1. They don't know what they did or when they did it.

Dimwits!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Posted by: Norm on January 18, 2005 05:50 PM

2. "But election officials said the permit isn't used to send ballots to armed-forces members overseas because federal law allows the mail to be sent postage-free in both directions under a federal permit. "

So whose permit, and what do the records associated with that permit show? Is that the "log" in the article?

Posted by: James Buchal on January 18, 2005 05:57 PM

3. But that doesn't explain anything. When did this facility mail them out? Aren't they still technically in the hands of the election board, if they are just at a subcontractor? Do they have any proof that the ballots were mailed out? Why did they go to PSI Group rather than into the mail? Were the ballots not in "mailable" condition?

I'm not a reporter, and I've already thought of a bunch more questions than the Seattle Times thought to ask!

Posted by: Janet S on January 18, 2005 06:38 PM

4. I'm not a reporter, and I've already thought of a bunch more questions than the Seattle Times thought to ask!

What's more, I bet you'll report the answers accurately...

Posted by: South County on January 18, 2005 06:56 PM

5. 1) Isn't PSI the group that Elder and/or Dean worked for (posted on this site) and 2) I still don't understand why they wouldn't take them to the Seattle bulk mailing facility, which is much closer to their facility and handles all of the bulk mail for the Seattle area (or used to anyway). Wouldn't PSI have to take them to the Seatle USPS bulk mailing facility anyway? Sorry, maybe I'm being overly suspicious, but this doesn't smell right to me.

Posted by: Teri on January 18, 2005 07:49 PM

6. I will bet anybody here that they were taken to PSI because they were not ready for mailing.

How long did it take PSI to get these ballots to the post office?

Something definately smells here. The only question is, how do we get to the bottom of it.

Posted by: jaybo on January 18, 2005 08:06 PM

7. Hmmm....

I can see how the Seattle Times could just pick *Snohomish County mailing Center*...out of a hat and stick it in the story.....Yep....

And Teri is correct - PSI was the company that both Elder and Dean went to work for right out of Prison.....

And *WHY* would they send the ballots all the way to a Kent mailing facility? Especially when they had gone to the local Post Office on the same day?

Regardless of what was sent out (or where)- there would be a receipt.

King Countys sudden retraction....er...um...*DENIAL* of the
use of a Snohomish County mail center...is just as flakey as all the rest of their retractions and excuses in this Military Ballot scandal!

Did I miss the *correction* printed in the Times? I've looked through every printing since that story and cannot find where the Times claimed they made a mistake.......and offered a correction....

Posted by: Deborah on January 18, 2005 08:08 PM

8. Is there any way to find out if Dean/Elder are still with PSI? Surely King County requires information from the companies with which they do business, and it could conceivably be considered public information.

Deborah, I retract my earlier concerns. Thank you.

Posted by: Patches Pal on January 18, 2005 08:27 PM

9. Patches Pal,

I believe that Dean went on to much bigger and better things after PSI. He went into ownership (with his wife) of Spectrum Printing and Mail services of Mountlake Terrace (Snohomish County) - then sold that company to Global Elections Systems - where he became a Senior VP..Global was absorbed by Diebold..from what I gathered from the various sites....
There may still be a connection between the Snohomish County printing and mailing service and Jeff Dean...

Elder may still be with PSI - I'm not sure....
I know he went into the ballot printing and sorting business....

Posted by: Deborah on January 18, 2005 08:50 PM

10. Maybe Dean Logan can help, he is in the ballot printing and sorting (for Democrats) business as well.

Posted by: Jeff B. on January 18, 2005 09:42 PM

11.
Didn't Martha Stewart go to prison for lieing? We need official law inforcement to ask some questions so we get real answers or prison time.

Posted by: Mike on January 18, 2005 10:11 PM

12. For those that don't know the King County / Felon employment story as it relates to PSI.

Posted by: Mike on January 18, 2005 10:18 PM

13. Forgot to paste the link...

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/election/2001855390_felons11m0.html

Posted by: Mike on January 18, 2005 10:19 PM

14. Yeah Jeff B - looks like Logan is already in a lucrative position worker for Democrats who desire a bump in their vote totals. I wonder how charges though. Perhaps $100k per stack of mysteriously appearing provisional ballots; $5k per provisional ballot put through without validation; $50k for delay mailing of military ballots .... Maybe he's in the market for a new house now, or at least driving a fancy new car. Someone should check it out.

