The "Big Binder" has finally been released.
It confirms that the numbers don't nearly add up and that hundreds more unverified provisional ballots went into the ballot machines than previously acknowledged.
The county's summary worksheets and explanatory documents try to downplay the discrepancy. But having inspected a fair number of pollbooks in the last couple of days, it's pretty clear there were a lot of serious unacknowledged problems with election-day ballot security.
More details and astonishing photographs of botched poll books yet to come.
Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at March 11, 2005 05:33 PM | Email ThisI mean, is this not an election any bank would be proud of? I just cannot believe that there are more errors than 3 tenths of one percent?! Holy chamoleans, we have us the making of a real honest-to-goodness Cook County, Illinois election! STOLEN by golly! How doe we start a ballot initiative to rename King County to COOK County after it's new namesake?
Ron Sims is toast in the next election. man, I wish I had been there for his "good home training" line. You would have seen me as the guy on TV ripping him a new one for whitewashing the truth.
Can you say "Governor Rossi?" I sure can, and does it ever make me feel good!
Posted by: dan on March 11, 2005 06:09 PMWishing something doesn't make it happen. Remember, this election has been over for months now and Gregoire is the Governor and is doing a very credible job in that post.
Sorry to burst your collective balloon.
Posted by: Nelson on March 11, 2005 06:14 PMI really can't comment on the "credible job", cuz I don't know what color she chose for the new carpet. That could be the clincher, though
:-)
Stefan, i am looking forward to your posts on wht you find in the Binder.....
Keep up the good work
Posted by: bud on March 11, 2005 06:36 PMI cannot wait to see the pictures!!
After viewing the Bothell precinct papers......I can only imagine what a mess the mysterious *Binder* is!
I'm looking forward to the Monday morning talk shows for a thorough update.
Good job, Mr. S.
Posted by: KC in Oly on March 11, 2005 07:28 PMIs there going to be a grand jury looking into this 'model election' cover up?
I look forward to the set aside verdict. Picture a Fraudoire headed cat in a room full of rocking chairs saying "I don't see any issues."
Posted by: andy on March 11, 2005 07:33 PMA couple of posts down is a _single_ precinct that managed an error rate of 15%. A mere 168 ballots and off by 30. It's not hyperbole when reality is far more entertaining than the original opinion.
Posted by: Al on March 11, 2005 07:48 PMSome of my contacts in Olympia are suggesting that the D's in Olympia are trying to get as much rammed through before Gregoire's likely removal from office.
She could be trying to posture to win an election in November. If she were doing this, she wouldn't have signed that bill requiring mental health coverage for all health insurance policies issued in Washington. Expect a flood of left-wing legislation, because I think the D's realize that if we have an election this year, that they can't win it. So they may as well enjoy their power while they have it--sort of like Bill Clinton's pardons just before he left office.
Posted by: jack on March 11, 2005 08:03 PM
Ever notice how every bit of news on Sound Politics is a "bombshell"? You'd think both Logan and Sims would be behind bars by now, given the hyperbole of Shark's blogs.
Trouble is, it's all pretty mundane stuff, some volunteer poll workers had to redo some totals on a ballot folder and cross out some old numbers. Shark posts photos of the calculations as if they were pictures of the final moments of Jimmy Hoffa. -yawn-
Despite bitter resistance to any taxation that might pay for such perfection, the Sharkies expect at least King County to hold and election like it were an Apollo moon shot: NO HUMAN ERROR ALLOWED!
Where were these folks when George II was trying to sell us on another war in Iraq?
Posted by: Unkl Witz on March 11, 2005 08:23 PMAnd, yes, I've noticed the various bombshells on this site. Interestingly, they remain standing after exposed to intense scrutiny. It's a shame Goldy's posts can't make the same claim.
Posted by: dkpcowboy on March 11, 2005 08:26 PMIf you can be so furious at the end of a system where one candidate gets 100 percent of the vote and his prospective opponents get fed into a shredder, why would you even bat an eye at such minutiae as hundreds of illegal votes?
Posted by: ScottM on March 11, 2005 08:39 PMgo suck a soy latte and be mad at someone else...
Posted by: gosharkgo on March 11, 2005 08:50 PMWhat on earth do you folks do for a living? It must not depend in any way on your written communication skills.
Posted by: Unkl Witz on March 11, 2005 08:56 PMOK Gosh, now cut that out. It's not fair to pose as a right-winger and post this kind of parody. I know you think they are actually this ridiculous, but we all agreed we wouldn't make fun of them.
Posted by: Unkl Witz on March 11, 2005 09:02 PMStephan - keep up the good work!
