KING-5 News reports today on a convicted felon who received a ballot for this November's election -- even though he walked into the King County Elections office earlier this year to ask that they remove from the voter rolls.
Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at October 24, 2005 08:57 PM | Email ThisWhat more evidence does anybody need to see that KCE is a completely broken institution?? You can't keep somebody on the rolls against their will!!! Obviously, this is just more evidence that nobody has a clue down there! Or worse, willful 'failure' on KCE's part.
I don't know what this felon guy did to become a felon, but I commend him for his attempt to come clean and make it right. Couldn't KCE at least HONOR his attempt by helping him make things right???
How interesting that Dean Logan wouldn't talk to the reporters about this? How could he?? There's no excuse whatsoever for this.
This has gone on more than long enough. We are just so DONE with all this garbage!!
Posted by: Michele on October 24, 2005 09:16 PMIf the incumbents get re-elected then we will have:
Executive: Ron Sims
Council Chair: Larry Phillips
Budget Chair: Larry Gossett
Bob Ferguson will be shoved in a corner and treated like a red-headed step child for 4 years.
Or we can get mad enough to say "We are not going to take it anymore and vote for Steven Pyeatt and David Irons resulting in:
Executive: David Irons
Council Chair: Kathy Lambert
Budget Chair: Jane Hague
And I will be pushing to expose and clean up the mess that Gary Locke and Rons Sims have left us with. I will not rest until we clean house.
Over 200 people making over $100,000 a year
An executive staff that has grown from 40 to 116 under Locke and Sims.
Millions and millions of dollars wasted due to mismanagement and neglect of responsibility.
The time for REAL change is at hand, all it takes is for the people to be fed up enough to demand a change.
Posted by: Steven Pyeatt on October 24, 2005 09:28 PMLogan had better hope the Sims / Irons race isn't close. Can you imagine going through the same scenario as last year?
I think there will be some realignment even if you are not elected next month. Especially if David Irons wins. Sort of hard for the Dems to dis Ferguson when he is secure for another term, and there are only four other Dems and four GOP. And Julia Patterson isn't exactly the biggest fan of Larry Phillips and Ron Sims either.
I would look for either Patterson or possibly Ferguson to become council chair, and for the GOP to chair at least 40% of the committees. Unless of course, you win, in which case Kathy Lambert will be council chair, and the GOP will chair at least 2/3 of the committees.
Posted by: Richard Pope on October 24, 2005 09:59 PMYour logic is sound, but there are factors you did not consider. You are right that party lines do not hold in all situations but if you watch carefully you will see that the break in those instances is along POWER lines. In those cases Bob is out of the loop. Phillips, Gossett, and Constantine will have a lock on democratic caucus and PVR and Hague will be able to keep their positions of power by working with them.
Bob upset the people in power on the council and that has left him with few friends. As you mentioned Julia Patterson and he get along well, and he works well with Kathy Lambert, Steve Hammond, and David Irons. However the rest, on both sides, do not want him on the council and do not want to work with him. It could not have been more clear then on the Veterans Levy issue. He worked 9 months to put that together, had the votes needed to pass it, but when it came down to crunch time he couldn't close the deal because the people in power wanted to remind him just who was in charge. They did not like having their toes stepped on and they put him in his place. His Chief of Staff left because of his inability to close the deal.
You see the math problem here? With Steve Hammond and David Irons gone you will have only 3 votes to change the council and key committee chairs. Any thoughts that a 3rd year council member would be chair are foolhardy, it will not happen, and there would not be enough support for Julia Patterson either. You will see nothing change if those in power stay in power.
Now, if Steven Pyeatt is elected you have a completely different situation. With Bob gone you have no one left on the council that has caused bad blood within the power base. You will have 5 republicans, plus an insurance vote in Julia Patterson on negotiated deals, and those that live in suburban and rural areas will no longer have to beg to be treated with the respect that we deserve.
It is a shame, Bob is a nice guy, but so was Bob Melvin. He couldn't win with the M's and had to go, the same thing is true of Bob. He isn't so much the issue as the power base at King County that must be changed.
Posted by: Andy Simon on October 24, 2005 11:17 PMPatterson is a Larry Phillips groupie....and a loopy-liberal one at that!
Posted by: Deborah on October 24, 2005 11:19 PMI saw this tonight on the news....
