September 10, 2005
Vote for Pinocchio

Mac from the "Pull on Superman's Cape" blog has a pictorial tour of the King County Voter's Pamphlet.

Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at September 10, 2005 08:14 AM | Email This
Comments
1. Pardon me while I vomit.

Posted by: JCM on September 10, 2005 08:31 AM
2. What an insult. But then what else can be expected from people who think "purjury" is a felony.

Posted by: Maggie on September 10, 2005 08:46 AM
3. Hmm...it really is a cartoon show up there in King County! Isn't it a Mickey Mouse operation? *heh*

Posted by: pseudotsuga on September 10, 2005 09:02 AM
4. Just like a "KING" talking down to his "subjects". Thank you RS and DL for educating us.

Posted by: Fed UP on September 10, 2005 10:34 AM
5. I was laughing at the comparison of our voting pamphlet characters to Shaft, Stretch and Dick...until my little girl walked up behind me and started to ask questions.....Then it just pis*ed me off! My God! Our County voters pamphlet is too disgusting for a child to view!

Under liberal Democrat control - our state and county elections have become a sick and perverse joke!

Posted by: Deborah on September 10, 2005 12:37 PM
6. Voters are required to be 18 years old. Let us try a very novel idea -- write the voters pamphlet in 12th grade english.

Oh! but that will disenfranchise the:

Illiterate (what did they do with their free K-12 education, if they did go to school and can't read fire every teacher they ever had).

The immigrant for whom english is a second language (never mind english proficiency is a requirement for citizenship).

The poor (they don't have a "education" culture, whatever the f*** that means).

They we can save some taxpayers money and fire the counties excuse for a cartoonist and save me some of my money.

ARGGGH!!!!!

Posted by: JCM on September 10, 2005 12:56 PM
7. That's hysterical! Of course, in Seattle it's difficult to separate parody from reality, as follows:

In doing my "due diligence" regarding the candidates, I learned from http://seattleweekly.com/features/0204/newshowland.shtml that one of the candidates for Port of Seattle Commissioner - Position 3 was a convicted felon. When the "Seattle Weekly" article was written back in 2002, it noted that it was questionable whether candidate Christopher Cain was allowed to vote, never mind run for office. As Mr. Cain noted in the article, he could do both as long as no one was paying attention.

Does anyone know if he has had his voting rights restored and/or if his candidacy in the current election is legal? Thanks.

Posted by: raven on September 10, 2005 06:40 PM
8. That's hysterical! Of course, in Seattle it's difficult to separate parody from reality, as follows:

In doing my "due diligence" regarding the candidates, I learned from http://seattleweekly.com/features/0204/newshowland.shtml that one of the candidates for Port of Seattle Commissioner - Position 3 was a convicted felon. When the "Seattle Weekly" article was written back in 2002, it noted that it was questionable whether candidate Christopher Cain was allowed to vote, never mind run for office. As Mr. Cain noted in the article, he could do both as long as no one was paying attention.

Does anyone know if he has had his voting rights restored and/or if his candidacy in the current election is legal? Thanks.

Posted by: raven on September 10, 2005 06:41 PM
9. I'm all for politics at the ground level, and I think this site has done a good job of shining a useful spotlight (as has HA on the other end of the ideological spectrum). But I have to say things have been VEWWWY VEWWWY QUIET over here.

Posted by: bartelby on September 10, 2005 06:42 PM
10. Hmmm...
Note that on the actual King County primary ballot, the first choice is the Democratic Party.

Note that Pinocchio, in the Disney film, was in danger of turning into a donkey.

"Penny" chooses Party 1 on the voter's pamphlet.

Too many coincidences...

(Okay, let's all have a little fun here.)

Posted by: Tim B. on September 10, 2005 07:02 PM
11. Go away bartleboob, you POS

Posted by: alphabet soup on September 10, 2005 07:20 PM
12. Nothing says credibility like cartoons!

Oh and you guys would be shocked at the price that it cost to develop Penny!

Posted by: Joe on September 10, 2005 07:37 PM
13. Well I was going to come to the rescue of Penney, whom I developed quite a crush on during the Recount. But it looks like my heart has been broken by this two-timer since she's been pictured flagrante delicto with this Mr. Ballot character!
Oh Penney, how could you throw away our love?

Posted by: Reporterward on September 10, 2005 08:32 PM
14. Forget "Penny". They need to be showing their more sinister cartoon character named "Sharpie"!

You know, the same one who was all too willing to fill in an undetermined number of ballots based on "voter intent".

It made no difference if you didn't vote for anybody for governor. If you voted for Kerry and/or Murray, Sharpie knew that you clearly intended to vote for Fraudoire too.

