Sound Politics: The building that won't solve the problems

July 19, 2005

The building that won't solve the problems

As Judge John Bridges said in his tonguelashing of King County Elections at the outset of his ruling last month:

the evidence here suggests that the problems require more than just constructing new buildings and hiring more staff.

Amazing but true, even the Democrats on the King County Council are questioning the wisdom of Ron Sims' new election building.

Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at July 19, 2005 11:38 AM | Email This

Comments

1. I wonder...

How will a new building protect voters from permanent marking of 50,000 ballots by partisan political operatives?

How will a new building protect voters from 35,000+ provisional ballots, many cast illegally, but validated by partisan political operatives?

How will a new building keep felons off the voting rolls?

How will a new building keep the dead from voting, or non-citizens from voting when Democrat Elections officials are desperate to count every vote?

How will a new building negate the impact of the 3-member Elections Board that is controlled by partisan Democrats in King County who are determined to count every vote, no matter the validity or the accuracy of the voter intent determination?

Instead of paying $23 million to build more government assets and grow government more, why don't we just spend a fraction of that to bring in some Elections experts from Venezuela to bring our standards up, at least, to the fine levels achieved there?

That might make a reasonable first step in a county with no real interest at all in thwarting election fraud and corruption.

Posted by: Mike on July 19, 2005 12:40 PM

2. A broken watch is correct twice a day. That makes a broken watch twice as good as Democrats today.

Posted by: swassociates on July 19, 2005 12:46 PM

3. Mike,

Question asked...AND answered.

Posted by: Danny on July 19, 2005 12:46 PM

4. Mike, I'd love to see Ron Sims at a press conference and you as the press challenging him with these questions.

Posted by: Shannon K on July 19, 2005 12:59 PM

5. KCDems arn't stupid. They know they at least need a fig leaf to hide behind. They'll question and complain for a while, and eventually do whatever King Sims tells them to, and declare victory.

Posted by: Cliff Smith on July 19, 2005 01:15 PM

6. The council is showing its fall political colors early this year! hmmmm. Wonder if they will also deny Ron three times.

Posted by: Elvis is the King County on July 19, 2005 01:19 PM

7. Mike, in fairness to the Canvassing Board, it has been Republican-controlled in the recent past, like up until four years ago or so when the Republicans last had the majority on the County Council. You could change the law for how the board is constituted, but it will always be made up of partisan individuals, with one party or the other having the greater number of members.

The best way to fix the voter intent situation was suggested about six months ago by, of all people, Dave Ross: Change the law to say, if the machine can't read the mark, you don't count it, and eliminate the manual recount. Put the burden entirely on the voter to fill out his ballot according to the instructions. If they follow the instructions, the vote is counted; if not, it is not.

Posted by: Legast on July 19, 2005 01:21 PM

8. The lefty liberal Democrats won the battle of the 2004 Fraud Election. The most scarded and falsely tally election in Washingtons history. They, the liberals, don't want to change a thing, why should they, they won! They can't wait to do it again. It is a winning formula. We too must use the same 'new' standard set by the liberals to beat them at their own game.

But I have little faith that the Republicans have the spine, guts and will power do win at any cost. Just look at who we have there now, Reed & Co..
Do you see anybody out there who can take conservative ideas and fight to win. I dont.

Posted by: Son of Liberty on July 19, 2005 01:30 PM

9. Steal the election and then turn the fiasco into a works project and get some more democrats on the county payroll.

What balls.

Posted by: Brad on July 19, 2005 01:32 PM

10. I THINK ITS A GREAT IDEA....ITS ABOUT TIME ALL THE HOMELESS,FELONS, BACKPACKERS AND SLACKERS HAD A NEW ADDRESS TO REGISTOR TO VOTE AT..... MAYBE RON SIMMS WILL OPEN IT UP AT NIGHT SO WE CAN FEED THEM AND GIVE THEM A PLACE TO STAY TOO!!WE COULD JUST GIVE THEM ALL COUNTY JOBS.... BUT THAT WOULD INTERFERE WITH THEIR LIVE STYLE!!!

Posted by: TACOMA PHLASH on July 19, 2005 01:36 PM

11. It's about time the King county Council ?ed Simms judgement!!Sure took them a long time!!

Posted by: Laurie on July 19, 2005 01:54 PM

12. why don't they solve the problems FIRST; then they can talk about expensive digs. In other words, show us something GOOD before we throw more good money after bad.

Posted by: Michele on July 19, 2005 03:00 PM

13. And how DOES a new building keep them from looking at how voters voted in other races on the same ballot in order to 'create' a vote for that voter in the governor's race when there was none to begin with?

Posted by: Michele on July 19, 2005 03:02 PM

14. There should be a moratorium on building, purchasing, task forcing, blue ribbon committees, KC Executive and County council voting - on ANYTHING in King County until after the next election.

Everything in King County needs to grind to a screeching halt before the liberal Democrats devise anymore absurd plans for our money!

Nothing should be allowed to be considered in King County until the people get a working and corruption-free election system!

My God! They are arguing over a new election building in Rainier Valley? ACK! I'm from Rainier Valley..and that's the LAST place I would trust to have something as vital and hopefully non-partisan as an election processing center! And the alternative? To wait and use a building that isn't even completed yet? Er....How about actually fixing the election problems while you're waiting?

Posted by: Deborah on July 19, 2005 08:11 PM

15. Deborah, I couldn't agree with you more.It seems they aren't bright enought to figure that out for some reason. I hope David Irons is a strong enough candidate to send Ron out fo town on a rail! (excuse the Pun)

Posted by: Laurie on July 20, 2005 08:53 AM

16. Deborah--
"True. True," said the native Quequeg in Moby Dick. I've determined that action--any action--wasteful or not--is how KC operates so as to cross off agenda items on an "action list." They flail about like a loose waterhose and think that it's meaningful progress. Wasted energy. Time to stop it all & re-focus and change things.

Posted by: Jimmie-howya-doin on July 20, 2005 10:27 AM