The poor guy was probably stressing after the subject of *felon* voters came up with last November's General election! How in the heck can the County prosecute felon voters when it's the County who forces them to stay on the voter rolls? I wouldn't be surprised if this felon received more than one ballot!
If Robert Mak truly wants to present himself as an investigative reporter on King County election problems...he should look into everything discovered by Stefan in the September and October archives here at SP. (he can go back month by month for a year if he want's a better picture..) Then Mr. Mak should ask the hard questions...like "where in the Hell are the Feds?"
Thanks Stefan for your ongoing hard work on this.
As for unkl witz, he would rather live under Stalin. Perhaps someone could send him to Siberia, the cold air might clear his brain, if he has one.
Posted by: TomasM on October 24, 2005 11:59 PM
Unkl, just a reminder, Judge bridges stated that the KC election department was a mess and that it was the citizens who would have to clean out the barn. We are cleaning out the barn. If you don't want to grab a shovel or pitch fork, then kindly step aside and we will do it for you! But in the end we will have a clean barn!
It is clear that you resent the duties that free citizens should and must perform, and would be happier living under a government that does all the difficult duties and thinking for you. As for the rest of us...we prefer to accept the duties of responsible citizens, and will continue to fight for fair elections...that's what it means to be an American.
Posted by: dl on October 25, 2005 07:46 AMPlease retract that and offer a formal apology == it's the right thing to do.
Otherwise, the veracity of all your work will continue to be called into question as your partisanship appears to drive all your supposedly fact-based conclusions (the posting about David clearly repeated lies -- easily shown by first hand statements and even a half-hearted attempt at truth checking).
You owe it to all us supporters to take yourself out of the lie-based mudslinging. Otherwise, you will just have a much bigger hill to climb when proposing much needed changes to the election process.
You are better than this. Please do the very thing you would call upon any reporter or elected official to do given the facts.
Posted by: Jimmy Kimball on October 25, 2005 10:12 AMAnother note to SP posters: don't be sucked into feeding the trolls. Take your hands off the mouse and step away from the keyboard.
Keep comments on a level of fairness, respect, and intellectual honesty commensurate with a genuine desire to win the right to be heard.
I know it's tempting but do your best to stay above the fray. Engaged yes, but no stooping.
Posted by: Chaka Kahn on October 25, 2005 10:23 AMHorsesh*t. In case you haven't noticed, there are times when somebody's begging for a whipping. On occasion, they need to be obliged.
Stefan's calling out of Goldy does nothing to bring into question facts about KCE. It is a non sequitur and, I imagine, you should know better.
Besides, Goldy, et al, have demonstrated their utter disdain for the "veracity" of anything related to fair elections in WA. Therefore, your pleas are meaningless.
I do agree, though. Don't feed the trolls.
Posted by: Danny on October 25, 2005 10:31 AMI have been reading this blog on a daily basis, and occasionally posting, since Oct '04. Although you act as though you're regular readers and contributors, I've never seen either of you post. No problem with that, I and all the "regulars" welcome you.
With that said, if you can read anything written by Goldy or listen to him on the radio with a straight face, how can you take the idiot (and respond to him) seriously?
Goldy's reputation with rational folks is on the level of Half Witz or Headless Lucy.
Either you two (Jimmy and Chaka) are trolls posing as reasonable people or you haven't been reading and comprehending Stefan's postings on this issue for the past 11 months.
Goldy and the trolls have no credibility here, nor have they earned any respect, so don't lecture us on civility.
Posted by: Saltherring on October 25, 2005 11:08 AMBut your immediate jump to personally attack the poster is all too typical of things Stefan has done many times here -- he often will check the IP addresses and accuse people of sending during work hours, etc. Personally attacking a poster..instead of critically refuting points...is no good way to make your point.
Posted by: Wheresthebeef on October 25, 2005 11:13 AMIt’s all too easy to be smug if pure blind partisanship is all that matters. True believers don’t need reasons, just vitriol. Submission to unscrupulous designs through denial and wagging his contempt for decency in the faces of his adversaries obviously provides Rich Kiker (Unkl Witz) petty onanistic gratifications. Then again we have never heard anything from him to indicate that he knows any better. What is most apparent is that he thinks there is no down side for him personally in any of the SP'ers “magnificent obsession,” as he terms it. While Kiker is of little or no consequence to anyone especially himself, he sums-up the real problem.
