This morning's King County Council Committee-Of-the-Whole meeting is a briefing on "Operational improvements to the King County Elections Division in preparation of the September Primary Election".
Curiously, the briefing is being held at the elections office, where unlike most other Council COW meetings which are held in the chamabers, it cannot be broadcast live on KCTV. I can only assume that Kurt Triplett, Dean Logan and Larry Phillips planned it this way on purpose to prevent the public from hearing all the embarrassing details.
UPDATE: Dean Logan today posted a press release along with a 16-page glossy presentation "Making it Count: A report on improvements in King County Elections". Sadly, Logan has already incinerated his own credibility and none of what he puts out at this point can be believed.
UPDATE 2: Among the sillier claims in the presentation is that Ballot reconciliation reports are now a new requirement. [p.8] Nonsense. They've been required all along and were actually performed before Dean Logan took the job. The failure of 2004 was that the requirements were not followed and there were no consequences for non-compliance. There is no reason to believe that things will be different in the next election.
UPDATE 3: I'm told today's COW meeting will be carried on KCTV this afternoon at 5.
Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at August 22, 2005 09:58 AM | Email ThisSee: http://www.governor.wa.gov/actions/orders/eo_05-02.htm
Seems it's being bumped into "Top Priority" by some managers at the expense of the programs they're supposed to manage, and is being used as a PR and re-election campaign tool on behalf of Gregoire. There is some indication that managers also see it as an opportunity to polish their image, rather than report on the actual effectiveness (or lack thereof) of their own programs. At the very least, it's evidence of her tendancy to micro-manage and co-opt legislature.
Has anyone else gotten wind of this?
Posted by: starboardhelm on August 22, 2005 10:24 AMThis Week at the Council
August 22-26, 2005
Unless otherwise noted, all meetings are in the King County Council Chambers Room 1001
King County Courthouse, 516 Third Ave. Seattle, WA
Monday, August 22
Committee-of-the-Whole – 9:30 a.m. ***Special Meeting Location***
The Committee will meet in Room 553 of the King County Administration Building, 500 4th Avenue, Seattle
Briefing:
• Operational improvements to the King County Elections Division in preparation of the September Primary Election (Briefing No. 2005-B0106).
Metropolitan King County Council – 1:30 p.m.
Councilmembers are scheduled to discuss and possibly act on:
• An ordinance adopting the 2006 Transit Program Financial Policies (Ordinance 2005-0235).
• A motion setting the date for the waste export system plan to be submitted to the King County Council (Substitute Motion 2005-0301.2).
I wonder if the County Council is also going to discuss the "Transit" Program while they are in that room and out of the public ear?
It could be - that they can't sober up Julia Patterson enough to be televised so they have to resort to this secrecy.....? I noticed their *Committee of the Whole* has been the *Committee of the Partial* lately with Patterson's absence....(I am grateful however, to not have to suffer through her loopy nonsense while watching!)
The King County Council just does not get it with repsect to the public's insistence on COMPLETE TRANSPARENCY IN EVERY ASPECT OF OUR ELECTIONS
They are no longer in a position to give even the slightest perception of secrecy!
Posted by: Deborah on August 22, 2005 11:07 AMhttp://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/237308_gastaxed.asp
"David Goldstein's horsesass.org blog started the humming with claims that Irons earned the nod from the Alki Foundation by proclaiming opposition to Initiative 912, which would roll back the gas tax increase. Asked to clarify, Iron's campaign office responded with the following: "In principle, I believe all major tax increases should go to a vote of the people. Personally I am voting no on Initiative 912. This is not the package that I would have put together. I believe it should have done more to reduce congestion. That's why we need new leadership in King County that will advocate for more congestion relief.""
So, Irons is against 912. Interesting that it hasn't been mentioned on this board before. At least it shows Irons has some leadership ability.
Posted by: JDB on August 22, 2005 11:15 AMhttp://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/237308_gastaxed.asp
"David Goldstein's horsesass.org blog started the humming with claims that Irons earned the nod from the Alki Foundation by proclaiming opposition to Initiative 912, which would roll back the gas tax increase. Asked to clarify, Iron's campaign office responded with the following: "In principle, I believe all major tax increases should go to a vote of the people. Personally I am voting no on Initiative 912. This is not the package that I would have put together. I believe it should have done more to reduce congestion. That's why we need new leadership in King County that will advocate for more congestion relief.""
So, Irons is against 912. Interesting that it hasn't been mentioned on this board before. At least it shows Irons has some leadership ability.
Posted by: JDB on August 22, 2005 11:15 AMOpposing 912 and running corrupt elections departments are your qualifications for "leadership." Pathetic.
Posted by: JCM on August 22, 2005 11:36 AMWhen I want/need to shovel manure to return to my more rural beginnings, I'll stagger on over to the ass's site. Otherwise, put your excrement back where you got it.
Posted by: Danny on August 22, 2005 11:48 AMSo far it appears that their progress includes:
1. Allowing democrats to appoint party reps to the pollworker coordinator section. And barring the republicans from doing the same.
2. Trying to force some of the more capable employees to resign.
3. Continuing to withhold information regarding errors made in the 2004 election.
4. Appointing a turn around team that will have full access to the election offices and is managed by and reports directly to one of the candidates in the upcoming election.
5. Bringing employees from other KC departments with no election experience in to help in upcoming elections.
I'd say we have made great strides! These 5 items would be near the top of my list of WHAT NOT TO DO to fix a failed elections office!!!
I find it interesting that in the above list there is no mention of total ballots issued/created... whether they be absentee or poll issued. I seem to remember that this was quite an issue during the 04 debacle, specifically regarding absentee ballot reconciliation.
Am I wrong?
Why not tell the canvassing board and the public how many absentee ballots are received?
Without that number, the numbers of absentee ballots "counted" and "rejected" cannot be shown to include all cast ballots, nor can it be shown that valid ballots were "counted" only once.
Did it work so well in the last general election that Logan's gang wants to keep hiding the number of absentee ballots received by the election office?
Posted by: Micajah on August 22, 2005 03:40 PM