The Kitsap County Commission voted last month to abolish public voting and adopt all-mail voting. Chris Shardelman is asking the Commission to reconsider. He claims that arguments made by the Kitsap Auditor were bogus.
Her letter to a local newspaper follows.
Dean Logan's wife, by the way, is Kitsap's deputy auditor.
Has the Auditor sufficiently scared the County Commissioners and voters into accepting all-mail voting by threatening them with $732,000 for 150 voting devices for the handicapped?
Help America Vote Act (HAVA) requires only one per polling place, not per precinct. Kitsap has 28 polling places, and federal HAVA funding will pay for those 28. The other 122 devices are not needed, because paper ballots remain legal. Keeping the polls open gives those with handicaps the ability to use the voting devise. They will not come out of the Commissioners' budet, which is the reason Commissioners gave for voting yes the first time.
All-mail voting will require 20 to 30 additional election employees for 25 days to process the extra mail ballots, with possible overtime pay. Signature verifiers and leaders pay scale will exceed the pay scale of previous poll workers for the one day they worked..
All-mail voting removes the ability to account for each ballot. Were those not returned stolen, delivered to the wrong person, or eaten by the dog? All of us, whether receiving mail in rural boxes or post office boxes, has experienced misplaced mail. Consider how much more will be required of postal officials when additional ballots flood the mails. The Auditor calls it “reconciling” ballots, but only accounts for only those returned, not all that were sent out. Poll workers must account for each ballot given to live voters. After the 2004 election fiasco, many voters have said they will never vote by mail again.
The Constitution Article 6(4)is explicit regarding the limited categories of voters who can use absentee votes. It has been ignored, allowing everyone the opportunity to vote absentee. To expand the categories should be done by the legislature by referring an amendment to the people. Art. 6(6) states we are to have security and absolute secrecy in preparing and depositing our ballots. That requires a privacy booth and being able to deposit your ballot in the ballot box, not in unsecured mails.
The Auditor owes voters full disclosure regarding the number of voting devices truly required by HAVA, rather than scaring them into closing the more secure polling places. She needs to give the figures for the additional employees required to process all-mail ballots. The Pierce County Auditor’s figures proved all-mail voting to be more expensive.
Please, no King County type elections! Kitsap doesn't need bins of absentee ballots suddenly appearing, or being lost! That fiasco has left most voters distrustful of elections. Let's maintain the most secure, accountable method by voting at the polls. The County Commissioners should reconsider their votes August 8th, when they have the opportunity to revote on the all-mail voting being forced on all voters.
Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at August 06, 2005 08:19 AM | Email ThisCurrent elections officials will get their wish--bypassing the 'citizen-only' and 'positive i.d.' requirements and opening up a Pandora's box of signature verifications and hassles.
It will be sold on the convenience feature. It has no mention of re-registration to purge rolls of disqualified voters. Dark days ahead. Nothing really changed. John Fund--where art thou?
Posted by: Jimmie-howya-doin on August 6, 2005 08:59 AMOne thing I wish the Republicans had done was to take about 4-5 highly Democratic Precindts & Republican Precindts in King County and send out a "Confirmation Letter" to each registered voter that shows they were either credited for voting in November, 2004 or not credited for voting and ask them to please respond if the "Confirmation Letter" was incorrect.
Perhaps a necessary step in all mail voting will be some sort of confirmation process.
Posted by: Mr. Cynical on August 6, 2005 09:50 AMThe piece of the puzzle that isn't widely discussed is that the majority of provisional ballot voters are people who did not receive their absentee ballot, or received the incorrect ballot for their precinct, received a mis-printed or unreadable ballot, etc.
That category of voters will still be with us, and eliminating the polling places will make it much harder for someone, who was forced to vote absentee in the first place, get a replacement ballot when their original ballot never arrives or is not up to snuff.
Thos people will have to drive down to the election office to be helped - have you ever tried to find parking in downtown Seattle on a weekday, the only days they are open?
Posted by: Good Grief on August 6, 2005 10:51 AMIf these people are not astute enough to know when the ballots were mailed out....or care enough to follow-up if they don't receive the ballot within a few days of the mailing....why shouldn't it be the VOTERS responsibility at some point in time.
By the way...what do you think about some type of "confirmation program" to validate that the voter given credit for voting actually voted. Or that if the voter wasn't credited but DID vote??
Posted by: Mr. Cynical on August 6, 2005 11:10 AMThe County Comissioners turned her down.
Posted by: Igor on August 6, 2005 11:54 AMIt is simple as that. And you cannot make that quarantee with mail ballots. That simple problem eliminates mail ballots as a viable solution to vote verification.
If someone can't haul their backside down to the polling place to vote, too bad. If it is too inconvenient for you to vote, you do not value your franchise enough and shouldn't be voting in the first place.
Voting is too important too leave it open to abuse.
To clean up the voting mess we need three basic elements
1) Purge the rolls.
2) Re-registration with citizenship and residency verification.
3) In person voting with ID confirmation.
Any other solution is will just let the counters determine the winner.
