January 05, 2005
Another deceased voter

Charles H. Kinnune, Sr. a lifelong resident of Issaquah passed away on September 16, 2004.

His absentee ballot was cast and counted in the November election. Gregoire carried Mr. Kinnune's precinct by a handful of votes. But of course it's impossible to know how his ballot was marked.

It's just as impossible at this point to know which gubernatorial candidate won the most legitimate ballots in the November election.

Hat tip: a reader from Issaquah who sent me several other probable cases of deceased voters that he culled by cross-checking the Issaquah Press obituaries with the Seattle Times voter database. I've refrained from posting most of these, even when they look genuine. I'll post a suspicion of a deceased voter only when it appears irrefutable, such as when the names of survivors listed in the obituary match the addresses in the voter database, the date of death (for an absentee voter) is before any absentee ballots were mailed, etc.

Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at January 05, 2005 10:59 PM | Email This
Comments
1. Just curious, when do the absentee ballots go out? Is it possible that he had sent his in before he died?

Posted by: John Stark on January 5, 2005 11:45 PM
2. This is the lowest form of identity theft imaginable.

It really doesn't matter at this point - who the vote was cast for....(though no one is going to believe a conservative republican could be so rabid about winning that they would lower themselves to such a depth)..to seek out and vote on a deceased person's ballot - is so wrong and so sick and so devious...it should warrant front page news!

Sigh....I guess I'd better go back into the list and check on my parents names.........unbelievable!

I - and I'm sure most voters in this State are getting angry now! This is BullSh**!

Posted by: Deborah on January 5, 2005 11:48 PM
3. King County mailed absentee ballots on Oct. 13. This gentleman passed away on Sept. 16th.


I did get another report of a person who passed away on Oct. 18. I refrained from posting it, because it was conceivable that he cast his ballot before he died.

Posted by: Stefan Sharkansky on January 5, 2005 11:49 PM
4. Thanks, Stefan.

Evidently, King County only mailed some of the absentee ballots on Oct. 13th. My girlfriend never got her absentee ballot, here in the middle of Bellevue. Luckily, her business trip was cancelled and she was able to cast a provisional ballot on election day.

Posted by: John Stark on January 5, 2005 11:53 PM
5. My mom died on 09/14/1996. My dad on 06/13/1997. They have missed two presidential elecions and all in between. They voted absentee. I was the executor of their estate.

To date, I keep getting their absentee ballots mailed to them at my physical address, which was not theirs. I have contacted the King County Elections and Records Department in the past asking they please take my parents OFF from the voters list -- but gave up as it was obvious they are determined to have dead people vote.

I still get the abstentee ballots.

I have saved them all unopened to prove they have not voted. Kept the ballots out of curiosity how long this would keep on. Now, I understand more.

The fact that they are dead, should have been sufficient reason to stop sending the absentee ballots, 8 and 7 years ago.

The fact I have asked they stop sending the ansentee ballots should have been enough.

The fact they have not voted in not one but two Presidential elections should have stopped the ballots from coming.

It is also unbelievable their ballots are coming to my physical address -- which was never theirs -- eight years after they died.

How many dead voters were sent their absentee ballots at a relative at another address the dead people lived and for how long has this been going on?

How many relatives or strangers have voted for these dead people?

What kind of a society allows this ridiculous mess to happen and then allow such a fraudulent election to stand?

Posted by: Martin D. Ringhofer on January 6, 2005 12:09 AM
6. Incidently, I just checked the Seattle Times' King County Voter database tool for my girlfriend's last name, and it shows her registered under her full name in Bellevue and as voting at the poll, which is correct.

But it also shows her registered in Seattle under the shortened version of her first name that she always uses. Both have the same, correct middle initial, and the Seattle zip code is listed on the Postal Service's web site as unique to the University of Washington, where she recently graduated from.

