July 24, 2004
Meet the Contributors
The Editors
Stefan Sharkansky is a family man and small business owner in Green Lake (Seattle).
Matt Rosenberg is a Seattle-based writer and communications consultant. When not fomenting cultural revolution, he enjoys exploring Seattle and the Northwest with his family, hiking, music, cooking and reading. His own sites are Rosenblog and Blog Consulting Pro. Contact Matt at: oudist at nwlink dot com
Andy MacDonald is an activist and community leader in Ballard. He writes andy-macdonald.net. He is not a famous skateboarder. Contact Andy at: awm at alum dot mit dot edu
Jim Miller is a cross-country skiing conservative who lives in Kirkland. He writes the Jim Miller on Politics blog. Contact Jim at: jimxc1 at gmail dot com
Eric Earling is an outside-the-box conservative thinker, who lives near Lynnwood with his wife and two young children. He is a Seattle-area native who escaped to double major in history and political science at Mary Washington College in Virginia. His career has been spent working with and in all levels of government, in both policy and politics. Contact Eric at: ericearling at gmail dot com
Don Ward is your average hicktown reporter having edited three community newspapers across Washington state; he most recently wrote for the King County Journal Newspapers. Ward is a third generation Washingtonian who splits his time between North Bend and Eatonville. Contact Don at: reporterward at hotmail dot com
Writers
Brian Crouch, aka Bleeding Heart Conservative, lives in Bothell where he runs the Medved Fans blog. Contact Brian at: wind-riders at juno dot com
P. Scott Cummins is a fourth generation Seattlite, and was a poli sci major at PLU and Bath U in England. Not satisfied with a law degree from Seattle University, he is a stay-at-home parent in Magnolia, and studies Rosenblogology. Contact him at: pScott at pScottCummins dot com.
Ron Hebron is a Washington native who is an operations researcher (applied math), living in Lake Forest Park. Personal web site: www.RonHebron.com, Contact Ron at: Ron_LFP at mac dot com
Marsha Richards is a Christian libertarian who lives in Tacoma, directs education reform efforts for a scrappy free-market think tank in Olympia, and periodically co-hosts Seattle's Republican Radio. Contact Marsha at: mushra at hotmail dot com
Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at July 24, 2004
06:13 PM | Email This
1. Nice to see some degree of balance amongst the cadre.
A blog devoted to the useemly politcal side of our state is LONG overdue.
I made Marilyn Rasmussen cry once, and sent Jan Shabro of in an indignant huff.
I wouldn't vote for Dennis Townsend if held at bayonet point, and all legislators that voted for the Boeing Bill can just go to hell.
2. Glad to see you finally got the site up and got an Instapundit ref!
3. I got referred by Instapundit.com. Great to see a blog devoted to our state's politics!
4. According to Sam Reed's webpage, there are still 1000 outstanding ballots in King, and, for some reason, 1221 in Grays Harbot (as of tonight--Tues.). Aren't you assuming that those already have been counted?
5. I was just introduced to the site, I found it to be refreshing,especially in the season of the perpetuating election. I would like to see some comments on the CAO and how it will be affected by the White House ruling on the 80% roll back for habitat.
6. Ok, what is comment spam?
7. The winner needs to change the law and have a re-election in March. There has not been a mentio of this in the papers.
8. Oh, now Bob Williams of the Freedom Foundation is the authority on state election law. I think he probably should have made the call on the King County misfiled ballots. His perspective is shocking, don't count validly cast votes by registered voters in the state of washington. The state law for recounts is indeed clear and that is why the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that King County could correct errors made in the manual hand recount. That is why we do a hand recount! Sure, Bob Williams would prefer the results of the last machine recount I'm sure and willingly disenfranchising hundreds of voters.
9. It is time to admit that we now live in the socilaist republic of Washington!!
Hopefully sometime in the future with proper voter registration and verification at the polling locations we can have an uncontested election.
My prediction for the next four years is a steady increase in personal and business taxes. This will drive more and more business out of the state and unemployment will sky rocket or people will move to fallow thier jobs.
We will be moving out of state in January 2006. Thank God for the military and the oppertunity to move.
10. Dino Rossi now looks to be requesting a run-off. In my view, this is the only way in which some semblance of legitimacy can be restored to the office of Governor. AG Gregoire's constant requests to “count every vote” apparently do not apply to military votes from abroad....interesting. We do indeed live in the fascist state of Washington; I have been looking into Coeur d' Lane real estate should "Chris" actually get into the Governor’s mansion. I refuse to pay any higher tax rate than I currently do.
11. There was a great suggestion on from a call in on NWCN after the 1:30 Rossi press conference.
Everyone that believes the governor's election was flawed and the the only way to resolve this dillema tie an orange ribbon on the anntena of their cars.
I'm on my way out now to get mine.
