Today's Seattle Times, reporting that 266 voters received duplicate absentee ballots for this week's primary, :
The county's voter-registration system keeps track of ballots as they come in, so the system won't allow more than one ballot to be counted for each voter, [county elections spokeswoman Bobbie] Egan said.That sounds vaguely familiar. Oh, wait -- Seattle Post-Intelligencer, January 22, 2005, reporting that 3,500 voters received duplicate absentee ballots for the November 2004 election:
County officials said the county's election system does not allow more than one vote per person to be counted.And here's a photo of two ballots that were counted for the same voter last November. Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at September 22, 2005 08:40 AM | Email This
Also, I'm curious. Several earlier posts said that ID (of any kind) wasn't required for Provisional ballots - if so, why not?
Posted by: SouthernRoots on September 22, 2005 08:56 AMBut your partsianship makes me simply ignore you. Sorry. There may indeed be a problem but you don't have the credibility to spread the word.
Posted by: David Sucher on September 22, 2005 08:58 AMI am very supportive of your desire to ignore someone who you disagree with. But if you are honestly ignoring him, then why do I have to listen to you complain about him while I am reading his blog?
Please leave.
Posted by: huckleberry on September 22, 2005 09:15 AMIn the early 1900s through the 90s, we were fairly satisfied with out elections. Yes, we abhorred the stories from Chicago and Texas (LBJ cooking the books allowing JFK to be elected), but they were few and far between.
The old show up at the door and show your ID were the best we can do.
But now? With fraud prevalent and easily faked documents and no checks on neither the voting lists, much less the absentee ballots, you can see that in this day and age of computers, we need to take a timeout and figure this thing out.
I am somewhat shocked that you would be upset at Stefan. Just last week he was reporting problems with the absentees that affected those stereotypes that normally would vote against his stated party.
Partisan? Yes.
Honest and having a search for truth, justice and the American way. Yes, too and that trumps number one.
But, my guess is that the real fun will be in the November general election. That is the election where Logan needs to find a way to keep his bossman Sims in business.
So, they will keep the funny-business to a minimum during the primary, hoping to lull people to sleep. (Of course, the Seattle media is already asleep, so nothing new there). Then, they will loose votes, "find" votes, and generally do what is needed to keep Sims on his thrown.
It's nice living under a dictatorship, huh?
Posted by: BananaLand (aka Iguana) on September 22, 2005 10:08 AMIt is too bad that you are so partisan, Stefan, because obviously fair elections are at the heart of ours ystem and about which we can agree.
But your partsianship makes me simply ignore you. Sorry. There may indeed be a problem but you don't have the credibility to spread the word.
Why are fair and mistake free elections so meaningless to you? If you see flaws in the data feel free to point it out. I notice you didn't in this case. All you did was take the time to write a retort using invective and no substance. If you stand on higher moral ground why is it so hard for you to point it out?
Have a great day!
Posted by: swassociates on September 22, 2005 10:16 AMMSM is part of the problem, not part of the solution. Not going there, have things to do today...
Iguana...agree this is the calm before the storm, any real fun will appear in November (although Ferguson/Edmonds bears watching).
Posted by: dl on September 22, 2005 10:34 AMThere were inconsistencies between the ballots and the poll books, with all of the ballots of Precinct SEA 43-2022 labeled "Ballot Code 15" and the poll book indicating that all of the voters required "Ballot Code 16". A Poll Judge asked an inspector regarding the inconsistencies; she told a poll judge that she was informed by the King County Election Office regarding the problem. There weren’t any announcements at the polling location to inform the other judges.
A voter at Precinct SEA 43-2011, her name wasn’t listed on Precinct poll book, but she was listed on captain poll book. She was sent to vote the provisional ballots. She wasn't very happy, she declared she had voted for 25 years.
A voter walk into a Precinct SEA 43-2022, asking for his ballot, a poll judge checked and found out that his name wasn’t on his poll book, the judge walk him to the captain poll book table, his name also wasn’t there. The judge took him to the provisional Judge, and the voter was voted provisional ballots. According to the voter, he claims that he had voted absentee in last election, and last election he was received two Absentee ballots by mail, back than he wrote two pages letter to the King County Election Office…he said, he believed the KC Election Office completely took name off the voting roll.
