While sorting through old newspapers I found this column on Washington state's disputed gubernatorial election by the executive editor of the Seattle Times. Since it was printed December 26th, others besides myself may have missed his request for help:
Instead of throwing open your window and shouting your anger, send us your questions. Use the contact information at the bottom of this column to tell us what you want to know about this election.
We'll try to cut through the political spin to give you straightforward answers. The more specific you are, the more we can help, and please state your question as a question, not a diatribe.
However it ends, this election is one for the history books. You can help us write the first version of that history.
A few days later the Seattle Times printed this David Postman column, which answered many minor questions, but skipped the central question: Is Christine Gregoire's victory legitimate? Those who have read my posts, either here or at my own site, know that I am nearly certain that it is not. And those who read this post know that I have doubts about the willingness of the Seattle Times to investigate charges of vote fraud — when those charges are made by Republicans.
But let me take Mr. Fancher at his word, even though he earlier said that he wanted to cover the election fairly — and then filled the Seattle Times with articles from one of the most partisan newspapers in the country, the Los Angeles Times. I stated my main question above, and in this post, gave some suggestions for stories that would tell us whether the Gregoire win was legitimate.
I don't expect the Seattle Times to follow all my suggestions. I am certain, for example, that neither the Seattle Times, nor any other "mainstream" newspaper, will investigate how many non-citizens voted in Washington state last November. (I am certain that more than 500 did, and that they provided Gregoire's margin of victory.) But I think the Times could investigate signature matching on absentee ballots. We know that election clerks incorrectly identified some good signatures as bad. But we don't know how many bad signatures they let slip through. The performance of the King County elections office, in this and previous elections, makes me suspect they allowed many invalid votes. And there are many other suggestions in the post that journalists should feel free to take — whether they credit me or not.
And the Seattle Times should investigate the mismatches between voters and votes that Stefan Sharkansky has done so much to bring to light. If there is an explanation that does not include enough mismanagement and/or fraud to overturn the election, I have not seen it.
Fancher gives his email address at the end of the column; if you don't want to read the whole column, here it is: mfancher@seattletimes.com. Please follow his request to send only questions, not diatribes, and remember that polite messages usually get the most attention.
(PS to Mr. Fancher: We here at Sound Politics don't mind when reporters there copy our work; in fact we are pleased when that happens. But the reporters should be polite enough to give us credit.)
Posted by Jim Miller at January 10, 2005 06:59 AM | Email ThisJust make a list of specific questions, and make them as non-loaded as possible, like these:
What is required by law before a county can certify its results? What is "certification" intended to guarantee, to the voters? How does this process compare, in practice, between KC and other counties?
***
Also, I might offer tips on how to access the relevant data, what to look for, what things should reconcile to each other, and so on.
Ask the press if any of them have obtained a copy of the voter lists from King County! Do they know how to find lists of deaths? Etc. etc.
Goad them into looking for themselves at all the itty bitty facts, instead of treating this (as they always do) as competing ideologies that can be evaluated only on moral grounds.
Posted by: Bostonian on January 10, 2005 07:34 AMDear Mr. Fancher,
Recently you requested that any questions about our election be passed on to you. There are many questions about the validity of our election. Please take the time to research this subject in a fair and unbiased way.
By now, I'm sure you know about http://www.soundpolitics.com , and, hopefully, you're interested enough to be reading it. Many citizens of our state, myself included, have lost faith in the main stream media, particularly our local newspapers. It would be a rare step in the right direction if someone, hopefully, you, will answer the obvious questions. I hope you'll report your findings in a non-partisan way.
How many felons voted in our election...and why?
Why have so many more votes been counted than there are eligible voters?
How many dead people voted?
How many people voted twice?
How many ballots appear to have been signed by the same person?
How many provisional ballots were improperly placed into the ballot boxes?
Why did King County find "new" ballots NINE times after the original count, and first recount? Why weren't you outraged by that alone?
Why weren't election rules followed?
How many previous (close) elections could have been swayed by the above listed, "mistakes"? (I, personally, believe that there was fraud involved, even if it wasn't on a large, party sanctioned, scale.)
Why aren't you interested in just plain fair play, if not the people's will, enough to support our call for a re-vote, for a clearly "flawed" election?
Mr. Fancher, you have a unique opportunity to write a fair and unbiased article on this huge scandal, and restore some faith in your newspaper. Shame on the main stream media for the biased, partisan, Liberal cheerleaders they've become.
Just one illegal vote was enough to disenfranchise me! Clearly, my vote didn't count...and I'm outraged by that alone!
Thank you,
Posted by: J. C. on January 10, 2005 08:06 AM
STOP BUYING THE PAPER - CALL IN AND CANCEL YOUR SUBSCRIPTION:
If Republicans and Dinocrats in this state will do this this do, I predict one of 3 outcomes:
1. The leadership in the paper will be forced out, merged, or forced to change their bias.
or
2. As their subscriptions and therefore advertising profits get reduced, also their influence in the area will be greatly diminished.
or
3. They will go bankrupt
Any of the above options would be a breath of fresh air.
I do suspect their is one more option, that King County or the State Legislature could step in and save them with our tax dollars.
Posted by: GS on January 10, 2005 08:42 AMOption 4: Shark could be Hired as Editor in Chief of the rag!
Posted by: GS on January 10, 2005 09:26 AM
e.g. one of J.C.'s questions was: Why have so many more votes been counted than there are eligible voters?" The correct terminology would have been: ...more votes...counted than...recorded voters."
Eligible voters are the number of people living in a jurisdiction who could vote if they wanted to (citizens, old enough, etc.), whether registered or not. [universe]
Registered voters are all those who have up-to-date registrations on file in the county courthouse elections division. [sub-set in universe]
Actual or recorded voters would be the ones who actually voted in particular election. [sub-set of above sub-set in universe.]
Otherwise the questions are excellent.
Posted by: Mac on January 10, 2005 07:27 PM