Last week I mentioned the perfect vote fraud (Gregoire-Kastama fraud), which Christine Gregoire and the Democrats in the legislature enshrined into law this year. In a nutshell, the way to pull off this perfect vote fraud is to register under a fake name, claiming that you possess neither a WA driver's license, state ID card or a Social Security number, and then vote a provisional ballot on election day. While the loopholes that enable this fraud aren't new, it's appalling that the Democrats refused to close the loopholes this year when the Republicans were encouraging them to do so. It's especially galling that the Democrats cynically hid the explicit instructions for committing this fraud in the section of the legislation that pretends to require ID for voting at the polls.
One of the reasons this fraud is so perfect is that the Secretary of State's Office recognizes this to be a potential problem but is nevertheless powerless to do anything about it. The Evergreen Freedom Foundation sent me a portion of an e-mail exchange they had with SoS election officials on the subject of this potential vote fraud. The SoS Elections Office acknowledged its impotence in this quote:
Since we expect the number of people who have neither [driver's license, state ID or SS#] is few, the number of people who register without either forms of ID should be miniscule. If our office were to find a higher than expected number of voters registering without either ID after the state system is in place, we will find out why. If that inquiry reveals a basis for believing that voter registration fraud is occurring, we will turn over the evidence to law enforcement.Obviously, there's almost nothing that law enforcement can do about people who register by mail using phony names and addresses. I don't necessarily blame the SoS Office for their inability to prevent Gregoire-Kastama fraud now that it's the law, but it would have been nice if Sam Reed and his staffers had recognized the problem while the bill was being negotiated and had spoken out more aggressively to improve the integrity of the registration and voting process.
In the meantime, anybody who wishes to commit Gregoire-Kastama fraud has a simple way to immunize themselves from any possibility of being busted by "law enforcement" (and I say this sardonically, I definitely do NOT encourage people to commit vote fraud) -- Register under a Spanish name using the Spanish language voter registration form. You know that every Democrat activist group, Latino civil rights organization and immigrant rights group in the country will apply maximum political pressure not to disenfranchise anybody who submits a legally complete voter registration form using a Spanish-sounding name.
Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at June 28, 2005 05:33 PM | Email Thishttp://www.secstate.wa.gov/elections/pdf/vrRU.pdf
I wonder if they will still process your registration if you use Cyrillic letters to complete all of the requested information?
In addition to English, Spanish and Russian, Sam Reed is nice enough to allow voter registration in Chinese, Cambodian, Korean, Laotian and Vietnamese.
So what would happen if Sam Reed were to all of a sudden receive a few thousand or more registration forms from Russia, China, North Korea, Laos, Cambodia or Vietnam?
They could all be registered at the King County Elections office and have mailing address of, let's say, some North Korean military unit which the soldiers belonged to. And King County elections would have to mail out absentee ballots to the North Korean military units each time there was an election -- just make sure the soldiers check the permanent absentee box.
And it really wouldn't be too difficult to print these forms on the A4 paper that is most commonly used outside of North America. The PDF print function will automatically adjust the 8.5 x 11 image to different sizes of paper used for printing.
Posted by: Richard Pope on June 28, 2005 06:18 PMDo you suppose that in KC such registrations would be considered miniscule at 129?
Posted by: ipsi-dixit on June 28, 2005 06:18 PMAnyone know how I-912 is going? Are the numbers getting close?
Posted by: Gil on June 28, 2005 06:37 PMVOTE FOR PEDROPosted by: Skor Grimm on June 28, 2005 06:39 PM
Force them to reform the system and purge the rolls. Civil disobedience to take back our election system, our state, and our place as the source of sovereign power in our system.
Enough is enough! If they won't do what's right let's force the issue.
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Don't Tread On Me!
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As for your comments concerning the use of a Spanish name, do you spew that kind of stuff just to be provocative? If so, I've underestimated you.
Posted by: Northern Coho on June 28, 2005 07:31 PM"It follows that those attempting vote fraud would be a miniscule fraction of a miniscule fraction"
Kind of like 785 out of 3 million?
Posted by: Aaron on June 28, 2005 07:39 PMStefan merely pointed out the FACT that the Democratic party takes non-white voters for granted, but will suddenly take up arms if their perceived constituency is challenged. Are you saying that the Seattle Latino community on average is more likely to vote Republican?
Posted by: Mark on June 28, 2005 07:41 PMIf you guys could see beyond the foam spewing from your mouths, maybe you would stop suggesting "reforms" designed to discourage legitimate voters (read that, "Democrats") from voting. But then again, vote suppression is the Republican election weapon of choice.
Posted by: Northern Coho on June 28, 2005 07:46 PM1. If you think this voting scheme requires "a lot of effort" and/or "a very good memory" it says a great deal more about your capacity than the scheme.
2. Despite your characterizations of the democrats "avenue of fraud," either they left it in place or they didn't. Obviously genius -- they didn't.
3. Simple obvious efforts to prevent fraud are not by any stretch of credibility calls for "perfect security," just common sense.
As for your typical pompous liberal insinuation about racism, you have overestimated yourself.
Thanks for the liberal humor. Take another shot at it using facts and logic, or shut up stupid.
