Just Democrat elected officals???...what about the Republican ones who refuse to uphold the constitution of WA?? The ones who certify elections that aren't reconciled and the ones who also refuse to follow through on illegal residents who vote here, etc.? And btw, what's happening on your Dr. in Atlanta?

And he pretends to represent the people of Washington State? [shaking head in utter disbelief...]

When they took office, they took an oath to uphold the laws of Washington State.

Why no name? How did you get this email?

It's not that I lost respect for Democrat elected officials for the first time, but that I lost a little more this time. I'm not sure how much more respect for them I have left, but it's monotonically decreasing.

What next? Keep Digging Stefan... The Blogger's of this big ole world are getting smarter everyday!!!!

Keep up the good work.

Here's a novel idea. Make election officials take a test on their duties. And create a paper trail, so that they know they'll be held accountable.

Jeeze, they even make grunts out on the loading dock keep track of tenths of a hour. How tough can it be?

(while my respect for newspapers and TV news has slipped a bit....)

One question. WHY is this person a judge?
No, 2 questions. HOW do we get him and his wife off the bench?

I think they are all completely confused. They are probably thinking to themselves, "They never complained when we did this before."

The reason we never complained was because there was no medium through which we could connect. Now, I know who my fellow citizens concerned about democracy and freedom truly are, I know where to go to talk to them, and I know which media, officials, and organizations should get my financial contributions. Moreover, I can even do my tiny part to balance the equation with my own little blog.

THAT is exactly what has people like Julia Patterson and Dwight Pelz shaking in their girdles.

(After watching Mr. Pelz yesterday, NOBODY can tell me he doesn't wear a girdle).

This election official had a responsibility to contest this vote at the polls!!!!!!!
There is even a damn pre-printing form for them to use called something like Challenging a Voter at the Polls..only certain people are allowed to challenge. This moron did not protect the rest of us from being disenfranchised by an illegal voter!! This official should have challenged and forced this voter to vote a provisional ballot so the ballot was held until the validity was verified!!! OUTRAGEOUS!

So if not challenging illegal voters, what was this election judge doing?

Is this just some sort of honorary position now, meant to stroke the egos of those serving, while not really expecting that they "serve" any purpose at all?

(Quoting from an election judge)

"I know of two people who voted in this last election who are convicted felons, one of whom lives down the street and I know has served time for drug offensives and burglary. I know he voted because [my wife] and I are election judges."

(and his comments)

"I infer from his email that he did not, in fact, "firmly believe" that the felon whom he saw voting was entitled to vote. I'm not going to betray any confidences by revealing the name of this election judge, but I am disappointed in his apparently lax attitude towards his responsibilities."

I'm concerned that we have election judges that do not know the rules for having voting rights restored. It's pretty simple. Do your time, pay your fines and costs, send in a form.

Now, if the person is currently on parole or has not finished paying fines, costs and court-ordered restitution, they can't vote.

Unless the election judge has reason to believe that the voter falls into one of the categories above, they should not challenge the voter. If they do have such reason, (not necessarily certain knowledge) then they should certainly know rules apply.

It seems that even after realizing that there might have been a problem, this judge chose not to even find out what rules apply for restoring voting eligibility. Instead, he chose to simply send out an e-mail (who was this e-mail to, anyway?) stating a political position.

I too, am disappointed in this election judge's apparently lax attitude.

I am not saying that this excuses the judges, but not only did King County Records and Elections not arm the election workers with information on how this procedure is to take place. But they also refuse to take responsibilty in safeguarding the registration rolls from those who are dead, felons, or non citizens. Kind of a double whammy of neglect!

The votes are all tallied in Iraq, and guess what? Christine Gangrene got 129 votes!!

Question: What do you call a lawyer who has an I.Q. of 50??

Answer: "Your Honor".

I do agree that we need a better system to prevent ineligible people from voting, but this isn't it.

As far as I can tell, the appropriate action would be to challenge the voter and have him vote a provisional ballot. Then the canvassing board determines whether he was actually eligible to vote. If so, his vote gets counted, if not, the illegal ballot never should get counted. That's why we have provisional ballots in the first place.

Bruce, they "can" regain their right to vote, but as long as that is unknown to the judge, he could not possibly "firmly believe [the voter] to be entitled to vote"

Hold on, there. We've got an "innocent until proven guilty" assumption in this country.

If the judge had any reason to believe that the person had not had their voting rights restored, it would be a different matter.

Now, should the state build a database of felons that have not had voting rights restored? Sure. Should that database be compared to the voter registration database? No problem. Should an individual election judge challenge a registered voter's right to vote without any evidence of illegality? No.