Luckily, the Seattle entry is listed as not voting, but it does look trivial to have multiple registrations to vote [in the same county!], and presumably, it might not be hard to go from that to actually voting at each location.

Posted by: John Stark on January 6, 2005 12:13 AM
7. Martin: Have you asked in writing for your parents to be removed from the voter rolls and identified yourself as a registered voter in the letter?

To prevent shenaningans such as divorcing couples cancelling each others' registrations or kids playing pranks on people they know, the law is very clear about what documentation the county elections office must have in hand to be able to cancel a voter due to death.

They must have a signed statement from another registered voter stating that they have personal knowledge of the voter's death, a published obituary that clearly identifies the voter, a copy of a death certificate, or notification from the local public health agency, coroner, whomever is charged with death records in the locality of the deceased. These records are NOT automatically sent to the elections office, it does require other voters to be a bit proactive.

Election offices CANNOT cancel voter registrations simply because someone calls in and states verbally that someone is dead. Also, contrary to popular belief, they have no authority to cancel someone's voter registration from the word "Deceased" written on a ballot and the ballot being sent back.

If you sent written, signed notification identifying your self as a registered voter, however, your parents should have been removed from the rolls.

Posted by: Annie on January 6, 2005 01:01 AM
8. Well if this gentleman HAD received his absentee ballot before the 16th of September, and managed to execute it on his deathbed and then get it into the mail the same day, it would have been legally cast, being posted no more than 45 days prior to the election.

His is a classic example of the fact that our state's (and especially King County's), in my humble view, misguided pushing of absentee voting, engenders situations ripe for fraud.

Posted by: Mark Fenton on January 6, 2005 01:13 AM
9. Martin D.

You should gather up those unopened absentee ballots and show them to one of the parties looking to go to court to contest this mess.
Looks like evidence to me that would help show just how screwed up KC is.
Whatever you do don't let the Gregoire camp get ahold of them. They would no doubt get filled in and mysteriously be found somewhere !
As far as fraud goes it's a lot more commonplace than you can even believe.
What If I told you one of your best friends was conducting business dealings using numerous names and at least one was that of a deceased individual ? Impossible you say ? Maybe

Don't forget folks: www.revotewa.com
Get those legit signatures in and get all your friends and family to Olympia on the 11th.
I might even paint my Suburban orange for the party
We'll see :)
And a very special Thanks to the Shark !!!!
We owe you !!!

Posted by: Citizen Rain on January 6, 2005 01:17 AM
10. I just ran about 200 death records through the Data Base of King County voters on the Seattle Times Data Base. Aprox 140 of these Death records were not in this Seattle Times Database, but what is astonishing is that 60 of these records are still in that data base. So not only does this falsely inflate their voter data base, but there is no reason that these deaths cannot be purged on a regular basis from the voter databases. Anyone have a clue how often King COunty purges the deaths from their Voter Data bases? If at all?

Posted by: GS on January 6, 2005 01:31 AM
11. If a person is dead on election day, his vote should not get counted. That is true in other states, at least. I don't know about WA.

In other states, county officials keep track of the obituaries and use them to cross off former voters.

Posted by: Bostonian on January 6, 2005 06:02 AM
12. If you do a search on http://seattlepi.nwsource.com for "King County Deaths" you will see pages of deaths (their source is Vital Statistics). See http://www.metrokc.gov/health/vital_st/ for King County's Vital Statistics.

The point is, King County has a list of deaths that the SeattlePI publishes. You'd think that at least these would have been removed from the voter rolls, simply because they have them. Not so. I put in about 2-300 names into the the Seattle Times database from August-September and found roughly 40-60% still in the database. I skipped common names, like Jones, Smith, Williams, etc...

I'm assuming if thier in that database that they were sent an absentee ballot.

Posted by: VaCSProf on January 6, 2005 06:28 AM
13. their*

Posted by: VaCSProf on January 6, 2005 06:29 AM
14. Why would they want to purge of rolls of these 'In case of tie, bring out the dead' Democratic votes? LOL

Posted by: Kris on January 6, 2005 06:49 AM
15. If you hope to create a process that is fault-free, good luck.

