April 19, 2006
Externalities of mail-only voting
Today's South Whidbey Record reports: "County investigates possible voter fraud"
Island County Auditor Suzanne Sinclair recently turned over 400 ballots from last year’s general election and February’s special elections to law enforcement officials for investigation.
hat tip: reader L.H.
Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at April 19, 2006
10:03 AM | Email This
1. From the article:
"Voter fraud is a class C felony, and can carry a sentence of up to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine, Banks said."
Only if you can find someone with the courage to prosecute.....
2. Well, well, well!!! Mr. Connelly may have done everyone a favor by having all those people vote from his shanty on Whidbey.
Does anyone really believe he didn't control the votes for all four voters from that address?
Mr. Sharkansky's expose shows that at least one county is on the ball.
3. Prosecute! Put photos of them behind bars in all the voter pamphlets!
Voter fraud will take a sudden turn to zero.
Ahh... let it be so.
4. After reading the whole article, I am struck by a few points made:
1) Even though this won't change any results, somebody still feels it should be done, because that is the law.
2) Bouthillier feels that his vote was taken away, and I think he's right in this case.
3) As Hawley is reported to have said, "it may be a hassle at the time, but taking care of the issue helps in the future."
It's interesting how quickly the article is to assuage people's fear of criminal prosecution:
Criminal intent is not common in these kind of cases. But the law requires that law enforcement investigate and assess the cases for possible criminal charges.
Banks said it’s important to emphasize that the registered voters contacted by authorities are not suspected of voter fraud.
Right--innocent until proven guilty. The problem becomes this--what is the criteria for proven voter fraud? Is it merely reported intent, in which case my word that I didn't mean to do it is good enough? Or is it something else?
5. I wonder if the 400 or so ballots turned over to law enforcement officials include Connelly's "until proven guilty" buddies. Hmmmm?
6. 1 Rob McKenna, Norm Maleng, and Greg Banks need to get together and decide where Joe Connelly and his friends the Lawsky's and others actually live per Washington Civil and Criminal Code
2 My gut feel is it is the same place you file your State and Federal income tax
3 Driver's license, vehicle registration, and insured real and personal property are other indications
4 Since many "snowbirds" have residences in both Washington and the sun belt, just because someone has a vehicle registered in both Washinton and Florida/Arizona, it does not mean they are automatically Arizona residents
5 If Sam Reed is really serious about cleaning up the voters rolls, he needs to match the State Voterdatabase to
a DMV drivers' licenses and id cards
b USPS listing of valid address
(1) identify Post Office boxes
(2) identify
(a) residential
(b) commercial
c IRS addresses
(1) Because tax payer data is private, the IRS is NOT allowed to share it with other government agencies
(2) I do not know if this applies to mailing addresses, because the various State, Federal, and Local taxing agencies do share data on tax audit results
d Credit reporting agencies
e Other direct mail databases
6 There will be differences that need to be researched and resolved
7 There will be duplicate registrations and voting, because people will assume that the various County Auditors catch this stuff
8 Do the research and let "the chips fall"
9 Some individuals will have knowlingly committed fraud
10 Some County Auditors and staff will be posting their resumes on Monster and Puget Sound Help Wanted
11 Since Darcy Burner is a Microsoft alum, she can probably slam the databases together and have a report in 3 to 7 days, so we can have a clean Washington State Voter Database by May 1st which is Labor Day in Deustchland aka Germany
7. As a politician and law enforcer you are always looking for the big bang. What better way to enforce election laws than by going after Connelly. Maybe you don't throw him in prison but you scare the bejibbers out of other illegal voters.
8. I wonder if the signatures on the other voters absentee envelopes match Joel C.'s handwriting...
9. stop the freakin exuses; mad cow incident breaks out & we find the farmer's exact cow within days; food tampered? we know down to the production lot, can and time produced & at what plant within a day or so; true--food safety is not equivalent in impact to voting, but---technology is technology--why drive a horse buggy in one industry and a jet in another?