Posted by: Amused by liberal morons on June 28, 2005 07:46 PMI'm sure he would *expect* additional ballots from these COMMUNIST countries - considering the recent oppressive socialist/communist policies, laws and ordinances enacted in this state! We are going RED - but not Republican red.... Heck - We all knew Gary Locke spent way too much time in China during his time in office...and....Oh my God! Gregoire loves to visit France!
This is the kind of stuff I love to read. I love it. Forget it, Northern Coho. People in Iraq were threatend with shootings, suicide bombings and all sorts of other nastiness and they still came out and voted, and you want to cry because you might have to prove that you're you and a citizen of the US in order to excersize your right to vote? I suppose you have no problem with someone ID'ing your for beer, cigarettes, airline flights, credit card transactions, and all that, but when it comes to excerszing force on a political level, it should be just wide open to anybody with a dot matrix printer who can print up a gov't looking envelope?
Are you people aware that the United States is NOT a democracy? That it is a constitution-based federal republic, with strong democratic traditions (as per CIA, The World Factbook, http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/us.html)? What does this mean? Well, it means that we are a representative democracy. That means that in order to excersize total power, one party only has to win 50%+1 in a majority of districts, which can be achieved without including the numerical majority of public citizens. This becomes a serious problem when that majority is acheived in the legislature and then an election as close as this one occurs, during which errors and omissions and outright criminal acts led to one party capturing the executive office.
I expect this kind of s**t in the country I work in, Kyrgyzstan. They're kind of new at this republic thing, not really 100% moved from communism over to the new style. What I can not believe is that it took place in my home state.
Posted by: Aaron on June 28, 2005 07:54 PMYou left out a word:
"ILLEGAL vote suppression is the Republican election weapon of choice"
And that's a result of the fact that one of the Democrats' main election weapons is to allow illegal votes.
Either this loophole was left in, or it wasn't. If it wasn't, you'd be pointing out that fact. Therefore, you admit that this loophole WAS left in the law. And this loophole was left in by a legislature ruled by Democrats, after a Democrat was elected Governor by the slimmest of margins in the most screwed up election in anyone's memory.
It either is or it isn't. You've acknowledged that it IS. So what's your point?
Posted by: Larry on June 28, 2005 07:58 PMAt what point did the Feds step into Chicago?
Unless there has been some deal made in the US Congress to allow the West Coast to become a Socialist/communist entity within the United States of America...I would see our State election corruption as a threat to our National Security...
I mean...isn't this what we are fighting against right now in the world? Wasn't Bush's speech tonight about freeing the people of the Middle East from oppressive rule and corruption? Didn't he spotlight the recent elections in Iraq and Afghanistan as models for democracy?
How can we send our troops out to fight for the freedom of others to be able to vote without corruption and fraud - when these same troops cannot vote freely without corruption and fraud in their own country?
There is something very wrong here....
It also says volumes about those prepetrating this fraud, those tolerating the fraud, and those standing by.
The purple thumb dipped in indelible ink.
Posted by: William on June 28, 2005 09:29 PM
You stack it pretty high.
Please - if we're going to insist on using the SoS's high-falutin' language, let's at least not perpetuate their error. The word is MINUSCULE.
Posted by: Patrick on June 28, 2005 10:51 PMIn one sense, that's not a bad idea at all. Just because there are numerous fraudulent registrations to prove the weakness of the system, does not mean that anyone would actually have to actually vote under these fraudulent registrations. It would prove a point, without actually harming a real election.
I still don't encourage this though, why stoop to the level of the Moonbats who fraudulently cast ballots in this past election.
I think a better solution is to wait and see how I-912 goes. I have a feeling it's going to go quite well. I'll be down at the Tacoma Tall ships this 4th weekend collecting signatures. They expect over 400,000 people down along the waterfront this weekend. If the weather holds up, the numbers could be even higher.
Once we succeed with one initiative, there's no reason why we can't draft another initiative, have even more time to collect signatures, and correct the vote fraud loopholes ourselves.
If Olympia is not listening, then the people must take the process into their own hands.
Oppressors and Leftists from Tiannamen Square forward made one fatal miscalculation. They never counted on the power of the Internet.
Posted by: Jeff B. on June 28, 2005 11:49 PMWhy our WA ballots are in anything other than English is a shame to me. Not that using another language is "wrong," but it's pandering and a waste of tax money for govenmental issues.
What happened to assimilation TO a country YOU CHOSE? America did not come & scoop you up. Why the special passes for every culture. I saw a WA government sign recently containing nearly 10 languages. That's crazy. Learn our culture or don't participate.
Posted by: Jimmie-howya-doin on June 29, 2005 05:52 AMThe legislature does not rent videos, but the relative i.d. importance is lost on them. Voting ease overrules voting intergity. A travesty.
Posted by: Jimmie-howya-doin on June 29, 2005 09:54 AMhttp://uscis.gov/graphics/services/natz/ clearly states one of the requirements for naturalization as:
"an ability to read, write, and speak English;"
By the way, my 5-year old daughter couldn't get a library card IN PERSON today without providing evidence that we live in the city we live in. If only our system of voting were half as secure.