Posted by: JCM on August 6, 2005 12:26 PMI've suggested many times (even to our legislature in Toby Nixon) to build in some check and balance if one wants to go to all mail voting or better yet, have a checked mail voting and secure polling voting.
Here's what needs to be done:
1. Provisional ballots need to have a different color (this eliminates most of the problems people keep harping about like lack of training etc).
2. Eliminate permant absentee voting.
3. Each registered voter receives a card in the mail with information about polling place and a check box to apply for (one time ) absentee voting.
4. If voter needs to/wants to vote absentee, they send the card back with the box checked. They will get an absentee ballot in the mail.
(yes, someone can still send the card for someone else, but...)
5. If you don't vote absentee, you take your card to the polling station and surrender it against a ballot. In both cases, you count the ballots handed out vs. cards received and you have an easy reconciliation.
That would be easy to do, and easy to administer. People who don't get the card or loose it, etc. still can vote with provisional ballots.
For military voters and people outside the country the rules need to be slightly different and can be handled as such.
Posted by: FG on August 6, 2005 12:48 PMThat, Mr. C, is one of the biggest reasons NOT to support VBM. Duh!
If you really believe that handing your vote to the mailman (person), to be delivered to a processing facility is such a wonderful idea, why don't you send cash through our trusty postal system? While your at it, include a note with your SS and bank account numbers.
Come on! Ask the Britt's about "Postal Voting" and election security.
Ask Ralph Nader about Oregon's "transparent and fraud free" mail ballot system! Hey, did you know, the Oregon SoS claimed their last election had zero fraud using VBM... ZERO! If you believe that, I have a viaduct to sell you.
If VBM is the end all be all, what are you going to say when there is some "October Surprise" and you voted for the candidate who smokes crack, IN SEPTEMBER.
VOTERS responsibility
ALL VOTE MY MAIL ELIMINATES RESPONSIBILITY - BOTH PERSONAL AND OFFICIAL. VBM ENABLES ELECTION FRAUD.period.
Then there is the advantage to the political parties. They can send their "workers" out to track the ballots. They will have three weeks to get them to vote, instead of just one day. Aunt Milly will be visited by nice people who want to "help" her vote. No more "last minute" reminders, we will have a Month of reminders.
Hey, this is going to better then sliced bread!
Posted by: Splatter on August 6, 2005 01:34 PMTell me, why would you trust VBM and distrust Poll booths? Are you claustrophobic?
VOTE BY MAIL FRAUD is not the answer. It is part of the problem.
Posted by: Splatter on August 6, 2005 03:03 PMCan I sue the county if they do not let me vote in person? Wouldn't that be a violation of my constitutional rights?
Posted by: Larry on August 6, 2005 03:07 PMThe state enacts all Vote by Mail and extends the voting period, allowing voters to cast ballots at their convenience.
The mail person delivers your ballot, on time, to your current home address. You take your time. Research the issues, study the candidates, then, using your trusty #2 pencil, fill in the ovals, sign, seal and place in your mail box. So simple, easy and fast! Heck, you cast your ballot two weeks early.
Four days before election deadline the Media outlet report a "scandal" involving a government official. The candidate you voted for, "allegedly" molested two young boys and admitted offering up employment for gay sex.
You're disgusted and outraged but your ballot has been cast. Cast for a crooked pervert.
The price we pay for convenience.
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This didn't happen, and it won't, right?
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George W. Bush's 1976 drunken driving arrest five days before the 2000 election.
Ross Perot's unsubstantiated contention nine days before the 1992 election that Republicans had planned to sabotage his daughter's wedding.
Indictment four days before the 1992 election of former Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger contradicting George H.W. Bush's assertion that he didn't know about the Iran-Contra arms deals
Posted by: Splatter on August 6, 2005 03:45 PMAll cereal boxes would come with a voters ballot on it, and each box would contain as its "prize" a sticker with the name of candidate. Crappy, sugary cereals (like Count Chocula) would have democrat ballots and boring (but good for you) cereals (like Shredded Wheat) would have the Republican ones. The useless ones like Meuslix would have the ballots for independents ;'}
If you didn't get the one you wanted, you could always trade for one (I'll give you five Sam Reeds for a Dino Rossi!). Of course 80% of the boxes would contain the Joker sticker (Jim McDimwitt), which encourages you to throw the damn thing away and open another box.
The way I see it, if no one in authority is interested in serious reforms, then we might as well have fun with it!
Posted by: alphabet soup on August 6, 2005 05:16 PMMr. C....
Have you forgotten this little *glitch* in our absentee ballot program?
"AP reports: The mail ballot supervisor in Washington state's most populous county testified Wednesday that she had raised concerns about the county's inability to track ballots months before last year's disputed governor's race.
Click Here
The supervisor, Nicole Way, said she repeatedly told her bosses as early as spring 2004 that the King County elections department couldn't tell how many ballots were being mailed out or received back. About two-thirds of the county's 900,000 votes in the November election were mail ballots."
If the most populous county in the state can't even handle the most elementary task of knowing how many ballots they've mailed out or received back.....how can you have any confidence in any county's all mail voting system?
