Today's Seattle Times: "Missed ballots raise questions"
King County election workers' discovery that 18 ballots weren't counted in the September primary has set back efforts to restore confidence in the election process and could hurt County Executive Ron Sims in his re-election bid.Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at October 06, 2005 07:59 AM | Email This
Good for Irons - he accurately nails it, and in a timely fashion as well. Must have really pained the Slimes to have to report it ;'}
Posted by: alphabet soup on October 6, 2005 08:49 AMHas anyone visited property information on the county website? It has all addresses and owner's names.
Why can't this be one of the first crosschecks when registering? First, if there is no address, then send the suckers a letter telling them so; if nothing comes back, trashcan it. People need to be responsible. Frankly, irresponsible people's vote shouldn't be counted. Sorry, Democrats.
So, in summary of item 1 on my list of easy things to do is to tie the registration and voting records into the auditor's recorded documents (yes, deaths get there, too) With the speed of search engines today, it is not like the punch cards we used to have done for the Fortran computers. It ain't rocket science folks!!
And the old saying, "close enough for government" doesn't apply here, either.
Posted by: swatter on October 6, 2005 08:58 AMSims has his lapdog running KCE.
The MSM is to late, to syncophantic, to STUPID to care much about election reform. (Unless republicans are getting elected then It would have been page 1 above the fold every day for the last year).
Sims is a shoe for Nov.
Sims 80% Irons 60%.
Ummmm...I think I see a problem here.
My personal favorite never-gonna-happen reform is the end of permanent absentee status (except for military personnel). The ballots that get lost are not those cast at poll sites.
Instead, we're going to get all-mail voting in every county, because our elected officials don't care about the integrity of our elections.
Posted by: ScottM on October 6, 2005 10:07 AMThe 3 quoted people in the article have no credibility. Irons is running against Sims, so anything he says is biased. Obviously Sims' opinion is worthless, as is the opinion of his hand-picked "protect Ron" committee chairman.
There is only one expert on the county's election system without a personal stake, and that is Sharkansky. Local papers should know by now the if they want an expert view on the continuing elections debacle, they should contact Stefan - every time!
Let the reporters and their editors know that interviewing the guilty, defenders of the guilty, or the political opponents of the guilty adds nothing to the story. Tell them to talk to Sharkansky and report an outsider's expert opinion and the significance of these continuing discoveries.
Posted by: Mike on October 6, 2005 10:32 AMPutting this statement through the disgronifier:
"It's certainly unfortunate we got caught (again) we need to take seriously and we need to put safeguards in place to make sure that doesn't happen again. At the same time I think it's still a sign of improvement in that we only got caught on these 18 ballots and it was identified up front and it was brought to the canvassing board. Going forward we will insure we don't get caught and Ron's re-election is guaranteed. We consider this as a practice run for '08 and Gregoire's re-election."
Posted by: JCM on October 6, 2005 10:47 AMThat might have worked once upon a time. When papers were actually interested in news.
The Seattle papers have chosen sides in the political debate. The filter everything based on the that point of view.
If the papers were really concerned about clean valid election process. They would have done the work Shark is doing, they would have sued under Freedom of Information. Each and every revelation would have been a front page story. Because KCE is actively assaulting our franchise.
But they don't. That alone speaks volumes about the integrity or lack thereof of the Seattle papers.
The Least Intelligence and the Seattle Slimes are Partisan Hack Shills for the Democrat party in King Co.
Posted by: JCM on October 6, 2005 10:59 AMY A W N !!!
Posted by: Danny on October 6, 2005 11:00 AMIf the records are perfect, then, of course, you don't get a response.
Posted by: swatter on October 6, 2005 11:26 AMLets see - 18 screwed up ballots (that we know of so far) is "light years ahead of where we were a year ago" - isn't that the first time a Simms spokesman has admitted just how badly the election results were a year ago. He even said that 18 was light years better.
Gotta get out my calculator - we may have just gotten a definitive answer on just how many screwed up ballots King County knew there were last year!
Posted by: Jay on October 6, 2005 11:41 AMI've had reporters admit some pretty interesting things to me, and in many cases, some didn't stay around long with their papers, possibly because one day they woke up and couldn't keep spinning the news to their editor's satisfaction.
