I delivered this scathing letter and the letter from the widow and from the cemetary and the ballot for the dead man who died in 1993.

I demanded he be removed. I told them I wanted to keep the ballot unopened for evidence. It must have scared them. They called me 10 minutes later saying he had been removed!
Ruth Gibbs 206-947-4648 regpc3@aol.com
Tip: Check the rolls for any dead you know of from years ago by NAME and address to see if the elections department screwed up them too. Some may be voting for themselves AND the dead person!!!! Maybe we should just exhume all the dead bodies in the county and let the bones vote!!!! Letter follows:

January 29th, 2009

To: Cheryl Huff, Director of Elections
King County Elections Department

From: Ruth Gibbs
Registered Voter King County
Renton, WA
206-947-4648
regpc3@aol.com

Dear Ms. Huff,

At the request of my friend the widow, Irene Reynolds, I am delivering to you the following:

a) One unoppened Mail In Ballot for Herbert A Reynolds, Born Marcj 5th, 1922. Died September 11th, 1993.

b) One letter from the widow, Irene Reynolds, 10032 Occidental Avenue S, Seattle, WA 98168.

c) One letter from the Riverton Crest Cemetery, 3400 S 140th Street, Tukwila, WA 98168 verifying that Mr. Reynolds is buried there. Phone Number 206-241-5328.

Mr. Herbert Reynolds, a decorated War Hero from WWII and the Korean Wars always voted at the polls.

After he passed away, his widow, Irene, had him buried at the Riverton Crest Cemetery in Lot 76, Space #3. He is still buried there. I was there yesterday, and saw his grave marker. Unless he has risen from the dead, unbeknownst to his widow, his remains are still in the ground.

Mr. Reynolds always voted at the polls. Before Mrs. Reynolds found it too difficult to go to the polls herself and started voting absentee, she always saw his name on the rolls when she signed in. She told the poll workers he was dead. They said they would take care of the problem. They never did. She called your elections department many times and told you to get him off the rolls. You never did. Even after she started voting by absentee, she would receive voter registration cards and notify you. She finally gave up trying to get you to do something, and just threw them away.

Last year, she told me that one of the letters you sent out in late 2007 asking people to resign their signatures so they could vote in case the signature had changed had been mailed to her husband.

I came down to your office, gave the name, the address and date of birth to the person at the counter, and your office verified that Mr. Reynolds was, yes indeed, STILL on the rolls!!!!!! I gave you the date of death. You said you would take care of it. We assumed you had done so.

NOW, since we are required to vote in an all mail in ballot election, she received a BALLOT in the mail for Mr. Reynolds. What is going on here? If Mrs. Reynolds had been a dishonest person (and there are a lot of such people), she could have just signed Mr. Reynolds signature last year and asked for an absentee ballot. Then she could have voted TWICE for President, Governor and down the line in November of 2008. Instead, she called me and asked her to help get her dead husband off the rolls.

And NOW? Again, if Mrs. Reynolds were dishonest, she knows EXACTLY what Mr. Reynolds signature was, and she could vote TWICE in the elections manager for the new position of Direction of Elections.

That is YOU, I believe. She is very unhappy. She does not feel well, and she is tired of this. How can it be that there is a death certificate (you must have it in vital records and the Cemetery has a copy) for 14 years, and yet Elections Manager (APPOINTED) after Elections Manager since 1993 have all been unable to get this dead person off the rolls? The Cemetary certainly had a copy.

There's more!!!!! You can see the date of birth above - March 5th, 1922. That is his date of birth. He is shown that way in the military records and other items that Mrs. Reynolds posesses. I looked him up online today to see when he registered to vote. You have him as as date of birth MAY 3rd, 1922. Someone in your department has made a serious error. There IS no other Herbert Reynolds at that address. Someone made a data entry error when he registered to vote in 1984? Mrs. Reynolds has notified you. I notified you. You you verified what I told you that he was on the rolls when I brought you his address and date of birth. And yet, how could you when you have him listed on another date?

Is this an accident? A data entry error in 1984 which was never corrected? Or has someone put him back into the system under a DIFFERENT date of birth after vital statistics notified you that he was dead?

Either way, I am very unhappy. Why should I believe that my vote counts for much, when this cannot be the ONLY dead person on the rolls because of gross dereliction of duty or plain incompetence. I suspect there HAVE to be dishonest people voting for two people instead of one.

Last year I talked with Secretary of State Sam Reed at an event. I asked him about the dead, since many have given accounts of people who have died, but are still registered. He had been the speaker and said the rolls had been purged. I asked him how far back. He said to 2004.

I met you at the Elections Manager Candidate Forum in Newcastle less than two weeks ago, and asked you about the dead. You verified that statement. I asked about people who had died before that. You told me you do not know how to cross match with Vital Statistics because their program is not the same as yours.

I am not an expert in technology. It does not take an expert to figure out that all you need to do is convert the Vital Statistics data into a different program, the Elections Voter Rolls into the same program and then cross match the two. That is Computer Technology 101. In addition, I am sure there are PROGRAMS that do it for you.

If you can't figure out how to do it, there is such a thing as printing OUT in Alphabetical Order the Dead as far back as we have had voter registration, and PAYING people in your department to verify by hand.

In addition, since Mr. Reynolds is at that address, why did you not call Mrs. Reynolds or go to her home when you could not find him on the rolls because you made a mistake or someone changed the the records? Mrs. Reynolds had no way to know you had the date of birth wrong, and why did you not inform me last year that you did not have him under the same date of birth? You had the address. You knew he was dead. Why was he not removed? Why are you not cross matching? Why are you not checking with family members?

Finally, since it shows on the voter rolls that he has not VOTED since November of 1992 before he died, which is over 16 years ago, what is he even doing ON the rolls: You are supposed to be purging people who do not vote for that long or respond!!!! Why was he not purged off the rolls for that reason, dead or not dead?

It occurs to me that all mail ballots and permanent absentees have SERIOUS security problems. No one verifies that the person who voted is the person. Anyone can vote for the other person. Men can vote for women. Women can vote for men. It doesn't matter, because no poll worker or anyone else will ever see the voter, and the person alive can forge the signature for the dead.

There is only one way to fix this nightmare once and for all. I propose that there be completely NEW voter registration - IN PERSON - for everyone in this county, that every person produce proof of birth date and address plus photo ID. Then and only then will our votes be secure.

Until then, I am not sure what the purpose of voting becomes, since my vote can be cancelled out 2 to 1 by those who choose to cheat. It does not matter that Mr. Reynolds did NOT vote. He only stayed in the grave and did not vote because his widow is honest. It does not matter that you sent out letters to voters telling them to resign their signatures. You allowed people to only have two people sign the statement if they did not want to produce valid photo ID. How ridiculous!!!!

I am absolutely appalled that this has been going on. This time, I am not asking, I am insisting that you fix this mess. I am emailing a copy of this letter to Secretary of State Sam Reed and am not asking him either. I am insisting the he MAKE you fix this. I don't care how much money it costs. The King County Council, the King County Executive, the Governor and the State Legislature need to fix this. NOW. They can stop spending money on everything that makes people feel good so they can get reelected and fix the very foundation of our free form of government. They can purge the dead as far back as registration has gone. Money should be no object.

In addition I am challenging the validity of this election next Tuesday, February 3rd when you have dead people on the rolls and relatives friends who can vote twice. I will be forwarding this email to the King County Elections Committee, the King County Council & Executive, the Governor, and members of the State House and Senate to suggest they pass some legislation to force some changes.

Thank you,

Ruth E. Gibbs