As everybody with a clue has come to realize, but that few public officials will admit openly, King County Elections is simply not capable of making an accurate determination in a close contest. We can have confidence in a statewide margin as wide as, say, Rob McKenna over Deborah Senn, or John Kerry over George W. Bush, but when the vote is really close? Never mind the 2004 governor's race. Did Frank LaSalata really get more valid votes than Mary Ottinger in last September's primary? (hint: the final margin of "victory" was 27 votes and 62 fewer pieces of paper were counted in the recount than in the first certified count).
And even the folks at King County Elections seem to lack confidence in their abilities.
In this Oct. 19 e-mail to a newspaper reporter, spokeswoman Bobbie Egan wrote:
"Let's all pray for wide margins of victory -- don't quote me".Again on Oct. 31 Egan e-mailed her colleagues:
I'm praying for wide margins of victory myself!This isn't necessarily partisan bias. On Nov. 9 Egan e-mailed her management this update about Dave Reichert's growing lead in the congressional race:
wider margin of victory... praying for no recountOf course if these people were confident of their ability to judge a close race and withstand the attendant scrutiny, they'd be expressing confidence in their accuracy instead of praying for wide margins. Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at May 30, 2007 12:15 PM | Email This
Pray?! They will make a concession for their own reasons! Maybe even allow a prayer room for the terrorists to boot!!!
Posted by: dcat on May 30, 2007 12:39 PMWhile I will readily condemn overzealous PC efforts to remove any and all public expressions of religion, the government shouldn't be endorsing or footing the bill for any religion either....
Posted by: H Moul on May 30, 2007 01:18 PMWhat's needed is new process and new leadership at KCREALS so that close elections are deterministic. It's really not that hard, but KCREALS seems to be enamored with using the indeterminable nature of their election results as a feature when needed.
Democrats do that kind of thing all the time. They know that Social Security is gonna collapse, but praying that it won't is buying them a lot of senior votes in the short term. And they also know that affirmative action doesn't really advance the cause of minorities, it just artificially subsidizes the few, but again, it sure buys a lot of sympathy votes.
And who says the left aren't faithful?
Posted by: Jeff B. on May 30, 2007 02:31 PMThere is serious rot here and we need to see some more firings, even if there is no evidence of election fraud.
Personally, I believe Maleng's assigned attorney to Elections should be included pretty much automatically.
But then again, how do we know the elections at the Bar itself are up and up? Or for that matter, at the lawyer controlled Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce.
Posted by: Douglas Tooley on May 30, 2007 07:28 PMThere is serious rot here and we need to see some more firings, even if there is no evidence of election fraud.
Personally, I believe Maleng's assigned attorney to Elections should be included pretty much automatically.
But then again, how do we know the elections at the Bar itself are up and up? Or for that matter, at the lawyer controlled Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce.
Posted by: Douglas Tooley on May 30, 2007 07:28 PMElecting the Auditor only guarrantees that you can change Auditors evety four years. The avaerage stay of the Election Managers over the last ten years has been less than three years.
Posted by: Desert Rat on May 31, 2007 11:02 AMDo you see a pattern?? If they only last 3 years, why not elect a person who can last 4, and if they are doing a good job, elect them for another 4.
I read the job description for the position, and not just any tom dick or harry can do what they are requiring. BUT if there is a person out there with management experience, who can Make Sh*t happen with the clones that have entrenched themselves within KCRE, I say let em take a stab at it. At least if they make mistakes, they are real mistakes, not a coverup.
The Manager, or Auditor as the case might be, must be a good manager and administrator, one who can get the most of his staff, and be able to replace the ones who do not stand up to the criteria. (Often easier said then done since most are both union employees and career service).
It helps if the Manager/Auditor is non-partisan but it is not necessary as is the case in 37 of the other counties. But the Elections Superintendent must be scrupulously non-partisan since this is the person is is actually supervising the counts. It was a career service position which meant it had to go through the testing and review that such a position is required to have. Now that the Council has decided to have a say by confirming such hirings, it becomes more of a political appointment as the Manager is now.
Posted by: Desert Rat on June 1, 2007 09:25 AM