I e-mailed Nick Handy earlier to thank him for promptly sending the information that nailed the case that King County failed to mail all of the required overseas and military ballots on time and also misrepresented the facts:
It looks pretty clear now that King County's own documents contradict what they told your office last October, and that its misrepesentations induced Secretary Reed to issue a false statement in his press release on October 8th. Will the Secretary of State's office issue a public statement correcting the record and retract some of its earlier comments to the effect that Republicans were making false accusations about military and overseas ballots not going out on time?Handy's response:
Stefan,I'd be more convinced by Handy's response if heI have not reviewed your materials.
I understand King County is still taking the position that ballots went out timely and I have another blogger advising your information is simply not correct.
So far as I am aware, King County met state law requirements.We were making efforts to ensure compliance with federal requirements under the Federal Voting Assistance Program. It is my understanding that the FVAP did not have any complaints from military personnel regarding issuance of Washington State ballots.
(a) reviewed and addressed the information I sent him before he dismissed it
(b) shared whatever unspecified information it was from the unnamed other blogger that he seems to think is worth considering
(c) didn't try to evade the issue with weaselly statements like "ballots went out timely". I've never disputed that some ballots went out timely. The issue is whether all ballots went out timely, which is pretty clearly not the case.
Forgive me if I conclude that the Reed/Handy way to "restore confidence in the voting process" is to look the other way when confidence-lowering facts present themselves.
Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at August 05, 2005 07:25 PM | Email ThisWhy work and try to uncover the facts? Their minds are made up!!!
Posted by: Norm on August 5, 2005 07:33 PMUntil we turn our all the SOBs currently in office nothing will change. Only by a through housecleaning will we begin to see any change.
I have give up on the idea of any meaningful reform from any of the current crop of elected officials.
Posted by: JCM on August 5, 2005 08:30 PMI guess they are hoping that if they ignore it, this will go away, and nobody will know that they were beaten to the story again.
Posted by: BananaLand (aka Iguana) on August 5, 2005 08:32 PM"It is my understanding that the FVAP did not have any complaints from military personnel regarding issuance of Washington State ballots."
Were there not more than a few complaints on the behalf of some overseas military personnel regarding this? If so, Handy's statement is ridiculous.
He has 'another blogger advising' him? Oh, wonderful. With all due respect to this wonderful cottage industy - regardless of who the blogger is, why would that inspire any confidence in his opinion?
If he's going to examine and evaluate the evidence, that's one thing. Taking King County at face value and being advised by bloggers is simply not sufficient to fulfill his responsibilities as State Elections Director.
"I understand"..."So far as I am aware"..."It is my understanding"..... In other words, I have not independently verified these facts, but I understand them to be true.
No one here ever bought their claims that the absentee ballots were mailed on time. King County elections never could produce adequate receipts for proof of mailing and their hand written log was less than acceptable.
In Nick Handy's reply, he seems to be in denial of the severe chastising the SoS's office received from the Department of Justice regarding the late mailings of Military ballots! This wasn't a non-issue.
Stefan,
I'd say to send all you've uncovered on the late mailings of the King County absentee ballots to the Department of Justice - (attention it to the person who sent Sam Reeds office the warning about late mailings). If they fail to respond - then we - in this state - ........Oh God...I don't even want to think about it.....
Handy isn't acting so handy right now. I can't believe the state's elections office is heavily in HIS hands. No wonder everything is so screwed up. These people want to shove everything under the rug as much as possible. Keep at it. the truth has to come out.
Posted by: Michele on August 5, 2005 09:53 PMConsidering that Whitman County claimed to have not gotten back a single military or overseas ballot, I am sure that some people never got their ballot. Considering that statewide around 75% of overseas ballots that were concerned, the odds of getting 0 returned out of a sample of over 200 is 3 x 10^-134
Posted by: Michael on August 5, 2005 10:11 PMHe is just as much in denial as Sims, Logan and company. Everyday this gets more comical and more unbelievable.
I admire your desire to hope that Handy and Reed would do the right thing.
Unfortunately Handy is nothing more than a political hack. It has already been proven that he was not particularly qualified for the job in the first place. He has also proven himself to be an apologist for the King County Elections Dept.
Why would he change now?
Don't worry though, after the 2008 elections when Reed is voted out, he will soon be forgotten.
Good riddance!
Posted by: jaybo on August 6, 2005 07:55 AMThe fact that Nick Handy is not interested comes as no surprise. The fact that he has chosen to take the word of another blogger really aggravates me.
Posted by: cc on August 6, 2005 09:51 AMYou are more than forgiven, Stefan, since that's what about everybody I know thinks by now, too.
Posted by: jsa on August 6, 2005 02:19 PM