Posted by: DeadManVoting (aka Iguana) on January 19, 2005 12:58 AM

15. Kevin Ervin's reply to my email:

I was in error -- not King County..

The mailing log I referred to in the story showed the overseas ballots went to PSI Group. My recollection, from reporting I did last year on felons who had done contract work for King County Elections, was that PSI was based in the Mukilteo area. I believe they were at the time, but have not been able today to lay my hands on those earlier documents.

In any event, PSI Group is now in Kent.

I have written a correction for tomorrow's paper.

Thank you for bringing this error to my attention.

Posted by: Norm on January 19, 2005 04:01 PM

16. Norm,
I will be looking for Kevin Ervin's correction in the paper...However, after reading his story again in the Times - it appears he put on his KC spin-hat to write it! Not sure I feel comfortable accepting his alleged reporting error.

Take a close look at how he worded the topic of the military ballot mailings:

"After delivering the first batch of military ballots to the post office, King County election workers took the remaining ballots to a mailing contractor in Snohomish County later that day and on the morning of Oct. 8.

King County Elections Superintendent Bill Huennekens said the last of 3,055 overseas military ballots went into the postal system Oct. 8 — meeting the federal deadline.

An additional 5,478 ballots were mailed to armed-forces members within the United States on Oct. 12. More than 570,000 absentee ballots went to other voters the next day, according to the log."

In one paragraph, he states the remaining military ballots went out on October 8th...then in another paragraph, he states an additional 5,478 ballots were mailed out to armed-forces members on October 12th!...
When did our *Armed-Forces* stop being considered *Military*?

Posted by: Deborah on January 19, 2005 08:24 PM

17. I responded to Kevin Erwin:

-------------------------------------------

Why did they go to PSI?

Were they ready to mail?

When were they actually mailed?

Sounds like another KC elections smokescreen.

----------------------------------------

Email back from Kevin....

I haven't seen verification from PSI of when the ballots were sent out. My understanding is that their contract with the county requires same-day mailing.

I don't know the details of why some ballots were taken to the post office and others to PSI. But in very broad terms, the county contracts with PSI (that may be a Diebold subcontract; I don't know the current arrangement) to handle most of the absentee mailings in multiple elections every year. The overseas and military ballots are a relatively small proportion of the 600,000-plus that were mailed out for the general election.

-----------------------------------

His bottom line: See no EVIL and who really cares!! Just the military!!!!!!!!

Posted by: Norm on January 20, 2005 10:19 AM

18. i work for psi group inc, though not in washington state. try to do some research on what the company does before speculating. it is a company that presorts mail and saves it's customers' money in postage. the mail goes from the customer to psi, which sorts the mail and prints barcodes on the mailpiece, and then sends the mail to the post office for shipment. it deals with most major companies such as banks and insurance firms which send millions of pieces of mail a day.

Posted by: dude on January 23, 2005 11:03 PM

19. Reply to Deborah:

"Armed Forces" and "Military" are the same thing, obviously. The overseas ballots went out on the 8th and the ballots for those serving in the military within the US went out on the 12th. Standard absentee ballot mailing (non-military and non-overseas) starts 20 days before each election.

I posted yesterday to another thread in this blog and I find the same slanted thing here. Everyone (except the PSI guy) blaming King County for military not getting their ballots on time. I had no idea King County had a piece of the USPS business.

Reply to DeadManVoting:

I'd be willing to bet money you won't come anywhere close to proving that Logan is taking money for stuffing Dem votes or that he's even doing it for free. Are you conveniently forgetting that Logan used to work for SecState (and GOP) Sam Reed? If you're just making a joke, set it up that way, but fraud is still unproven in this election.

Posted by: Mister B on February 10, 2005 07:34 PM

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