The Ron Sims "independent task force on elections" seems to be less interested in figuring out how to fix King County's disastrous management of the November 2004 election than it is in serving up statewide policy recommendations for unrelated and frightening election "reforms". Today's Times reports on some proposals that were presented at yesterday's meeting, to be approved (or not) when the board concludes at the end of the month.
Switch King County to all-mail voting. Last November nearly two out of every three voters in King County voted by mail, and the task force said an all-mail election would simplify the counting process. Now the county essentially runs two elections, by mail and by polling place.Oy vay. There were enough problems in the mail ballot operation in King County last November that simply increasing its workload by 50% would not have prevented the meltdown. Indeed, unlike the problems at the polling places which were observed by many people and are relatively well understood, there has been almost no public discussion of what went wrong at MBOS. We'll probably never know. But yes, all-mail voting would simplify elections, as would eliminating elections altogether and picking the winner by flipping a coin. And frankly, I think I prefer coin-tossing to all-mail voting which has too many opportunities for fraud, manipulation and error. The main argument in favor of all-mail voting?Polling places would be eliminated under the proposal
"I'm a believer," said task force member Philip Eaton, president of Seattle Pacific UniversityDr. Eaton and his peers on the task force, through the task force's staff, politely declined my invitation to test his beliefs about mail balloting by joining me to take a closer look at the work product of King County's mail ballot processing outfit.
I would be more impressed if the task force ultimately stops short of recommending a switch to all-mail voting and instead recommends a comprehensive study of various options for upgrading the elections system. By all means include all-mail voting in that study, and do a side-by-side comparison of its pros and cons along with the other alternatives. But it's irresponsible to simply let belief and hope triumph over experience.
So, mail-in ballots is not about finding the most accurate method of holding an election or the least likely to have fraud. It is about the reality that too many people can't be sure if they will be able to vote if they have to vote in person.
You can keep up you war on mail-in voting. Unfortunately, because King County elections are corrupt, you might well be able to say "I told you so," if we have another close election.
But, really, the fraud and corruption is a different matter. As long as the same corrupt group is running the show, elections will be corrupted regardless of the voting method.
So, ultimately, the solution is to clean up King County elections. Get rid of Ron Sims and his lackey Logan.
Posted by: BananaLand(aka Iguana) on July 16, 2005 11:33 AMI really would like to see a photo copy of a picture id submitted with every absentee ballot that shows the name, address and signature of the voter. So that it can be compared with the one on file with the voter registration card which needs a photo and a signature!
Have a great week!
Posted by: sgmmac on July 16, 2005 12:31 PMA donkey singing "I am a believer."
Does anyone else see the irony of our liberal Democrat State Legislature - pushing to move all counties to All Mail Voting - at the same time our state is embroiled in the worst election controversy in history? And that controversy was largely due to absentee voting? So many problems, errors and questionable votes in our absentee ballots caused the inability to know exactly how many ballots were sent out and returned? Why on earth would they blindly force the public to vote in a flawed manor that makes it easy for fraud?
King County admitted they have many *unsigned* registration cards -and they use them to check the validity of the absentee voters? How in the heck do they do this?
Are the people supposed to just stand by and gasp in horror while the Liberal Democrats force this upon us? I don't think so!
Iguana - No one is talking about taking away your right to vote absentee - THEY ARE FORCING EVERYONE TO VOTE ABSENTEE! And by forcing this voting system on us - they are eliminating the people's choice and voice in this matter.
The liberal Democrats are forcing the All Mail (absentee) voting system on the voters of Washington State for one reason only ....
TO COMMIT FRAUD AND STEAL THE FUTURE ELECTIONS.
There simply must be a law to stop this madness!
Posted by: Deborah on July 16, 2005 11:41 PMIf there is no such initiative, nothing will be done to clean up elections and it can be done -even with all-mail voting. However, hand wringing here will not help anything. It is time to be proactive and utilize the will of the people, which we all know is different from any independent commission. Time to start making lemonade out of these lemons.
If I-912 can do it, so can an initiative like this !
Posted by: KS on July 17, 2005 09:39 PM