As sure as the sun rises and sets, Deanron continues to hold the voter database transaction log hostage. By unlawfully withholding these public records for yet another weekend, Deanron has put the county's taxpayers at risk to pay out yet another $200 in fines. As I've mentioned, I will use whatever award I receive from this lawsuit for future projects to hold government accountable. So I guess this is an example of how Deanron really does "create wealth more efficiently".
Also on the subject of the truth being held hostage -- today's Seattle Times has a terrific set of articles about the fact that the King County Superior Court routinely seals trial records without a legitimate reason for doing so --
The Times is about to start filing motions to unseal improperly sealed records on hundreds of cases, which it believes:
will lead to important stories throughout the year involving schools, hospitals, government agencies, medical malpractice and other areas of legitimate public interest.This is exactly the sort of investigations I like to see newspapers conducting. See the main article here and Mike Fancher's column about the project, here.
While this group at the Times is holding the King County judiciary accountable to disclose its workings to the citizens, some of our other local journalists could step up to the plate and join me in holding the King County Executive accountable to obey the law and disclose all of the requested elections records.
But until the newspapers join this effort, it's up to us ordinary citizens to take Deanron to court. Thanks to all the wonderful folks who have contributed to the Sound Politics Clean Elections Legal Fund. Donations of any amount are welcome and will help clean up King County. Please do what you can to help.
Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at March 05, 2006 10:56 AM | Email ThisThat the Times story focused on KING COUNTY judges - was interesting! But then again...why not? King County, as a whole, over the past decade, has become an entity above the law and away from the will of the public...under Ron Sims leadership...
Corruption rolls downhill....
The only thing that would lose my interest in the Times story is if they only focus on so-called "conservative" judges doing these deeds....and try to depict corrupt liberal judges as innocent...
I noticed the article tried to paint Judge Dean Lum (*See election history below) in a favorable light...Stating that he unsealed one case without requiring the Times to file an order...Judge Lum is the guy who allowed the Democrat party in King County to take bogus Provisional ballots door to door for fake signatures...during the bogus 2004 election....He's a gem...NOT!
(*Nov. 12, 2004
King County Elections responds to Superior Court decision
King County Superior Court Judge Dean Lum today instructed King County Elections to provide the political parties with information about voters who cast a provisional ballot at the polls and whose signature is in question. King County will comply and have lists available for requesting parties by 5 p.m.)
Then there's the bloated town boss in city hall who appears to be eating one too many free meals from special interests - heck there’s not enough space to list his transgressions. The same pudgy guy who saw fit the public needs a Toonerville Trolley from Lake Union to nowhere at the demand of a guy who likens the trolley to a kid’s train set.
And lest we forget the guy who sees himself as king who wants to take over the penthouse in the new county building. The same guy who played footsy with the coffee vendor in coming up with a scheme for the wannabe king to have uncontrolled spending of public money. Geesh a scheme like that is like hiring Michael Jackson as a baby sitter.
Actually the Times summed things up well in one brief paragraph: "And the courts have sealed one case after another at the request of the rich and influential, including leaders
in real estate, advertising, banking, medicine, software development, the Internet, general business and sports."
Funny how a city and county that prides itself in socialist values - demanding citizen committees to decide when it's time to change toilet paper - loves to assume the position and be on the receiving end when the nabobs and crème de la crème join forces to do what they want, when they want, how they want, to whom they want.
So we can add the judicial branch to the company town concept known as Seattle and King County.
The Seattle Times is off on some other goose chases because they would rather try & take 100% credit for uncovering something.....even if it isn't as important as fair elections and accountability. Good luck to them though. In one day, David Postman and Keith Ervins could understand the importance of these transaction logs....one day...or less.
See no evil is comfortable I guess.
Posted by: Mr. Cynical on March 5, 2006 12:12 PMDear Seattle Times; unseal this!
Until Logan releases every document requested, it's just more of King County being selective about the truth.
Posted by: Jeff B. on March 5, 2006 12:17 PMFrom the Society of Professional Journalists Code of Ethics:
Seek Truth and Report It
Journalists should be honest, fair and courageous in gathering, reporting and interpreting information.
Journalists should:
Test the accuracy of information from all sources and exercise care to avoid inadvertent error. Deliberate distortion is never permissible.
Diligently seek out subjects of news stories to give them the opportunity to respond to allegations of wrongdoing.
Identify sources whenever feasible. The public is entitled to as much information as possible on sources' reliability.
Always question sources’ motives before promising anonymity. Clarify conditions attached to any promise made in exchange for information. Keep promises.
Make certain that headlines, news teases and promotional material, photos, video, audio, graphics, sound bites and quotations do not misrepresent. They should not oversimplify or highlight incidents out of context.
Never distort the content of news photos or video. Image enhancement for technical clarity is always permissible. Label montages and photo illustrations.
Avoid misleading re-enactments or staged news events. If re-enactment is necessary to tell a story, label it.
Avoid undercover or other surreptitious methods of gathering information except when traditional open methods will not yield information vital to the public. Use of such methods should be explained as part of the story
Never plagiarize.