A voter looking for Precinct SEA 43-2010, this Precinct was deleted, believed due to King County redistricting. Voter was show his voter registration card and he was offered to vote Provisional ballot, but he refused. He claims that he had lived at the same address and voted at the same location and the King County Election Office didn’t send him a new card and the new location where he supposed to be voting.
It's another sign of flaw election and the King County Election Office needs to be reforms. A man who is willing to bring the reforms to the King County Election is David Irons.
Posted by: Savun Neang on September 22, 2005 11:06 AMArticle also mentions difficult new requirements for minimally paid poll workers...what, it's hard to say "May I see your ID please?"
Oh horrors, there is also new documentation requirements before certification. Unfortunately I don't know enough about it to know if the new is an improvement over the old, or just word games. Anybody out there have any thoughts to share on it????
Posted by: dl on September 22, 2005 11:17 AMSo all partisan opinions are invalid?
That means only about 2 people in US count in your book.
A valid opinion is a valid opinion, smart folks filter the biases of the source and take that in consideration when evaluating arguments.
I read both Nation Review and The New Republic. Right and left evaulate both sides' discussions and decide.
When the Shark points our duplicate ballots that remains a fact regardless of source. If you look at the history of SP vs. the MSM. Shark has been way ahead of curve on KCE fiascos and has a very high accuracy rate and credibility rating.
As noted, November should be interesting...Which master will Mr. Logan serve? Ron Sims or the voters?
Posted by: dl on September 22, 2005 01:19 PMTypically, the auditor, clerk, treasurer are not hotly contested offices. Most of the time sheriff, assessor aren't either- but sometimes they are. Go figure yourself if it is worth it to have yet another elected official.
Here, Sims is going to lose his job over the election office.
Posted by: swatter on September 22, 2005 01:50 PMFrom your mouth to Gods ear....
Posted by: Bob on September 22, 2005 01:58 PMThis was certainly a surprise to me as I have always paid special attention to my signature when voting and don’t believe it has changed, nor has my address or voting patterns. I’m not sure if I should be suspect of this letter or not. I just wonder if the ratio of letters sent to Republican voters in KC ends up being higher than that of Democrat voters. I honestly would not be surprised if this turned out to be the case.
So now it looks like I need to fill out a new registration form in response to this letter and I’m somewhat in doubts as to if my registration will end up actually getting processed in time and/ or not “mysteriously lost”.
I don't understand what is "partisan" about the the photograph of the duplicate ballots.
That would seem be a central part of this conversation. You're going to ignore it because you think Sharkansky prefers Republicans? How on earth does that make sense?
*****
I might point out that whistleblowers drawing attention to corporate malfeasance could ALSO come across as partisan. Doesn't make 'em wrong, either.
Anyway ... I am curious to know how the system is supposed to prevent duplicate absentee ballots from being mailed to the same voter, or from being counted if they are cast. That would help me understand what is wrong here. Stefan, you've probably explained that sometime in the past year, but perhaps you could remind us.
Also, what do we mean by duplicates? If the same person is registered twice with a slight variation on the name or address, does that count as a duplicate? It is certainly illegal but it is harder to prevent than an exact duplicate, since someone must manually confirm that it's an error.
In any case, a 92% reduction in duplicates mailed (if that is indeed correct) is progress, though not good enough.
Posted by: Bruce on September 22, 2005 02:32 PMThe P-I isn't too far behind, either.
Posted by: Bostonian on September 22, 2005 02:48 PMI am already amazed at the high number of problems in this primary! We have first hand accounts of the crap that happened at the polls (even with the low turn out! One can only wonder what's going to happen in November!) We have also had first-hand accounts of duplicate absentee ballot mailings, more ballots mailed to long dead voters and let's not forget all of the printing errors, spelling errors and Postal forwarding screwups!
Did Ron Sims nephew vote again in King County's primary while living in Spokane? New York?
The media can try to whitewash the problems and errors in King County elections...but they will surface! Making the MSM and their boy Sims look pretty stupid! The people here just wont put up with any more of this!
Posted by: Deborah on September 23, 2005 12:20 AM
"If the same person is registered twice with a slight variation on the name or address, does that count as a duplicate?"
Tell us that you are joking, O.K.?
Posted by: Amused by liberals on September 26, 2005 08:40 AM