Let them know what you think. I suspect it will have a greater impact than you think, and a lot better chance of making a difference than talking to their editors, who for the most part have developed the thicker skin and probably been promoted to their positions because of their biases.
Posted by: Mike on October 6, 2005 11:42 AMI believe that none of them have the balls or the ambition to do what it really takes. Most of them are extremely lazy. They get a whiff of a story they call about two local officials (usually the ones responsible for the screw up) for comment and throw them a couple softball questions and then pump out a puff piece article. Second they are all affraid of offending a local politician because they are too affraid of losing their access to the official's well spun quotes.
On occasion Ervin shows promise but the rest of them do almost no investigative journalism. They suffer from the Mary Mapes syndrome of journalism: Call who you want to believe and ignore the rest!
Posted by: Joe on October 6, 2005 11:45 AMThere is a very simple explanation as to why the local media will not investigate this corruption. It is this: with the corruption and fraud that is in place now, the candidates the media support "win". For example, the fraud and corruption got Fraudoire into the Governor's Mansion. Fraudoire is the media's candidate, so they are happy with the result. Why should they do anything that might change that?
The only way the media will investigate is if a Republican is suspected of benefitting from fraud. As soon as Republicans start winning important offices (unlikely in WA state) and fraud is suspected, then you'll see investigations by the media and calls for reform by the corrupt 'Rats in Olympia.
Posted by: Interested Observer on October 6, 2005 11:59 AMOrdinarily I would say 18 ballots would be an acceptable error rate, and that the election department should look into how and what happened, and issue a corrective action.
Given the history of KCE. That by all reasonable standards Logan is 11 months over due on his termination. Sims' handpicked commission, bogus audit etc... That no one absolutely no one in KCE is honest or smart enough to recognize that a KCE counted vote cannot be trusted. Topped off with all the empty platitudes from Sims, Logan et. al. and the brain dead press, then...
ONE error by this crowd is to many.
Until KCE is top to bottom revamped, seriously election reform instituted, I would not trust them to count anything, let alone my vote.
18 ballots means nothing has changed.
Posted by: JCM on October 6, 2005 12:06 PMBeth Kaiman, bkaiman@seattletimes.com, is Keith Ervin's editor. Write her and make your objections to her. Why only Sims, his appointed enabler and his political opposition quoted in the story? Tell her you think the article stinks and ask her who was responsible. Because as the editor, she is responsible!
We all are preaching to the choir on these pages. Everyone should take their comments and let these reporters and editors know what you think.
Posted by: Mike on October 6, 2005 12:11 PMI am more and more convinced that "unconventional" solutions are the only thing that are going to fix an elections system as corrupt, dirty, and broken-down as the WA state system has become. The governor's race last fall, with it's blatant, in-your-face fraud/theft, coupled with the idiot brainless assclown Bridges' admonition that it's our fault, we are the ones who have to use the corrupt, broken system to fix it, and helpless, brainless Sam Reed standing by wringing his hands saying he can't do anything about the fraud, and these sham "Commissions" and "Audits" running around with their hands over their eyes and ears saying "Fraud? What fraud? I don't see any fraud. (But I'm not looking for any, either.)", is just too much to take.
Posted by: Interested Observer on October 6, 2005 12:42 PM---
County Council Vice Chairman Pete von Reichbauer said it was unacceptable that County Council members learned of the uncounted ballots from news stories rather than from Sims or Logan.
"I hope we don't get to the stage where we have to bring in outside observers to our election like a Third World Country," von Reichbauer said.
---
Yeah, today's paper - yesterday's news.
FIRE DEAN LOGAN. DO IT NOW.
Posted by: David Irons Supporter on October 6, 2005 12:45 PMI guess campaign HQ will have to make one for my man.
Posted by: David Irons Supporter on October 6, 2005 12:46 PMHow many (missing) ballots are there in a light year?
(turn county upside down for answer)
Posted by: alphabet soup on October 6, 2005 01:06 PMSince they did a selective recount, I would like to know how many other uncounted ballots are out there??????????
What is the error % rate?
Thanks
Posted by: sgmmac on October 6, 2005 01:21 PMSure, there were errors in other counties - but gee whiz how come is King County Elections still finding ballots?