Posted by: Mr. Grabbit on September 10, 2005 10:44 PM
15. Has anyone checked to see if ET's registered with a mailing address at the elections office? Something tells me he's not eligible to vote in Washington, much less run for office. Stefan, when are you going to file the challenge to his registration?

Posted by: Vexorg on September 11, 2005 01:17 AM
16. It does no good to "ban" me. I'm far to clever for that to be successful. What was that you were saying about free speech

Posted by: headless lucy on September 11, 2005 11:09 AM
17. Lucy,

As a progressive Democrat who reads this blog for Stefan's comprehensive election investigations, I just want to interject here and tell you that your behavior trolling here embarrasses me, and embarrasses progressive ideals.

Not to mention that if you are blogging on some days from a Seattle Public Schools IP address, one would hope that you would at least make the effort to use correct grammar, punctuation, and syntax. Your posts are enough to make any English instructor blanche, and are a wholesale embarrassment to the Seattle Public School system.

"I'm much to clever for that to be successful."

Really, "to" clever? Evidently you are not clever enough to ascertain that the word you were searching for is the homonym cousin of "to", that is, the word "too".

If your statement trumpeting your cleverness was accurate, which you yourself offer evidence again and again, through your limited grasp of written north american English, that it isn't, you would have a basic understanding of the meaning of a commonly used two letter word, and another three letter word, and you would not confuse them so frequently.

Back to the embarrassment portion of my posting.

When subjects other than election fraud are discussed on this blog, I generally don't agree with the other denizens of this site. I'm not a Republican, and I support gay marriage, abortion rights, and reasonable environmental controls. I hate Wal-Mart and happily pay taxes when the money is used wisely by government officals with integrity. (And no, I don't include Ron Sims or Dean Logan in that description.)

However, the Democratic Party that I remember was also for clean, open, and honest elections, and the fact that our current party leadership was more interested in winning at all costs, rather than acknowledging that the election was horribly flawed and agreeing to re-run the contest is a source of great pain to me.

The Democratic Party I want to be a member of is honest. There was nothing honest about the 2004 Gubernatorial constest, as administered in King County. If we aren't for clean elections first and foremost, then what good is anything else we stand for?

As to your rant about your free speech being abridged, If you have a well-thought-out ON TOPIC counterpoint to an argument being made here, then make it. I have found and seen that, while the conservatives here will disagree with you, if you engage in respectful debate they will return that respect while disagreeing.

Nobody is trying to stifle your free speech, Headless. Keep in mind that this blog is private intellectual property, which we are all invited to participate in, but there is no constitutional right of participation. We are guests in Stefan's cyber-house, and need to behave accordinagly. When you insist upon bursting in on conversations and interjecting nonsensical rants, and OFF TOPIC insults, you are not furthering anyone's cause, certainly not the causes progressives embrace.

You are simply embarrassing yourself, and anyone whose political viewpoint you pretend to align yourself with. I wouldn't blame any blog owner for banning you. Your behavior adds nothing to the debate.

Grow up, Headless Lucy.

Posted by: Observer on September 11, 2005 12:27 PM
18. headless lucy has been ID'd as a wrestling coach. Can you imagine any sane person allowing their child to be touched by this guy?
The fact that someone from the Public School District would use public government resources such as computers, Internet access etc. is mind-boggling. headless lucy is lucky he has not been "OUTED" yet....although it is mighty tempting to do so. headless lucy is so stoopid he is unaware that a public records request can include a summary of ALL internet access on government computers. Remember when they did it to L&I a number of years back?? They also did it in a rural County and found County employees accessing porn and murder sites regularly on government time. Perhaps headless lucy wants to be outed. It would be quite simple. Just request from the Seattle School District a report on ALL accesses to SoundPolitics during a certain time period. Or to HorsesAss.
Frankly, I think it is better to allow headless lucy to continue his tirades as he clearly defines the fringe lunatic left.

Posted by: dude on September 11, 2005 02:40 PM
19. Dear Observer; THANK YOU!

Posted by: katomar on September 11, 2005 10:03 PM
20. Dear Observer; THANK YOU!

Ditto

Posted by: Mike H on September 11, 2005 10:11 PM
21. Due to the fact elections are not enough of a joke in this state, we have deamed it necessary to eliminate what little credibility is left, by putting this illustration into the pamphlet.

Maybe in 2006, we can get Alfred E. Newman on the cover.