Timman
Posted by: timman on March 11, 2005 09:20 PMI'm beyond furious about this. We have over 1500 fellow Americans who are now DEAD, thousands wounded and a $300 billion dollar expense item in an already overspent budget. And you think it's lives and money well spent because we deposed another tin-pot dictator and managed to pull off a recent voting exercise.
Well guess what, we've got a whole bunch more tin pot dictators out there who haven't had a free election lately. Unfortunately, we've also got a seriously depleted armed force and a rather large increase in the national debt.
For all your so called conservative values, you folks have done way more damage to our economy and armed forces than any liberal administration ever dreamed.
Congrats! And you call yourselves PATRIOTS.
Now I wonder what role the moveon.org people had in this. Weren't they running up the provisional counts? I heard of at least one instance where someone came in and asked for a provisional even though she had a mail-in ballot at home. What's up with that???? and she wouldn't say why she wanted that. somewhere, these people were told to ask for provisional ballots up the wazoo. Somehow they seemed to know that they wouldn't be checked. Federal investigation!
Posted by: Michele on March 11, 2005 09:32 PMOne would think there would be some attempts to appear to reach across the aisle so as to keep up the image of Democrats as the tolerant, fair, diverse and caring party.
Instead it's been a one way legislation bullet train down in Olympia. Gregoire is just a figurehead to sign all of this government overreach into law.
If you want to know why the other half the state feels the way they do about country bumpkins, let me loan you my mirror. Rather than tell me why and how I am wrong, or mis-informed, you call me names.
Not a very convincing line of discourse. Why not try something different?
Posted by: Unkl Witz on March 11, 2005 09:32 PMYou also claim to be above insults and hyperbole and yet you follow that up with, "What on earth do you folks do for a living? It must not depend in any way on your written communication skills."
The only thing consistent is your incosistency.
Posted by: colin on March 11, 2005 09:38 PMOK, point well taken. My "what do you do for a living" comment was over the line.
I apologize. I should not have said that. It was mean-spirited and inappropriate.
As for the discussion of the war, most of my posts are in response to those who argue in favor of it.
Thank you for your thoughtful post and bringing me back to earth on a Friday night.
Posted by: Unkl Witz on March 11, 2005 09:45 PM2) Nelson is impotent against the facts and evidence put forth
3) Dino Rossi predicted this at Dorchester and it happened.
4) Christine GregorianChant is now....Illegitimate!
Posted by: Big M on March 11, 2005 10:06 PMCorruption follows the setting sun,
the demon wars have just begun.
I'm looking forward to seeing her escorted out of the Governor's mansion in handcuffs.
Posted by: DeadManVoting (aka Iguana) on March 11, 2005 10:41 PM"In a day of swift and stunning developments triggered by four grand jury indictments, Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer was charged with violating state absentee ballot law during last year's mayor's race and quickly removed from office.
Florida Gov. Jeb Bush suspended the mayor this afternoon, issuing an executive order prohibiting Dyer "from performing any official act, duty, or function of public office."
Dyer (Democrat) and Patti Sharp (Dem campaign manager) are each accused of "providing pecuniary gain for absentee ballot possession or collection," according to their arrest affidavits. Thomas (accused ballot broker) -- who was hired by Dyer's campaign -- was charged with "accepting" payment. A 1998 state law prohibits paying someone or being paid for collecting absentee ballots."
Nah! He just took pictures of the juicey parts!
Sheesh!
Stefan has been prepared to view and copy this binder for a couple of weeks now! Do you think he would risk having to make another appointment to visit King County to view the binder?
I believe he was thorough in obtaining all 'relevant' information from the binder...
Posted by: Deborah on March 11, 2005 11:04 PMFormer Att Gen would now have much more success with a watering tour. Drive around the state in a big tanker full of H2O....educating us all on the greenhouse effect.
Posted by: MB on March 11, 2005 11:07 PMBTW, you seem to have some particular insight about Shark's binder event, so perhaps you can tell us how many pages the binder contained?
Posted by: Daniel K on March 11, 2005 11:22 PM"We have over 1500 fellow Americans who are now DEAD, thousands wounded and a $300 billion dollar expense"
And we had about 3000 dead at a cost of about a trillion dollars on 9/11.
Say what you want about Iraq not being responsible, the middle east had to change for our own safety. It looks like Bush got it exactly right and you nay-sayers are just holding a bag of poop.
When it is done, there will be another peace dividend. But then you demmies can't figure out that security is just good business. That is why your national political minotiry status looks permanent.
dB
Posted by: dB on March 11, 2005 11:55 PMThe BIG BINDER is like a hardcore PORNO magazine which lead Dean Logan and Bill Huennekens to PREMATURE CERTIFICATION!