Tell the story of the diversity and magnitude of the human experience boldly, even when it is unpopular to do so.
Examine their own cultural values and avoid imposing those values on others.
Avoid stereotyping by race, gender, age, religion, ethnicity, geography, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance or social status.
Support the open exchange of views, even views they find repugnant.
Give voice to the voiceless; official and unofficial sources of information can be equally valid.
Distinguish between advocacy and news reporting. Analysis and commentary should be labeled and not misrepresent fact or context.
Distinguish news from advertising and shun hybrids that blur the lines between the two.
Recognize a special obligation to ensure that the public's business is conducted in the open and that government records are open to inspection.
The last one is the most important. Our newspapers have been miserable failures and should much of the blame for things getting this corrupt. It's time for someone to act like a Professional Journalist and demand these transaction logs TODAY!
Posted by: Mr. Cynical on March 5, 2006 12:19 PMHow come so often, they only pursue "the story" when it makes their cause look good?
Posted by: Jeff B. on March 5, 2006 12:25 PMTo our LEFTIST PINHEADED attorney TROLLS......
Mainstream to you KLOWNS means head in the sand and politely bowing and humbley saying "Yessuh Massa"!! Eat Sh*t and Die A$$hole! They are called PUBLIC RECORDS for a pretty obvious reason. The days of "Richard Daily" power mob tactics in KingCo are coming to a close.
May you live in interesting times
Posted by: Eric Broman on March 5, 2006 07:47 PMDon't you have anything else to complain about?
Rossi "lost", Gregoire "won". Try to get over it and move on.
(and conservatives told liberals the same thing in 2000...)
Posted by: David A on March 6, 2006 08:36 AMRe: Mr Cynical's question above: "I wonder if EACH transaction log entry might be considered a seperate (sic) Public Record? I suppose it depends upon how you worded your request. 300,000 or so Public Records is a whole lot more than a couple hundred bucks!"
I don't know that how the request is "worded" makes a difference, given the discretion given to trial judges who decide these cases. In my PDA lawsuit against Ron Sims and King County over sports stadium documents I requested in May, 1997, there were over 200 separate records ultimately produced (most weren't produced until 4 years after my requests, and a year after I'd filed a lawsuit, and then only after I was moving to take depositions in early 2001). But the trial judge said that treating the 200 plus records as separate records for purposes of fines would result in too high an award against King County (this was commented on by one of the Supreme Court Justices years later, in February, 2004, at the oral argument before that court, and is still available to be heard at tvw.org). (See 31 page trial court opinion at my website: www.ArmenYousoufian.com for what the trial judge ruled). So, the trial judge grouped the 200 plus documents into 19 groups, then further "grouped the groups" into only 10 groups and based the fines on that lower number, not the 200 plus records actually produced. All that reduced the original fine, assessed at the minimum $5 per day, by a factor of over 20 times.
The trial judge's decision to "group" documents to artificially reduce fines was one of six issues I appealed to the Court of Appeals and later the state Supreme Court. Though I won on other appeal issues, the trial court's discretion to "group" was upheld by both of the upper courts (except by one state Supreme Court justice, who wrote a dissenting opinion saying he would have reversed the "grouping" and was in favor of levying fines on all the separate documents).
If you want to read all the details on the issue of separate records versus grouping of records and what happened at the trial court on just this one issue, check out my (titled "Plaintiff's" or "Yousoufian") "Opening Brief" in the Court of Appeals. That brief and all the other most important court briefs (including King County's response briefs) are at www.ArmenYousoufian.com .
The bad news is that there seems to continue to be a wide range of outcomes in these PDA cases, with wide discretion given to the trial judge. This is all part of why I have re-appealed the verdict on remand in my case back to the Court of Appeals - to try to at least get some standards set on the level of penalties per day and how trial judges are to come up with them.
Armen Yousoufian
Posted by: Armen Yousoufian on March 6, 2006 08:37 AMThey certainly don't care now, because 'Rats are the ones getting "elected". They will start to care if by some miracle 'Rats start losing elections and the Slimes and Unintelligencer get a hair up their collective butts about "fraud" costing the 'Rats an election. Until then, for these scumwads, it's "everything's fine, move on, nothing to see here, get over it, blah blah blah."
Posted by: Interested Observer on March 6, 2006 09:36 AMI'll bet no one was fired for this Armen. Hell, Sims was overwhelmingly re-elected!!
Armen, is there any potential you can see for Personal Liability??
It just shows how our laws, at all levels, are like swiss-cheese for the underhanded. Perhaps the next Judge will look at Election Records withheld a bit differently. When Stefan sues, it will not be in King County.....(or hopefully not in Chelan County either!).
Posted by: Mr. Cynical on March 6, 2006 12:57 PMTo answer your question, unfortunately, I see very little "potential ... for Personal Liability". In Texas, under their state open records laws, there is, and I am told (by people who should know) that individuals have gone to jail there for pda type violations. Under a proposed bill introduced this session by state Representative Toby Nixon, there could have been personal consequences in Washington as well, under certain circumstances. I think that bill is now dead.
Posted by: Armen Yousoufian on March 7, 2006 10:05 AM