on this later).
Ron Sims personal commitment to "transparency" was on display at his press conference when he cut me off and refused to hear my question, let alone answer it.
The sad reality is that the main consequence of mail-only voting, by minimizing public participation and oversight of elections and confining it to potentially biased and secrecy-loving bureaucrats, is to dramatically reduce accountability and transparency. The fact that they keep throwing out these words in lieu of demonstrating them with their behavior should be a warning to all of us how much more damage to election integrity they will wreak with mail-only voting.
Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at February 08, 2006 06:23 PM | Email ThisSims can bloviate all he wants about accountability and transparency - which he shows his hypocrisy big time - he may be about as accountable as the refs in the Super Bowl game last Sünday - what a joke !!
Ron Sims' move to all-mail balloting is just the next step in the master plan to further reduce the ability of the "people" to impact the county redistribution machine and take control away from the pimps who force us to choose between the "working men and women" who so willingly do their bidding.
Posted by: MJC on February 8, 2006 08:00 PMIs anyone from the state Republican party or the EFF working with you on these discoveries?
These are huge descrepancies from King County elections and they need to be pursued on a huge scale. The implications of fraud and purposeful concealment are evident from Sims and Logan's witholding of specific documents.. This is criminal behavior on their part. I trust what you've uncovered. You know what you're doing and what to look for.
Do you have any interested financial, political and/or legal "muscle" to back you in this pursuit?
I just can't stand anymore dead-end discoveries of fraud that seem to be ignored by those who should be the most interested!
In other words....I will quit the Republican party and become an "Independant" if our state GOP ignores anymore of this nonsense! So - are they with you on this? Or are they going to continue to be silent?
Posted by: Deborah on February 8, 2006 08:16 PMRead this and contact your so called representatives who went way out of their way to make sure you did not get a chance to vote on this!
OLYMPIA - The House Transportation Committee has approved a regional transportation overhaul for central Puget Sound, and the region has agreed not to seek a public vote on a $7.2 billion plan this fall.
Rep. Ed Murray, D-Seattle, the committee chairman, announced the deal Tuesday, although full House and Senate approval still is required.
The legislation includes a ban on placing the big package of proposed regional tax increases on the ballot in King, Pierce and Snohomish counties this year.
The tentative regional add-on package would include a local sales tax increase of one-tenth of a cent on the dollar, and a car-tab tax increase of up to $8 for every $1,000 of the vehicle's value.
http://www.komotv.com/stories/41744.htm
10k car, you will pay $80 more on your tabs...Do the math on your 30k new car purchase...$240 additional!
Hang on to your wallets, they are back in session s...wing us!
Their $30 dollar tab promise is badly broken.
Place hands on ears, stand with face to wall.
Shout loudly and continuously.
Accountability, Accuracy and Transparency
Accountability, Accuracy and Transparency
Accountability, Accuracy and Transparency
Accountability, Accuracy and Transparency
And it will become fact.
We are now returning you to reality.
Posted by: JCM on February 8, 2006 08:25 PMAccountable: Like when Logan blamed Nicole Way and Bill Huennekens for the failures of the 2004 election, and Ron Sims asked for a new multimillion dollar facility to solve all of the problems.
Keep moving your lips Ron and Dean, that's how we know you are lying.
Enough of this garbage! We are tired of it! We demand ethical elections officials!!!!!!
Posted by: Misty on February 8, 2006 08:47 PMFace it, this garbage won't change in the foreseeable future - so it's time stop being mad and get even and by our actions tell them to take a long walk off of a short pier and stick it where the sun don't shine.
Posted by: KS on February 8, 2006 09:31 PMAs someone active in the Republican Party I have the same concerns...everyone talks about it but when push comes to shove...nothing is done!!!
Posted by: tacoma phlash on February 8, 2006 11:28 PMThe forces are barely discernible as people acclimate. Although the forces are universal, the power is not distributed equally. In some areas the force may be greater than in other areas. Usually the larger the body the greater the force. Gravity is silent. Corruption is silent. Gravity keeps things down as does corruption. The forces may be lethal. Both forces require a great deal of resources to overcome or counter. If one jumped off a ten story building they will most probably die. People have also been known to experience stress and death from corruption.
A demonstration of both forces may be setup by shooting an arrow though an apple placed on the head of the Kqueen or the Kzar of Washington. Please be careful in your aim for if you missed corruption may be reduced significantly. This may prove to be dangerous as the people of Washington are not prepared to live in corrupt free state, resulting in damaged lives as decompression occurs.
Posted by: Snuffy on February 9, 2006 07:47 AMAdditionally, what did happen to the rest of the address challenged registrations? I know they had specifically worked on challenges where a ballot had come in, but I hadn't heard about the rest.
"If a challenged voter did not cast a ballot in the Nov.8 General Election, the challenge will be processed in the same manner as challenges made more than 30 days prior to the election where the Director of Elections holds a hearing and makes a decision based on an evaluation of the evidence. Those voters will be notified after the Nov. 29, 2005 certification of the election."
I noticed that there were three races in November that went to automatic recount. In these three races, the combined number of votes between winners and losers was 108 votes. The differences were .4%, .38% and .12% of the total votes for those races.
While every election isn't a tight one for Governor, they are all important and clean, LEGAL, registrations and accurate, NON SUBJECTIVE, ballot counting are crucial ALL of the time, not just every four years.
Posted by: SouthernRoots on February 9, 2006 08:34 AMThey're trying to not inflame the rabble who may riot and burn down the new KC bldg if the story of the corruption ever gets out.
Wow, Mr Ramsey and the Times are a lot smarter than I ever gave them credit for, they really do know what's best for the little people.
Posted by: dan on February 9, 2006 09:24 AMIt is also difficult to challenge the belief of many people that nothing can be done even if there is a problem. Good luck changing government when the corrupt jackals are in power. Just ignore the corruption and live your own life.
We, however do not buy into such a belief system. As conservatives, we believe in absolute truth, justice and the value of fighting and defeating corruption. It is not an easy fight, but it must be fought.
Posted by: Gary on February 9, 2006 10:22 AM