Posted by: tom on January 6, 2005 07:22 AM
16. So far, we have one multivoter (O'Coilain) and two dead ones. Good work!

Find another 126 and maybe you'll have the start of strong case.

Posted by: scottd on January 6, 2005 07:41 AM
17. Alright I am just going to say this now.I have known
this information for about 3 weeks now. So here goes
surely all you remember after the first count when the dems went to court to add those some odd 300 provisional
ballots included in the recount.you know the ones
where they went and knocked on doors and got signed
affidavits.Well guess what?they have a signed affidavited from a dead guy. who died back in august.

where did that come from ?.another example is a provisional
ballot that say the man for voted gregiore. they have a signed affidavit from the man saying just that.
well there's just one problem with that.the man who signed this wasn't the man who filled out
provisional ballot. the gop has an affidavit and
a handwriting sample from the man who says its his
ballot.to this day he insits that no one ever came to
his house and ask who he voted for. He says if
they would have . It would have been rossi.

Posted by: phil spackman on January 6, 2005 08:13 AM
18. Phil,
Not to be too obvious, but you need to make sure Rossi's people have the information needed to verify the first of those claims.

For the second, you say the GOP already has the information? Can you tell us anything further so that we can keep track of that piece of news?

Posted by: Bostonian on January 6, 2005 08:22 AM
19. Bostonian

Be assured that the state and rossi's campaign
both have this info and alot more.The fact of the
matter is I gave you this info because I got
tired of hearing about there not being any
fraud.

There is no doubt in my mind that the dems
did whatever they could to steal this election.
what bothers me the most are when people like
chris vance who come on here and tell people
they need help finding fraud. when he knows
better than that.

Posted by: phil spackman on January 6, 2005 08:56 AM
20. Maybe Vance just wants more people keeping a lookout? The clock is ticking.

Thank you for your updates. I've never even been to WA and I find myself very interested anyway!

Posted by: Bostonian on January 6, 2005 12:31 PM
21. Maybe it’s a good time for Gregoire to settle for a re-vote than to allow the election fraud to catch up with her.

If she doesn’t, then she’ll have ruined her own public image after it’s all said and done.

Posted by: TADD on January 6, 2005 01:23 PM
22. What kind of absentee voting requirements do you have in Washington? I've lived and voted in four states: PA, CA, AZ, and MD. In all four states, you had to request in writing in order to receive an absentee ballot.

Posted by: rob grazzini on January 6, 2005 01:26 PM
23. The only fully documented fraud is by the Reps. in Ohio. This story is a slow train comin' and if you're a died in the wool Rep. you are in for some rough times ahead.

Posted by: headless lucy on January 6, 2005 07:28 PM
24. Thank God someone is looking at those 400 or so ballots. That is the thing that has personally enrgaged me the most. You know, maybe it's a blessing that this is coming to light after the recount was certified. If those ballots were thrown out during the recounts, KC would have just come up with more to count, because they would have known exactly how many they needed. I am on thin ice here because I don't know the law but is there any chance the 400 Gregoire votes would be thrown out, thus just giving Rossi the win? I'm sure it's not that simple but it's a thought I had. The Dems will have put themselves in a position to where they couldn't contest, it would be way to hypocritical ,even for them.

Posted by: Laura on January 6, 2005 11:09 PM
25. O.K., just to clarify my previous post. I believe the best and fairest thing to do would be to have a run-off or re-vote, but I sure think it would be funny if somehow the 400 or so all Gregoire votes got thrown out if it was proven they were fraudulent. By the way, I just visited the Washington State Democratic Party's website to see what they are saying. There is a link to email the Legislature to tell them to "do their duty" and certify the election of Christine Gregoire.

Posted by: Laura on January 6, 2005 11:38 PM
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