I had a great opportunity earlier today to be part of a panel discussion on public disclosure, along with Attorney General Rob McKenna, House Majority Leader Lynn Kessler and others. It will be broadcat on TVW in the coming days.
Postman is celebrating Sunshine Week on his blog with a great photo of a redacted document.
Here's a fascinating redacted document I received from King County Elections last week in response to my request for information on the 170 ineligible provisional ballots from unregistered "fatal pend" voters that were unlawfully counted in November 2004
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I watch quite a bit of this.
I thought you shared thoughtful, measured information & responses.
I enjoyed the Newspaper Association fella's coment about all these 300+ exemptions and how hard it is to find them & pull them out of the "BOWELS OF VARIOUS BILLS".
I also enjoyed the guy who was screaming & ranting at McKenna. I thought he challenged him well.
I know you will continue to hold State & Local Government accountable. There are others who have the courage & commitment to do so too. I'm sure you feel lonesome at times Stefan....but your tenacity & successes are rubbing off.
C'mon my fellow SP'ers....there must be some records you are curious about. It ain't that difficult. It however does mean actually doing something...which is probably too much to ask some of you.
Posted by: Mr. Cynical on March 12, 2007 06:15 PMThat's understandable. KLOWNstein prefers operating in the darkness with the other COCKROACHES & RATS!!
If you shine a light on KLOWNstein and his RAT/COCKROACH COLONY they tend to scurry around looking for rocks or a turd to hide under. Posted by: Mr. Cynical on March 12, 2007 06:27 PM
I wonder: Did Logan "et al" know as of Dec. 29, 2004, that they needed to stonewall about some election irregularities once that "PDR" was being processed? I also wonder whose "PDR" it was, and what it requested.
Posted by: Micajah on March 12, 2007 07:22 PMDo you think McKenna is going to willingly comply with my public records request delivered to his office today. the reality is he is complicit in covering up racketeering in the Washington courts. His response to my questions were intentionally deceptive and dishonest. At least four other people in the audience agreed with this assessment.
Posted by: Don on March 12, 2007 10:56 PM"After talking to McCabe, McKay said, he called Mark Ferbrache, supervisory special agent at the FBI, and asked him to assign Special Agent Joe Quinn to review McCabe's evidence. McCabe confirms he received a phone call from Quinn a few days later, and McCabe sent him documents supporting his forgery allegations. But McCabe remains dissatisfied with Quinn's response. "[Quinn] seemed distracted, almost bothered that he was talking to me about it," McCabe said. "He never instituted an investigation; no one was ever questioned."
I had the same response when I called the FBI. I believe I called Ferbrache and spoke with Quinn by phone. I called to bring to their attention the systemic problem of remarking and remaking absentee ballots that came to light in my litigation against Pierce County in 1996. You may recall, the group CLEAN successfully sued then Pierce County Auditor Cathy Pearsal-Stipek (D) in Thurston County over election law violations. That decision was reversed on appeal after the AG's office (Gregoire at the time) intervened. Nevertheless, the Pierce County Auditor testified that her office had remarked over 25,000 ballots in that election. Since that was a national election (Clinton) , I thought the FBI or Justice Department would be interested. I thought it was unbelievable that over 25,000 absentee ballots (nearly 19% of the vote in Pierce County) would have to be remade or remarked by election workers chosen by Stipek. As you know, activist Dale Washam filed for recall and eventually "won" in the State Supreme Court the right to recall the Pierce County Auditor (Stipek) for lying in a sworn deposition about her credentials. Stipek's husband was an official in the Teamster's union and the ballot remarking operation occurred in an unmarked warehouse owned and/or shared with the electrician's union. As for the FBI, I got the distinct impression that they did not want to deal with the mess perhaps believing it was a state problem. But the Secretary of State's Office did not want to deal with it and deferred to county. So, who do you call?
"After talking to McCabe, McKay said, he called Mark Ferbrache, supervisory special agent at the FBI, and asked him to assign Special Agent Joe Quinn to review McCabe's evidence. McCabe confirms he received a phone call from Quinn a few days later, and McCabe sent him documents supporting his forgery allegations. But McCabe remains dissatisfied with Quinn's response. "[Quinn] seemed distracted, almost bothered that he was talking to me about it," McCabe said. "He never instituted an investigation; no one was ever questioned."
I had the same response when I called the FBI. I believe I called Ferbrache and spoke with Quinn by phone. I called to bring to their attention the systemic problem of remarking and remaking absentee ballots that came to light in my litigation against Pierce County in 1996. You may recall, the group CLEAN successfully sued then Pierce County Auditor Cathy Pearsal-Stipek (D) in Thurston County over election law violations. That decision was reversed on appeal after the AG's office (Gregoire at the time) intervened. Nevertheless, the Pierce County Auditor testified that her office had remarked over 25,000 ballots in that election. Since that was a national election (Clinton) , I thought the FBI or Justice Department would be interested. I thought it was unbelievable that over 25,000 absentee ballots (nearly 19% of the vote in Pierce County) would have to be remade or remarked by election workers chosen by Stipek. As you know, activist Dale Washam filed for recall and eventually "won" in the State Supreme Court the right to recall the Pierce County Auditor (Stipek) for lying in a sworn deposition about her credentials. Stipek's husband was an official in the Teamster's union and the ballot remarking operation occurred in an unmarked warehouse owned and/or shared with the electrician's union. As for the FBI, I got the distinct impression that they did not want to deal with the mess perhaps believing it was a state problem. But the Secretary of State's Office did not want to deal with it and deferred to county. So, who do you call?
Isn't the whole point of "Sunshine Laws" and the FOIA that the PEOPLE have the right to know what THEIR "public servants" are doing in THEIR name?
I might understand the redaction if this had been a communication between a county employee and his/her personal attorney (but then, it shouldn't have utilized a government-owned e-mail system, should it?).
Posted by: Patrick on March 13, 2007 07:44 AM