Armen Yousoufian is perhaps best known as the man who's been suing Ron Sims for the last nine years over violations of the Public Disclosure Act, winning the largest award for public records violations in state history. Yousoufian is also known for his unsuccessful attempt to recall County Councilman Dow Constantine.
But as Armen Yousoufian learned only recently he was also twice disenfranchised by King County Elections in 2005. Read this cautionary tale with concern. If Deanron succeeds with his ill-considered project to force all of us to vote by mail, we can expect many more of our ballots to get tossed in the trash can just as Yousoufian's ballots were --
Yousoufian tells me he has been voting in King County since 1972 and has been voting absentee for more than a decade. Nevertheless, his absentee ballot in the September 2005 primary was rejected for signature mismatch. His signature had changed in the 33 years since he first registered, that happens to a lot of us. It's one of the reasons why signature verification is too unreliable to be used as a security measure in counting votes. The Elections office sent Yousoufian a letter informing him about the mismatch, but he wasn't able to respond before the election was certified. So he endeavored to update his signature for the November election.
He went to his polling place and submitted a registration form with his updated signature along with his absentee ballot. He attached a note to ensure that his instructions were followed. The ballot and registration form and the note were reviewed by the canvassing board on November 22nd. I happened to be there and have a photograph and an audio clip [The discussion and action on Yousoufian's ballot goes until 1:55, then resumes at 6:54]. Canvassing board member Dow Constatine appropriately recused himself from voting on the ballot. The canvassing board voted 2-0 to accept the ballot and staff were instructed to count the ballot. But staff failed to follow canvassing board instructions and rejected the ballot. Oh, well.
Yousoufian learned only recently that his November ballot hadn't counted and he complained to Deanron. Their correspondence with more details is here. Deanron's latest response here. Deanron has apologized for his department's failure to count Yousoufian's most recent ballot and has pledged to take steps to improve procedures. It's impossible to expect perfection. People are bound to make mistakes. But the reality is that mail voting is so much more complex and prone to errors than poll voting is. These sorts of mistakes are inevitable. If we want election to mean more than the cheesy and vacuous public relations exercises that they're turning into, and if we want close elections to be resolved correctly, it's critical that we reverse course on mail voting. Otherwise, what's the point of holding an election if we can't have confidence that it gives the correct the result?
Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at March 23, 2006 12:30 PM | Email ThisUpdate: Dean Logan just emailed me this morning to say I will be credited for voting in November, 2005 after all. It was a very decent, well-written, sincere sounding email for which I give him credit.
Posted by: Armen Yousoufian on March 23, 2006 12:57 PMSo the county can count votes from double voters, felon, fatal pends. They can find votes over and over again with no explanation, and the only voter who's vote is thrown out, even after the workers were told to count it, is the gentleman who's been a thorn in the side of deanron?
Even though DC recused himself, don't think for a second that the vote counters don't know the history there. Syncophants and butt-kissers must have understood there was an unspoken quid pro quo.
Move along, nothing to see here. Move along...
There I was invited to join them in vilifying certain "religious right" leaders (who, as a matter of fact, are not very RIGHT at all) because they, allegedly "...fought to erode one of the most central tenets of our Constitution: the separation between church and state."
Where, Stefan, can I find this "separation of church and state" in the Constitution?
And how did these evil miscreants seek to erode it?
People who can't make it to the polls on Election Day should be allowed to vote early at the Records and Elections office, with completed ballots placed in a ballot box with twenty-four hour guard. For the infirm, a flying squad of an election worker, two party observers, and a sheriff's deputy could visit them in the weeks prior to the election and allow them to vote from their sickbeds, with completed ballots taken back to that guarded ballot box.
Every other person should go to a polling place, present himself before a duly sworn official and prove his identity, and mark his ballot in private.
Posted by: Legast on March 23, 2006 03:59 PMThis is how they work...with childish pranks...just because you tried to make them accountable for their illegal activities!
Obviously, the election department is where they feel comfortable with these pranks - as we've seen many pulled from there...This is a form of retaliation from the Dems in power and it's against the law...and they don't care.....(that's how it becomes an "in your face" action)
Remember Martin Ringhofers deceased parents? - (remaining in the voter database after he spent years trying to get them off.?) Dean Logan and Ron Sims don't like Martin Ringhofer. He questioned the 2004 election results..and many other of their activities...So Dean and Ron thought it would be great fun to continue sending Martin voter registration cards in the names of his deceased parents....(even after Martin's story about the error ran in the Seattle PI.!) Ron Sims knew he was harassing Mr. Ringhofer - in the most disgusting way..but he wanted to!
Dean and Ron also thought it would be hysterical to retain the names of double voters in the database - AFTER - the database was supposed to be "purged" of duplicate voters....(That was an "in your face" to Stefan and all of us at SP.)
Whenever one of us confronts Ron Sims and Dean Logan with questions or facts about their activities, they don't just ignore us..they taunt us! They flaunt the very problems we point out!
This is what they do...and it will be what eventually get's them busted...
Posted by: Deborah on March 23, 2006 05:01 PMClark County hates King County, Sims and Logan. When I think of them I only think "corruption at its finest."
Posted by: Camas Mom on March 23, 2006 08:41 PMWell, considering that Gregoire, Sims and Logan brought the "All mail voting" official up from Oregon last year to sell their plans to convert the state to it..should have been a red flag to everyone!
Posted by: Deborah on March 23, 2006 08:55 PMfor example, my husband is a pilot and his flying schedule changes every month. he's voted absentee for years for this reason. he does not and cannot know from year to year if he'll be in town on all the election days, so therefore his only hope at voting consistently is to do so by absentee ballot.
Posted by: rae on March 24, 2006 07:34 AM