Here's a voter who cast both an absentee and a provisional ballot where both were counted.
The voter was 84 years old in 2004 and can be forgiven if he cast a second ballot because of a memory lapse. But the elections staff should have caught this one. They had to know that he had already cast an absentee at the time they counted his provisional. The green 10/20/04 written in the upper right of the provisional envelope proves that someone looked him up in the database and noted that his absentee ballot was returned and accepted on that date. And they counted the provisional ballot anyway!
This is not an isolated example.
Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at October 11, 2005 11:34 AM | Email ThisIf we can get tons of information from Google searches and others, why can't inputting numbers or names provide a much better system? Names, addresses, deaths, births, marriages, etc. could all be tied into the election database. If the address don't fit, then check if it is a real address.
My word, the property tax people and licensing bureau don't miss a beat when it comes to generating income. Same could go for felons.
Hasn't been talked about here or the press, so it is either real easy or the computers are too old.
Posted by: swatter on October 11, 2005 11:49 AMWho the illegal vote went to is not the point so much as an illegal vote effectively disenfranchises a legal vote somewhere else. It could be on either side, and that's why everyone should be concerned with these illegal votes. I don't see why that seems to be so hard to understand.
Posted by: Interested Observer on October 11, 2005 12:56 PMAre you also saying that Logan on purpose counted the ballot with the address in the middle of Lake Union? Are you saying that Logan had the people count all the felons?
All I am saying is that it should be a simple solution to tie all this into one database.
Sure, Rossi lost the election from sloppy handling of the ballots. Fraud? It wasn't proven.
It shouldn't have been that close of an election.
And I agree with Sims that the accuracy of the election counting was good but there was no reason it couldn't be better.
Posted by: swatter on October 11, 2005 02:05 PMRiddle me this - From your response - you think Gregoire won the election fair and square, right? What if every mishandled ballot really WAS for Rossi? That would mean that Gregoire won by more than 2,000 votes, which means we never needed any recounts.
And who paid for the recounts? The taxpayers of Washington State. So under your interpretation of the election results - Dean Logan's department cost WA taxpayers MILLIONS OF DOLLARS because of their ineptitude, incompetence, and poor training.
And this is okay with you? Please correct me if I'm wrong.
Posted by: Larry on October 11, 2005 02:18 PMI don't think you can get fraud till you get a Gangs of New York voting situation.
But finn, isn't the whole exercise Stefan is going through (and as frustrating as it can be) to get the powers that should be to get the errors fixed? There are no recommendations that I can see being forthcoming to solve the various problems that have us all upset. And this green card thing shouldn't have been allowed to happen but the Rs didn't see a problem with it. (Ed. note: by Rs, I mean the party, not individuals like Michelle who is right on this).
Posted by: swatter on October 11, 2005 04:38 PMSwatter,
That's the most absurd conclusion I've read yet about what transpired in the aftermath of last November's election! How can you honestly say that the Republicans "had every chance in the world to prove fraud"? There was so much stonewalling from King County and the Secretary of State's office with respect to election records, ballots, felon information, etc...The Republicans were denied access to the most damning of evidence and the little bits they were given during the trial were so fragmented - they couldn't complete a picture.. Much of the evidence of fraud is just NOW being released to Stefan by way of public disclosure laws! And these were received only after Stefan threatened to sue!
Every chance in the world?? Hah! Not in my world.
Posted by: Deborah on October 11, 2005 07:42 PMSo, Deborah, is there a time limit to prosecute, criminally, fraud? If not, go for it. How about civilly? The Rs won't take you up on that.
And Deborah, even a hand-picked judge didn't force the County to produce those documents. But, is there enough stuff coming out now to justify a lawsuit? I don't see the papers following Stefan's research, yet. Until he can show more intent, nothing is going to happen.
Posted by: swatter on October 12, 2005 07:35 AMWhat a Waste................
Posted by: Chris on October 12, 2005 07:35 AMI forgot to mention that the lease/month is like $900 on the Caddy... the Suburbans are like $800/mo. That is $2,500/month for the Gov to drive around, and gas guzzlers at that....
Why cant she take public transportation.
Jeezzzz
Posted by: Chris on October 12, 2005 08:29 AMWe are still waiting!!