With non-plussed gratitude, we point you to Robert Jamieson's fine column from a paper with whom we have been somewhat inimical, the Seattle P-I:
Democracy isn't impeccable. Mistakes can and do happen. Ballots may get lost or delayed in the mail. Political parties, as we've seen so much in recent weeks, will hassle over whose ballots should count and under what circumstances.Hard to argue that KC Councilman Larry Phillips should get special help ensuring his franchise is protected, while combat troops should not.Largely untouched in all of this is whether any problems with military or overseas ballots played a role in the gubernatorial election. It's an interesting question. Ballots were mailed to 31,910 registered Washington voters living overseas, many of them in the military. Officials couldn't say yesterday how many of those ballots have been returned. King County is crunching those numbers.
But just 129 votes separate Gregoire from Rossi, so a fraction of bungled ballots could make a difference.
The Secretary of State's Office tells me it hasn't received even a trickle of complaints. Ballots were mailed out in time -- by Oct. 8, more than three weeks before the election. Delays or snafus could have occurred once the ballots hit the postal network or entered the military mail-handling system, conceded Pamela Floyd, assistant elections director for voter services.
She said military and overseas ballots are not subject to usual postmark rules; the ballots, provided they were signed and dated by Nov. 2, just had to arrive in a county elections office by Nov. 16, the day before certification.
That means Farmer, the young man who tossed his ballot, probably had more time to send it in -- if only he knew those rules. Some military people did not.
Floyd points out that if soldiers overseas did not receive their absentee ballots, they could send an e-mail or call elections officials back home to get a new ballot. How nice. But really, folks, who has time to do all of that when they are ducking bullets, worried about suicide bombers and stressed out?
So thanks, Mr. Jamieson.
Posted by Brian Crouch at December 29, 2004 10:58 AM | Email ThisI know that during my 20+ years of Naval service the Voting Assistance Officers all held GMT and made annoucements at Quarters concerning the rules. Someone who throws their ballot away doesn't deserve any special protection.
Posted by: FlaRich on December 29, 2004 11:21 AMIllegal referrer.
But if I put the URL in myself I get to the article.
This means that the P.I. has gone to the trouble to specifically exclude SoundPolitics readers from their website.
Posted by: M. Kurtz on December 29, 2004 12:37 PMAny speculation? Any inside word?
Posted by: bmvaughn on December 29, 2004 12:37 PMIf Rossi folds his cards, the Republican party deserves to lose every election. It will be a party of timid "country-club" Republicans with
no cojones--a party scared stiff of the
Seattle Times and the Post-Intelligencer (which only sells about 150,000 lousy copies).
Stop reading the damn newspapers! The LA Times was dead-set against the recall in CA, but Arnold still won 48% to 32% over the Democrat. The LA Times, of course, is the largest newspaper
west of the Mississippi.
I disagree. Saying you're "conceding" an election has no legal impact whatsoever. All that matters is what you do, not what you say.
Posted by: FedUpWithThis on December 29, 2004 01:35 PMAll that said, I read the Robert Jamieson column on-line, and thought it was excellent.
Posted by: Richard Pope on December 29, 2004 01:51 PM"Theresa LaPore, who designed the famous "butterfly ballot" and lost her re-election bid as elections supervisor in Palm Beach County, Fla., "is mulling a $2,500-a-month clerical job in State Attorney Barry Krischer's office so she can qualify for a 30-year pension," reports the Palm Beach Post:
LePore, 49, began working in the elections office as a teenager in the 1970s and has accumulated 29.7 years in the state retirement system.
After 30 years of employment, she could retire and immediately receive a pension of around $70,000 a year.
If she doesn't reach 30 years, LePore could not begin drawing that pension until she turns 62 and the money is likely to be substantially less. If she begins drawing a pension immediately with less than 30 years of employment, LePore would receive less than $30,000 a year. . . .
At $2,500 per month, her pay rate would be less than one-quarter that of the elections chief.
"We got one e-mail that said, 'You're a Democrat. How could you hire her?' " Krischer said.
Ah, those Democrats, full of compassion for the unemployed."
Posted by: Cheryl on December 29, 2004 04:12 PMI would just like to inform the King county elections office of this -
TITLE 18 > PART I > CHAPTER 29 > § 608
§ 608. Absent uniformed services voters and overseas voters
Release date: 2004-08-06
(a) Whoever knowingly deprives or attempts to deprive any person of a right under the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act shall be fined in accordance with this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both.
(b) Whoever knowingly gives false information for the purpose of establishing the eligibility of any person to register or vote under the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act, or pays or offers to pay, or accepts payment for registering or voting under such Act shall be fined in accordance with this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both.
Posted by: Aaron on December 29, 2004 10:00 PM