Posted by: Deborah on August 6, 2005 08:17 PMPeople who are going to be out of town or otherwise cannot make it to the polls on Election Day should be allowed to vote early by going to the Elections office and voting at an "early voting polling place," as is done in many states.
People who are infirm should be allowed to request that a ballot be brought to them by an Elections office courier team (more than one person), who will verify the person's identity, verify that the infirm person votes in private, and then take the ballot away with them.
At no time should a ballot ever be out of the sight and control of elections workers.
Posted by: Legast on August 6, 2005 08:26 PMThanks for giving credit where credit is due. Unfortunately Chris is both male and female in use. In this case it is female and she is very astute.
AJ
Most vote fraud in the United States is committed with mailed ballots. If you want to increase vote fraud, you will want to increase the use of mailed ballots.
It may be politically impossible to reduce them to the minimum absolutely necessary, but I think we can discourage people from using them by putting more controls on them -- for example by requiring ballots to have witness signatures, as well as voter signatures. And we should do everything we can to stop them from becoming the default way to vote.
Posted by: Jim Miller on August 7, 2005 11:55 AMIf our local government is going to try to force us into All Mail Voting - they should have to make the system as secure as possible first!
The first thing I would insist on is to re-register all voters in the state with mandatory identification. I'm not talking about some silly utility bill! I mean a drivers license and social security card. The drivers license must show current residence and the Social security card must be valid for proof of citizenship.
They must also make the processing of the ballots uniform throughout the state. No more questionable processing centers such as PSI....King County and the other counties must provide their own processing and printing with their own employees and use only the US Postal service for mailing. They must have a means to audit every step of the way.
All steps of the absentee ballot processing - especially the King County facility - must be recorded and video taped with security cameras 24/7. (If any convenience store can do this..something as sacred as our votes should be as secure!)
In the bank - our computer systems record every user who enters a system. Their user ID is recorded and their access is tracked. If there is a problem - it is easy to find who accessed a specific system at any given time and exactly what they did. This should be a no-brainer for our elections software.
The first years of All Absentee voting in our state should be overseen by a National Election committee with no access restrictions.
These are just some ideas that make sense and should have been considered PRIOR to our legislature's vote to accept All Mail Voting!
Makes one wonder..what on earth they were thinking....
Posted by: Deborah on August 7, 2005 07:28 PMHowever, I'm not convinced mail voting is still o.k. for most of us. Illegals and fraud are my biggest issues. Also, noting your responsibility comment, this whole "enhancement" notion troubles me--the "assumed intent" thing.
Hey--if you screw up the paperwork, you lose. We don't enhance major professional exams or kids' school exams when "ovals" aren't darkened properly, right? I'll bet everyone completes the Reader's Digest Sweeps forms correctly, yet their own VOTING ballots are a mess!
Posted by: Jimmie-howya-doin on August 8, 2005 05:08 AMWhat about the deadline for getting ballots in the mail?...Postmarked midnight the day of election?
Election results will be delayed 4 or 5 days after the election waiting for the democrat supporting union postal worker to deliver the ballots? Plenty of time for manipulation of the results.
The VBM is a crazy scheme.
Signed
SCAB postal worker in Nebraska (A Right-to-Work state)
An aquaintence of mine has had the opportunity to run into Karen Flynn on occassion. She is still an adamant supporter of Dean Logan.
Posted by: Shannon C on August 8, 2005 10:11 AMMoving to All Mail Voting only reduces the kind of ballots by one-polling place. If there were just polling place voting there wouln't be any need for the other ballots. With All Mail Voting you still have provisional (replaced with reprinted ballots), military, absentee and permanent absentee. They will still have to check to see if someone voted twice like they do now.
Posted by: Shannon C on August 8, 2005 04:59 PMAll I'm saying is that controlling one process MAY be easier than multiple processes that overlap. DIG??
Posted by: Mr. Cynical on August 8, 2005 07:41 PMhow about the myriad of unintelligible scribbles and "x's" made by illegal aliens? this is like landing your spacecraft in the midst of a doctors' prescription writing conference!! didn't they set the standard for penmanship? so how can we expect staffers to become writing experts?
I'll go with the purged voting rolls + picture i.d. + proof of citizenry all at the same time or somehow incorporated beforehand; maybe we give up some freedom for fingerprints or retinal scans; anything else is just spittin' in the wind; all comes down to how you feel it's important vs. other matters; relative value; is voting important or is some other governmental function like free school lunches or homeless shelters more deserving of our time? I know my perferences; how about you?
Posted by: Jimmie-howya-doin on August 8, 2005 10:38 PMWhat does All Mail Voting do to a citizens right to challenge what they believe is an illegal vote? Don't our election laws say that a citizen has to challenge an illegal vote within so much time of the election?
How is anyone going to be able to challenge any illegal vote or voter if all votes are sent in absentee? It seems like a free ticket for more illegal aliens to vote unchallenged...
Before any county adopts the All Mail Voting policy - the State must first reconcile this new approach to voting with our WAC, RCW and constitutional laws.....(and while they're at it - they can improve on some of our vague election laws!)
Posted by: Deborah on August 8, 2005 10:49 PM