Posted by: T.J. on September 11, 2005 10:18 PM
22. Nice voter's pamphlet; dumbing-down cartoons; great; just what our Founding Fathers wanted--the belching masses who can't name a single classical book title nor author; why have any Sunday comic strip drawings anyway? this is a voter's guide, not a gamebox instruction manual with "hints" on how to bypass the hazards for a high score!

I particularly like the bi-lingual splash of Asian characters; excuse me--just where in the he@@ is WA and its counties located anyway? in some colony of Hong Kong or in America? Why do we pander to 28 different languages; save taxpayer printing costs and hassles--assimilate to the culture you CHOSE to come to or don't vote--it's that simple; adopt America's customs FIRST (and keep your own) or stay in the shadows;

no one is asking anyone to abandon their rich cultural heritages, just keep things in English here in America; if you want translations, have your own private cultural or church goups foot the bill; there are over 150 or more countries in the world--where does the bi-lingual thing stop? It won't; soon, we will have on-board translators to tell you what your neighborhood traffic signs say;

silly voting pamphlets like the attached do nothing; lazy people don't read them; illegals don't need them--they have already been coached in their native tongues; intelligent people simply toss or recycle them; what's left? only the bureaucratic creators and outside printers who chalk them up as another "goal acheived" on their annual job reviews;

Posted by: Jimmie-howya-doin on September 11, 2005 10:28 PM
23. I particularly like the bi-lingual splash of Asian characters

I'm curious as to why this is even neccessary. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't you required to know how to read and write English and take an English test in order to become an American citizen?

Posted by: Mike H on September 11, 2005 11:11 PM
24. Mike H:

Yes, you are correct. You are required to understand English AND take an english test in order to become a naturalized citizen. Here is a web page link to sample English sentances that applicants might be asked about: http://uscis.gov/graphics/services/natz/natzsamp.htm. HOWEVER, there is NO Federal requirement for knowing english to VOTE. How this makes sense is anyone's guess. Also, there is a federal mandate (The bilingual election requirements of Section 203 of the Voting Rights Act, 42 USC 1973aa-1a) which requires states to provide voting materials in a language other than English if the number of people who speak that language is more than 5%, or 10,000 (which ever is less.) In Washington state, the Chinese language met that requirement, thus all voting materials MUST include the Chinese language.

Kind of interesting. You MUST understand english to become a naturalized citizen, you MUST be a citizen to vote, yet you do NOT have to understand English to vote...

Thanks!
Greg

Posted by: gregma on September 12, 2005 08:02 AM
25. Gregma-
how 'inclusive' a law--so--as most Americans sit by and watch that 5% or 10k population requirement tip the balance in all different directions, what will we have? a nation of foreign countries? 15-foot signs with 18 languages for a simple phrase or word?

maybe we'll switch to all pictures and dumb-down the masses; let's hire that famous sign-language chimpanzee as a consultant to re-design our signs and ballots; and how safe will we feel when one who does not speak English blows through that english traffic sign and t-bone's your family car? (oh yes--and fully insured, right?)

Posted by: Jimmie-howya-doin on September 12, 2005 09:53 AM
26. Gregma-

There really shouldn't be a need to require you to understand English to vote, because logic holds that if you are a natural born citizen, you would know English, and if you're an immagrant who's become a citizen, you'ved learned English.

Call me crazy, but by following this line of logic, then wouldn't it hold that if you are voting and don't understand English, chances are you're a person who isn't voting legally?

Posted by: Mike H on September 12, 2005 12:18 PM
27. Observer thanks!Voters pamphlet a hoot!

Posted by: Laurie on September 12, 2005 12:41 PM
28. I find your research very interesting since I am one of the people whose vote wasn't counted. I also find it pretty disturbing. Who should I write a letter to?
-Amir Cahn

Posted by: Amir on September 12, 2005 02:47 PM
29. I find your research very interesting since I am one of the people whose vote wasn't counted. I also find it pretty disturbing. Who should I write a letter to?
-Amir Cahn

Posted by: Amir Cahn on September 12, 2005 02:48 PM
30. I find your research very interesting since I am one of the people whose vote wasn't counted. I also find it pretty disturbing. Who should I write a letter to?
-Amir Cahn

Posted by: Amir Cahn on September 12, 2005 02:48 PM
31. I find your research very interesting since I am one of the people whose vote wasn't counted. I also find it pretty disturbing. Who should I write a letter to?
-Amir Cahn

Posted by: Amir Cahn on September 12, 2005 02:48 PM
32. They are telling lies down at KCE when asked why only Dems are being allowed to recruit pollworkers. This was confirmed by my county councilperson's office, when I contacted the office.
Enough already. STOP THE CORRUPTION! Get rid of these clowns!

Posted by: Realist on September 12, 2005 06:33 PM
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