M
12. I was that caller, the first call to get in after Rossi's press conference. It is working. I was thinking, how can a homeschool mother of 5 (two attend public school and have special needs), real estate agent, concerned citizen, outraged at this whole situation make a difference? I started by listening to KVI and calling in ( I heard the orange ribbon antennae idea there from another caller, as well), emailed info@dinorossi.com, called his headquarters, called the legislators, distributed emails and letters at work (provided ribbon as well), won't quit informing my friends and family, showed up at the state capitol on the 21st, and postponed my own family party to be hosted by me at my house on the 23rd to be at the capitol again, got my face on t.v. for a split second (just long enough to draw questions from those who know me - once again providing an opportunity to inform people), called in to NWCN yesterday, and lastly asked a contributor to post the orange ribbon idea here. Sometimes I think our families would be stronger without technology, but in this case it is also allowing for a lot of good to be done. I guess balance is the key. By the way, my children have been following this closely as well. What a great Civics lesson.
Robyn
13. What a crock your website is. Half lies and half truth, it makes me wonder where one can find a reasoned web site to discuss the real issues which are how to build a voting system that is better than what we have. No one, and I mean no one has shown any credible evidence of fruad. Mistakes yes. Ovelooked ballots, that were always under guard, yes. Fraud absolutely not. Chris Vance went to every single election board to whine at them to reopen thier counting. Every one of them, inlcuding the republican controled ones said no. Indeed the system does need to be improved. You do a disservice to the community and yourself engage in this obviously biased approach. To bad you werent paying attention in the class that taught the objectivity of a reasonable person but you were oboviously there when they taught the class on how to lie with statistics
14. Thank you for your site.
I want to suggest that you have a page that lists the significant, verifiable facts about the canvasing and (re)counting process that people must know to form an intelligent opinion on the election.
The thread of the election is huge. Anyone wanting to spend a few minutes would be defeated by its volume and would leave underinformed.
You need a page that is a management summary of the facts to support "incontrovertible evidence of fraud, manipulation or error". List the facts and link them to detailed discussion in the blog of this site.
If we loose the battle for clean counting in Washington State, we will fight it again during an election for President. Good luck to you all.
BTW, I found your site via Rosenblog.
15. The bulleted list in http://www.revotewa.com/endorsement.htm is the start of just the management summary you need.
16. Dewain,
There are no whole truths; all truths are half- truths. It is trying to treat them as whole truths that plays the devil.
Alfred North Whitehead
English mathematician & philosopher (1861 - 1947)
Tim
17. just a heads up... the same time the Seattle Times prints the puff piece they drop the link to the KC voter rolls. Guess someone didn't like helping the VOTERS and other interested parties from checking up on KC. For those of us out here in the Orange counties it'd be nice to have a way to check up on our own areas. Personally I'd think that the Dems would allow "sloppiness" in other counties sympathetic to their cause that are not in the spot light. Of course this might also spill over into the other 2004 races in the Legistalture that might upset the balance of power there.
Thanks for all you do!
Victor
18. I don't think fraud will be proven. The reason is that Democrats have been given free reign to make up the rules as they go.
The timing of the military ballots hitting the mail and the threat of a lawsuit if they waited another day pretty much spells it out.
Sam Hunt, Karen Fraser and Brendan Williams all earned their opponents a fat $ contribution from me in the next election.
19. I just want to say that I believe that through all this election BS, I've come to view Stefan as a kind of hero.
Had it not been for his diligent efforts, they might have actually gotten away with it.
20. I just want to say that I believe that through all this election BS, I've come to view Stefan as a kind of hero.
Had it not been for his diligent efforts, they might have actually gotten away with it.
We - the citizens of Washington - all owe you a huge "Thank You."
21. I applaud your selfless efforts and hope we can see "Shark" forums spring up in other states. C.H. Norton, Borrego Springs CA
22. Some Native American friends have given Christine Gregoire the "honorary"(!)name of "Christine Quick-to-Count!"
23. Just a thought on a simple change that would improve vote integrity: Every ten years, per the Constitution, there is a census taken of the population. Why not on the same date/time period, require ALL absintee ballots to be re-registered, either in person or (only if physical limitations prohibit) by NOTARIZED APPLICATION. This way the dead are filtered out, as well as invalid addresses, (is that discrimination?), and "Fresh" current signatures are obtained.
24. I seem to remember an election wherein two senatorial candidates were so close that the automatic recount was conducted. With all of the current "fraud/mistakes" coming to light, do we really know if Maria Cantwell is our Senator?
25. Sam Reed and Christine Gregoire remind me of "Boss Tweed" and the gang at Tamany Hall in Chicago in the 20's. The situation is relatively the same; elections controlled by those running for office.
Only thing we are lacking are machine guns and the mob.
Sharon Johnson
26. I was at a friends house the other day. Here in Gig Harbor, we are having a special election ballot sent out for a school levy. She quite unabashedly told me that she had filled out the ballot for a daughter that lives across the mountains (she voted for her the way that she felt the vote should go) Maybe this mail-in ballot business is not a very good idea. I know that I received for 6 or more years a ballot for one of my children that had not and did not live here. I suppose that I could have voted on that also instead of trashing it. (?) I doubt that those signatures are all checked in Pierce County.
While this school levy is not earth shattering, it does show to me that there are people who will falsify and send in ballots for which they have no right to do.
27. How accurate is the voter data base? I was unable to vote in November, due to a family emergency, and according to the data base it shows that I did vote at the polls. Can anyone explain this to me?
28. Sharon, actually, CG reminds me of Boss Tweed and Tammany Hall in New York in the 1870's.
(Yes, I had to look it up!)
29. When is there going to be an initive to force the state to require voters to be citizens and to show picture ID to vote?