Sound Politics: Ineligible Voter du Jour

October 04, 2005

Ineligible Voter du Jour

No double voters today. Instead I offer you an ineligible voter who managed to have his ballot counted.
19th Ave in Seattle is one of those funny streets with an address discontinuity.

The addresses run up through the 1100s south of E. Union St. and start at 1400 north of E. Union St.

If someone returns a voter registration form with a non-existent address, say, 1314 1/2 19th Ave, the voter registration clerks are supposed to put the registration in limbo (called "fatal pend") until the voter provides a valid address. They have GIS systems to help figure out which addresses are valid. If the voter doesn't give a good address, he's not entitled to vote. Similarly, if a voter registration form is missing other critical info, such as name, birthdate or signature, the registration will also be "fatal pend"ed and the voter considered unregistered and ineligible to vote until the missing information is provided.

Funny then that this provisional ballot from a voter claiming residence at 1314 1/2 19th Ave. was counted last November. The envelope was clearly marked "fatal pend", so whoever counted it knew that it wasn't supposed to have been counted, but counted it anyway.

That's just one of the many fascinating ballot envelopes that auditor Ernie Hawkins refused to even look at on his way to telling the County Council that he "found no evidence of fraud".

Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at October 04, 2005 03:30 PM | Email This

Comments

1. He's homeless I tell you, Homeless. And you want to deny him the right to vote. How dare you let a little thing like the LAW get in the way of counting ALL the votes.

Sigh.

Stefan are we up to 129 yet?

Posted by: JCM on October 4, 2005 03:52 PM

2. Mapquest had no problems finding the address:

http://www.mapquest.com/maps/map.adp?country=US&addtohistory=&formtype=address&searchtype=address&cat=&address=1314%201%2f2%2019th%20Ave&city=Seattle&state=WA&zipcode=&searchtab=home

sigh...,

Posted by: JDB on October 4, 2005 04:22 PM

3. Re-read my post and look at the King County Parcel Viewer.
http://www.metrokc.gov/gis/mapportal/PViewer_main.htm

What Mapquest found was the 1400 block of 19th Ave.

Posted by: Stefan Sharkansky on October 4, 2005 04:27 PM

4. This is how they control the rest of the state. Just GET the ballot in, and we'll count it--legal or not. It HAS to stop!

Posted by: Michele on October 4, 2005 04:31 PM

5. We keep hearing this "no evidence of fraud" from the left, and from KCE. The problem is, they are only interested in what could be seen as fraud on the part of KCE. VOTER FRAUD they're not really concerned with. It appears that good old Ernie was only tasked with proving there was no fraud perpetuated by KCE specifically, and to hell with the actual votes that were fraudulent.

Posted by: katomar on October 4, 2005 04:33 PM

6. Yea, biteme/jdb/dupe, put down the crackpipe and pay attention!

Posted by: alphabet soup on October 4, 2005 05:01 PM

7. Address discontinuities are not unusual at all. For example, if you are in the University District, they have NE 45th St, NE 47th St, and then NE 50th St. You won't find any 4600's, 4800's, or 4900's on streets such as University Way NE, 15th Ave NE, or Brooklyn Ave NE. But MapQuest will "map" these non-existent addresses for you just fine.

Posted by: Richard Pope on October 4, 2005 05:02 PM

8. Ernie was tasked with creating a "win-win" situation.

Posted by: South County on October 4, 2005 05:15 PM

9. * * *

STOP YOUR WORRYING EVERYBODY! [Jonah Goldberg]

I have it on good authority Harriet Miers stayed at a Holiday Inn Express last night. So she's good to go.

Posted [on "The Corner"] at 09:47 AM

* * *

Ha.

It's either laugh or cry re: Miers. Might as well laugh.

Note to Edith Jones and Edith Clement: We're so sorry. We thought he was a conservative when we voted for him.

-demosthenes

Posted by: demosthenes on October 4, 2005 05:31 PM

10. Still looking for that honest man...or woman.

Posted by: Diogenes on October 4, 2005 06:54 PM

11. S.
I have been to the parcel viewer and confirm.
G

Posted by: Gregg on October 4, 2005 07:22 PM

12. To all you illegal voters voting from 1314 1/2 19th ave address of the "Wecanvotenomatterwhat hotel"! Uh.... we'll be leavin the lights on for ya!

Posted by: gs on October 4, 2005 09:35 PM

13. Slightly off topic, but more ballot problems. MSM is running feel good pieces about how cleaned up KC elections are. But the new news is that ballots statewide are being reprinted because of an error in SOS office. The good news is, that overseas ballots haven't been mailed yet...it's only a month to go but there is no deadline pressure from the feds this time because no federal offices on the ballot. According to KC, they haven't even printed their ballots yet, much less mailed them. Looks like some military voters won't receive ballots in time to vote...again. In all the town meetings, reports, and studies, wasn't it fairly unanimous that Washatonians wanted the primaries moved up??? Apparently the Legislature let us down again.

MSM wants us to follow their direction, and feel good about the new and improved KC election dept...sigh. Keep busy, it will keep the mind off this silliness...think I'll go clean toilets.

Texas got six grand jury investigations for Delay, why can't Washington get just one for the voters?

Posted by: dl on October 5, 2005 08:01 AM

14. My response to Ed Hawkins upon seeing no fraud.OH REALLY!!

Posted by: Laurie on October 5, 2005 08:16 AM

15. I wonder if the address is in the Post Office's MELISSA database?

Posted by: T Gifford on October 5, 2005 10:03 AM

16. A reverse look-up for the phone number revealed the following:
We're sorry. We did not find a listing for the phone number you entered.
The phone number "(425) 754-2997" is a Everett, WA based phone number and the registered carrier is Nextel Communications. However, due to number portability, some numbers have been transferred to a new service provider other than the registered carrier.

The 1011 Boren address is indeed a maildrop.

Posted by: LGC on October 5, 2005 10:39 AM

17. According to the US Post Office the address does not exist.

http://zip4.usps.com/zip4/welcome.jsp

Posted by: T Gifford on October 5, 2005 11:01 AM

18. Cha-Ching. And the "Known Fraudulent Ballot" coounter goes up another tick. Are we at 131 yet?

Logan would take anything he could get his hands on last November, because odds were that the break would be pro-Gregoire. Dog chewed up the ballot, no problem. Not a legit address, no problem. Voted twice, no problem.

When asked what went wrong, the excuse, "we did our best." When the auditors arrived, they averted their eyes from the real probelms that Stefan keeps finding that clearly throw any announced result out the window.

What a joke. No my confidence in King County has not been restored.

Posted by: Jeff B. on October 5, 2005 02:40 PM

19. If a ballot was marked "fatal pend," and the voter came into the elections offices with proper identification and a real address, wouldn't they count it? How was the envelope marked if that happenned?

Was Douglass a registered voter at all?

Richard, you've got a few campaign signs still out. You oughta take care of that. (Not that you're the only one who has left them out.) Check Northgate Way. Maybe you can team up with Carolyn Edmunds to collect old signs.

Posted by: Wayne on October 8, 2005 03:21 AM