Why did the King County Council find out about the "found" ballots via the press than via Executive Sims' office (that includes Logan)?
Gee whiz, I think an Executive David Irons would have simply flown his proverbial B-52H right over their heads and fired some people. Oh well, this is the death knell for the Sims campaign - provided we get a good spread in a month's time. Shouldn't be hard.
So please join me in contributing at least 5% of your next paycheck for democracy to David Irons HERE. Might be a worthy goal if everybody in King County & Washington State who had enough of this gave 5% of their next paycheck to the Irons campaign for their ad-buys. Just a thought :-).
Posted by: David Irons Supporter on October 6, 2005 02:21 PMI am concerned that by pointing this out in a public forum I my not be demonstrating “good home training”. Oh well, some times honesty and democracy are more important, right? I am 100% sure it is time for a change in King County Government.
Errors indicate that nothing has changed.
No errors no one would believe it.
The only way is a complete restructuring of KCE and the election system.
Posted by: JCM on October 6, 2005 03:39 PM
The first thing David needs to do is
setup some meetings with residences on
the south side of the county.He needs to
do some damage repair because in order for
him to have any chance of winning he needs
the support of those people.
They are upset about what happened in the
district 9 council race.Since Reagan Dunn
doesn't give a hoot about those people.David
has to do this.because its very likely that
a lot of those people will sit out the
general election if he doesn't.
Ron Sims is truly toast now! There is absolutely NO WAY he will be able to recover from this latest election snafu before November.....
Even his most supporting poll numbers showed Sims neck and neck with Irons BEFORE these ballots were reported.....He can only go down from here...
May I be the first to welcome King County Executive, David Irons, to his position!
Posted by: Deborah on October 6, 2005 04:17 PMSad to see you care more about then than now. That said, good point - my man needs to be on TV. Please join my 5% of your paycheck to the Irons campaign idea :-).
Posted by: Deborah on October 6, 2005 04:17 PM
And please make me the second. An Executive Irons will fire Dean Logan and install the turnaround team.
Posted by: David Irons Supporter on October 6, 2005 04:33 PMIrons went on to say, “In my plan for King County I’ve called for a County Auditor . Our county is the only county in the state that does not have one. We are long overdue for this.”
Encouraged by the daily momentum building in his own campaign to become the next King County Executive, Irons went on to state, “These election mistakes have all been made on Ron Sims’ watch. This isn’t a Republican or Democrat issue. Clean elections should be important to all of us in King County .”
Area-wide polls show David Irons gaining steadily in voter favorability with the countdown to the General election just 34 days from now. Irons’ total fund-raising has topped $375,000 this week, with $65,000 coming into his coffers since the Primary. Irons, who currently represents County Council District 12, said that his goal between now and the General election on November 8 is to meet as many county residents as possible with his message of the changes and improvements he’ll make as King County Executive. These plans include improving present transportation to relieve road congestion by adding some new lanes to highways, restoring effective leadership and trust to the Executive seat, making major changes in the elections department and restoring efficiency and accountability to county government.
Irons’ positions on issues of importance to King County residents can be found on the David Irons for County Executive website: www.davidirons.org.
- - - - -
Battle Hymn of the Republic, anybody?
Remember - 5% of your next paycheck for David Irons and we will send back to h-e-double-l Ron Sims, Dean Logan and Bill Hunnekins. Call this a V for Victory Bond!
V FOR VICTORY!
Posted by: David Irons Supporter on October 6, 2005 04:39 PM Non-citizens
Non-residents
Dead people
Double voters
and David Irons having weaker than expected support from
Absentee voters
Posted by: PW on October 6, 2005 04:55 PM your right they do need to wake up.
The biggest problem is the king gop
leadership they are to busy trying
to silence there own to even realize
what's happening.
The king gop leadership has had a
divide and conquer mentality for to
long.Until this changes nothing will
get better.
Deborah and david irons supporter you can laugh
and make jokes all you want about I said.
However it doesn't make what I said any less
true.David Irons needs to mend some fences
on the south side.Ignoring those people could
be fatal to his campaign.
Phil?
I didn't comment at all on your post. Why are you including me here?
Posted by: Deborah on October 6, 2005 10:59 PM