Can you imagine these 2 DOOFUS's (or DOOFAE, as has been previously suggested) trying to figure out what in the hell to do with this mess???
What did Election Official Logan report to Canvassing Board member Logan (and his faithful sidekick bloodhound Larry Phillips)?
Discrepancies were required to be identified, investigated and reported before the 1ST CERTIFICATION!!
All documents and changes should be signed AND dated. When were these CHANGES made to documents, when were "companion documents" created and BY WHOM. WHEN & BY WHOM?
Where are the SOURCE DOCUMENTS to support each and EVERY number on those various documents?
Assume nothing with these bozo's!
Logan & Huenneken's---the Abbott & Costello of elections. Who's on first? No, Who's on second...what's on first?
I don't expect that there will be ZERO human error - only that the errors are properly acknowledged and documented. You still haven't explained why the "corrections" to the Bothel precinct records shouldn't have at least been dated, or at least initialed. We are left with official election documents with untraceable and unexplained changes, and ZERO accountability.
And we still must wonder why every precinct in some counties were able to accurately account for all of their ballots, while so many KingCo precincts (of comparable size) managed to screw things up so badly....
Posted by: Patrick on March 12, 2005 07:03 AMNelson: You keep up this 'end justifies the means' conversation, you will only inspire others to do unto you and your ilk that which you have done to others. Therein would lie the destruction of the institutions, the faith, and our experiment in democracy. Not acceptable, and I do not appreciate your attempts to get others to respond in kind.
Folks, this is one more part of the overall attempt to bring accountability to the system and the purveyors of the status quo. It's clear to me that the checks and balances we are often told about are NOT working, and is destroying the trust in the system. While we have those mindless little miscreants speaking about the need for open systems and visibility in electonic voting, it merely points out to me that they desire to protect their little dark secret means of protecting their corrupt current system.
We demand that visibility and accountability be applied consistently and fairly to ALL aspects of governmental operations, including elections!
It becomes clear to me that the reason that one party has run roughshod over this state for so long is NOT because of the populace, but because they set up a self perpetuating system to keep themselves in power DESPITE the will of the people. In other times of this nations' history, that would have rightly been labeled tyranny.
Thanks to Shark and the continuing efforts of others, we have a signal opportunity to see the corruption, malfeasance, and the system that has been created to keep doing things unto us.
Keep up the good work, all. Seriously.
Posted by: Patches Pal on March 12, 2005 08:05 AMThe LEFTIST Pukes continue to minimize and marginalize each independent discrepancy and throw out comments like we are demanding 100% perfection.
That is not the point PUKES! The point is errors and neglect that contributed to a 129 vote difference. ALL unexplained discrepancies, illegal votes etc....all add up to way more than the 129 vote difference. If the difference were 5,000 votes....we probably wouldn't be having this contest. BUT IT AIN'T!!!!!!!
Good job.
What did you accomplish?
What did you prove?
What is your point?
Thanks for the amusing comments.
As far as LEFTISTS crawling out from under their Rock by the "crack of noon"...that's a goodun Not Erik!! Perhaps crawling out of their CRACKS is more appropo!
Posted by: Mr. Cynical on March 12, 2005 12:23 PMTo those of you who posted thoughtful replies to my posts, thank you. I appreciate your opinions and efforts to convey them.
To those of you who have so little respect for others who might see things somewhat differently that you can only resort to names and insults, I wish you the best, but you won't win new friends and convert the opposition with such a tactic.
Posted by: Unkl Witz on March 12, 2005 10:40 PMWhat would we do without you (other than have to leave our homes to watch freaks like you on Broadway)?
And the rest of you guys ought to know better than to even bother trying to pursue intelligent dialogue with these poster children for failed social reform.
Engaging with these acid-popping, rope-smoking, Castro-worshipping, two-legged freakshows is an exercise in futility. Trying to introduce reality to a moonbat is like trying to polish a turd. You can work at it until you collapse from exhaustion, but in the end, a moonbat is still a moonbat and a turd is still a turd. And the smell and social value of either one is pretty much the same.
I am waiting for you mobile freakshows to come up with some witty double-entendre or snappy rejoinder. As soon as you finish your joints. Go ahead, dumpster child. I have time...
Oh! I fear I may be run through with your rapier-like wit! Oh, who will spare me? (sarcasm off)
Posted by: ERNurse on March 14, 2005 07:24 PMYou are boring.
Sincerely,
Amused
Posted by: Amused by liberals on March 15, 2005 08:14 PMThanks to ER for all the light you've shed on this topic. I can't say as I've ever been called that many names in a single post. My congratulations.
And thanks to Amused for his highly entertaining post. I can only aspire to such heights.
Posted by: Unkl Witz on March 16, 2005 05:05 PM