December 18, 2004
Here's a Weird Thought
Which official has lost most in this
series of blunders (on the best interpretation) by the King County elections office? The
head of King County elections, Dean Logan, right?
Logan was brought in to reform the office. Suppose that someone there doesn't
want Logan to succeed in that, and has been deliberately sabotaging the process. That would
explain this series of blunders, which have, cumulatively, made Logan look very bad.
It's a weird explanation, and the odds are heavily against it, as they always are when you
have to choose between incompetence and conspiracy, but if I were Logan I would be careful
around the office.
(And from time to time a conspiracy is the correct explanation. I don't know if I would
call the CIA's campaign against President Bush a conspiracy — they were a little too open
in their attacks — but is hard to think of a weaker word that fits.)
Posted by Jim Miller at December 18, 2004
03:40 PM | Email This
1. Jim, I don't think Logan is apolitical so he doesn't have clean hands.
I don't think the root of the problem is Logan, I think the root problem is the staff. I suspect civil service protections and union agreements make it impossible to effectively discipline wrongdoing. The department may be unmanagable as is.
That's a reasonable explanation, if that is the case. If Logan doesn't state it, he's part of the problem.
I believe his position should be elected, not appointed. Dave Reichert says that made all the difference in the world in his ability to run the Sheriff's Office.
2. Kitsap County Auditor Karen Flynn, (d), is retiring. Dean Logan's name has been whispered as a possible candidate to run for her seat as a dim in 2006.
He started his career in that office. I hope he keeps hanging himself, he's been very popular in the County.
We are trending left here as more are forced off Bainbridge and Bellevueites find the real estate dollar goes farther in Kitsap. Logan would be a formidable candidate, or would have.
3. Actually, the biggest loser is Christine Gregoire. She is now, and ever shall be, the Yanukovych of Washington politics. I her case there is no Putin, but there is a Mugabe.
4. Mr. Z has it half right...........the biggest loser here is the Democratic Party as a whole.
If they win, they appear horribly as an entire party, driving all but Deaniacs away.
If they lose, well......they lose.
Either way, I think they have sacrificed the future for today.
5. What this whole vote counting fiasco should prove to us is, once again, we can NOT depend on government to take care of us! Social security is running out of cash, welfare is an abused system ridden with fraud, etc. Need I say more?
Public officals are not all bad, but it only takes a few to run the batch (just like private industry) but typically are harded to deal with.
JUST SAY NO TO BIG GOVERNMENT!
6. I think Sims thank goodness is the real loser in this all, since his recent CAO land stealing, Tent City neighborhood fear raising, his absolute boondoggle on Light Rail (WPPSS on wheels I call it, costing twice as much and now only running half as long as the people voted for), losing miserably in his governor bid, Tax grabbing, spend happy, and finally most recently the Ukraine County Election scandal. The rest of the state will be celebrating in the streets not having to fund his boondoggles any longer.
7. The Yankees. They are the real losers....up 3-0....for pete's sake
8. Of Course Dean Logan isn't apolitical. For crying out loud, he was the #2 man for the Washington State Labor Council! Not only was he their Lobbyist, but he was also their Campaign Co-ordinator! And how many Republican campaigns did he co-ordinate? ZERO!
You folks are starting to connect the dots here. The left-Wingers will continue to accuse you of being "Conspiracy Theorists" and keep trying to marginalize your arguments. But it's obvious to any reasonable thinker that there are a lot of dots lined up. That is called a "pattern of conduct". This may or may not be a "conspiracy theory". Either way, it smells real bad. Frankly, I expect someone out there to do a series of Public Records Requests om Logan, Phillips, Sims and their staffs. E-mails, phone records and the whole nine yeards. Goldy and his ilk call this a "witch-hunt". I call it common sense and very reasonable under the amazing pattern of ugly circumstances surrounding KingCo.
9. And the real winners of the recount debacle ... the 17,000,000 residents of the state of Florida... who, can never righteously be made the butt of electoral incompetence jokes again... (except maybe for those senile coots in Palm Beach County).
10. it has nothing to do with conspiracy, it is plain raw power politics by the dems in their attempt to steal an election. if it is close the dems cheat.
11. The preeminent responsible individual here is none other than King County Exec Ron Sims. He has been in office two terms, was here in 2002 when the last election travesty occured (mailing absentees late to service men and women -- by the way, their votes arrived but too late and WEREN'T counted (because, guess what, they were past the deadline). Besides, Sims hired Logan and guaranteed there wouldn't be any more election problems. Sims is the direct chain of command individual here and there has been precious little mention of his name since November 2nd. Do ya think he could be waiting for a Gregoire win so he could get an appointment to state gov't?
12. BBF-
Insightful. The problem in our State Government after 20 years of Democrat rule is the buck never stops anywhere...instead they pass the buck...and pass the buck until the populous get tired and distracted and just say screw it. This is exactly why nothing ever seems to get fixed.
If Ms. Gregoire slithers in, it will be revealing who gets what jobs. She has a transition team. Wouldn't it be interesting to know who they have talked with?
13. And if she does not slither in to office, the state can begin digging out from 20 years of Democrat statism that has this state far behind the rest of the west coast.
14. And Jim, to answer your question, yes, it is clearly Mr. Logan.
Mr. Logan has maintained an obtusely partisan line at every point in this process where judgment, civility and prudence require mediation, and the exhibition of leadership which would engender trust.
In a capacity, essentially that of a referee which demands and compels objectivity, Mr. Logan has instead created an aura of subjectivity that so completely enshrouds King County Elections, that it has become the laughing stock for the vast majority of Washingtonions.
He WILL take a fall when this is over.
15. OK So for a moment I will agree with the democrats that every vote in this state should count. So when we get through counting all the votes that came even after we have ruled them out already, and if after 45 days we do not have enough votes to overthrough Rossi, then we should really be allowed to go door to door and ask every single voter in this state if they meant to vote for Christine Gregoire. If they said no, then we go to the next door and do the same. If they said they did not get a chance to vote for Christine Gregoire, but would have voted for her, then we really should be able to spend the next year or two bringing these votes in. Especially if we can charge the counties (or John Kerry, or the Move on org's friends) for our time in gathering these votes. After all it is not their fault that they did not get to the polls when they wanted to. We want to count every vote after all (as long as they are not Rossi votes that is)! I'm also sure that we can't afford to get to the soldiers that are protecting us all over this world who never got their ballots in time from King county to vote so we're happy about this (most would have been Rossi votes so we won;t worry about this group)! We really really want to count all the votes don't we! Oh Happy Day!
16. I certainly agree that Ron Sims is responsible; Logan appears to be guilty of both mis and malfeasance as well. Should Gregoire end up in Olympia, I suspect she will be less than effective; and finally, even though I am a Rossi supporter, he will end up with the mud of this election splashed all over him, even though he is guiltless. Sims and company have done a lot of damage, not only to King County, but to Washington State as a whole. To paraphrase the good Senator Harry Reid (D, NV) apropos his comment about Clarence Thomas, "Ron Sims is an embarassment to county excecutives everywhere."
17. What's the provisional result of the manual recount in King? Thanks.
18. I agree King County is slacking off. That Logan fellow needs to produce ~5100 new ballots in this manual recount in order to compete with Adams county as the county with the highest rate of "manufactured" votes. Even if they manage to "find" a thousand new votes they will still be ranked 7th behind such additional stalwart vote riggers as Walla Walla, Pierce, Kittitas, Skagit, and Grant county. Call your local media and complain about King Counties lackadaisical attempts at election stealing.