As I mentioned on Dec. 30, I found massive discrepancies between Snohomish County's voter list and its precinct canvass (which reports the number of ballots counted per precinct). I just received this explanation from the County Auditor's office:
I misread your original request. The data that you received was current data as of December 28, 2004. Snohomish County’s voter registration system is a live system, updated daily. We are unable to create reports prior to the current date on this system. The daily changes or updates include address changes, new voter registrations, requests for permanent absentee ballots, etc. Snohomish County does not now have (nor did it have on December 28, 2004) any identifiable records responsive to your request for data as it existed on November 2, 2004.Astonishng, no way to reconcile whether (at least from current data) how well the number of ballots matches the number of voters. That would make it harder to detect outcome-changing errors or fraud, wouldn't it. To be fair, SnohoCo might have attempted to reconcile ballots with voters at the time of certification (although I'm skeptical). I've asked for copies of any such reconciliation reports. I'll let you know what I find out. Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at January 06, 2005 11:52 AM | Email ThisContained within in the data is a column titled ‘ltd’ which stands for last transaction date. If a voter’s record has been updated for any reason – the date of the administrative edit will appear in the column.
Since the information provided is from our voter registration records as they existed on December 28, 2004, the numbers should not be expected to reflect the data as it may have existed on November 2, 2004.
http://www.cnn.com/2005/ALLPOLITICS/01/06/washington.governor.ap/index.html
Looks like were still making national spotlight! Keep it up!!!
Posted by: CR ACTIVIST on January 6, 2005 12:04 PMThanks for all the work.
Posted by: Terry J on January 6, 2005 12:16 PMSurely, the highly-responsible, proactive and efficacious IT security wizards in SnoCo back-up their data and have a readily-available copy by which the SnoCo Auditor's Office should be more than happy to access for the sake of validating their "credibility."
God forbid the system crashed on the 3rd of November and fire ravaged the box-o-Republican voter registration cards.
Perhaps this 4,100 and the 3,500 ballots more than voters are related?
Posted by: DeadWood on January 6, 2005 01:01 PMhttp://www.thenewstribune.com/opinion/columnists/story/4405599p-4181486c.html
Posted by: CR ACTVIST on January 6, 2005 01:19 PMSo it's almost certainly there, but you will have to talk to someone knowledgable about how to get the info you are seeking. Dealing with county gov't is like punching a pillow, though.
Keep going up the ladder until they refer you to someone competent. Good luck.
Posted by: SnoCoTom on January 6, 2005 02:54 PMHow "Sideshow Bob" can write "The public can have faith in the fact that the King County recount process in the Governor's race is in good hands and is being carried out according to the laws & procedures of the State of Washington" is a universal mystery. Did Bob actually personally review the entire King Co. procedure? How would he know? The Washington Election system will not be fixed until some Couny Auditors stand up on what has happened here.
Posted by: Mr. Cynical on January 6, 2005 03:24 PMIt is incomprehensible to imagine votes equalling voters, in any county or precinct. It would mean 100% turnout - every voter voted. It can NEVER happen, because there can only be attrition - deaths, move-out of states, etc - between the registration cutoff date and the election. New voters adding to the pool is obviated by the cutoff. Votes exceeding voters is an impossibility - in an honest system, that is. Obviously, in this case, the fix was in.
Posted by: Bob B on January 7, 2005 02:02 PM