Hmmm, magnificent obsession with restoration of honest government in King County; what a concept!
Sow contempt for law, and laws will fail you when you most desperately need them. Tacitly approve of corruption and dishonesty and you will become them. Allow your own house to be infected with these problems and where will you live when it is over and done? Is there any hope for Rich Kiker?
Kiker has indicated numerous times that he considers Republicans (GW Bush, Tom Delay and others) as profoundly corrupt. He accuses them of things that --if true-- should scare him to death because according to his many silly conspiracy theories, he would be an inevitable victim of them. Why would anyone suppose Kiker is so arrogant and self assured that he ignores obvious corruption in his own party? I wonder how smug Rich Kiker would be if he received the corollary of such corruption on the terms he so carelessly asserts that Republicans prosecute. He’s only full of himself because he knows his ideas about Bush et al are bull$hit, and he actually believes that liberalism is harmless no matter what harm it does.
I wonder how haughty Kiker would be if one fine day agents from the Washington State Dept. of Revenue decided to focus on him with the same spirit of integrity as KC Elections currently operates by simply seizing his bank accounts and property. He probably believes that such a thing could never happen. It has. How would it be if “someone,” spiteful who holds liberal morons like Kiker in the same contempt that Kiker does conservatives decided to give him a little visit? Just imagine a little Patriot Act toss or undercover persuasion there Kiker?
Characteristic of most liberals, Kiker likes to promote spite because he is too simple minded to comprehend anything outside of the strict limits of his prejudice and too indolent to create or expound lines of reasoning to discover their confines. The all too tread-worn notion that “what goes around comes around,” contains a serious element of truth that some of us call morality. One day that object of obsession of which Kiker so cavalierly waives off is going to walk up to his door step.
If he actually has his way, it won’t be a Conservative or a Republican who will do the deed, rather one of his own liberal degenerate comrades, and there won’t be any hope left for him.
What is so especially humorous and revealing is that a ding-dong like Rich Kiker would carelessly expose himself in public and thumb his nose at many who he expressly considers his adversaries. Superficially he avers his stupidity as courage, but in reality--deep down--he knows that conservatives are not shameless criminals like liberals, so he has little to worry about.
ALL OF US in King County (including Rick Kiker) have a great deal to worry about, especially from Ron Sims, Christine Gregoire, and KC Elections, and Kiker doesn't care. So what.
Must be from one of Ron Sims employees who thinks that their job will go away unless they do whatever it takes to help the Big Man steal his reelection.
Posted by: Stefan Sharkansky on October 25, 2005 11:18 AMWhen are people like you going to understand the concept of the First Amendment? When are people like you going to stop referring to anybody who dares to point out the motives and intentions of people on your side as McCarthyites? When are people like you going to grow up?
Posted by: 5thColumnCure on October 25, 2005 12:27 PMTell Baghdad Jim hello for all of us, Beef.
Posted by: Danny on October 25, 2005 12:38 PM"Wow...Stefan demonstrated my point right away! Check the IP address and make tons of conclusions. Sen Joe. McCarthy would be proud of you!
Posted by Wheresthebeef at October 25, 2005 11:20 AM
Of course, Medved said McCarthy was a US hero...so who knows, if Sharkansky stays in step with wacko right wing radio...he might think McCarthy is a hero too!
Posted by Wheresthebeef at October 25, 2005 11:22 AM"
You gotta love these LEFTIST PINHEADS....they have absolutely no shame,,,when they have so much to be ashamed of!!!
Whoa!
Is this proof that Ron Sims and company are running scared or what? Incredible!
It figures that this is what our King County tax dollars are going to! .......Troll posts!
Posted by: Deborah on October 25, 2005 05:46 PMPretend that your objections to Stefan's evidence proving your party's corruption are not additional acknowledgement
that the evidence is well founded.
What is most amusing is the fact that ----if you are so certain that you are correct, why bother commenting?
Why not stay at that paragon of weblog virtue where Goldstein expectorates--weary of the tedious lies?
Thanks again, keep it up.
Posted by: Amused by liberals on October 25, 2005 07:05 PMHe casually dismisses my concerns about corruption and mis-management at the national level as "many silly conspiracy theories" while characterizing my lack of concern about local politics as "contempt for law."
He then goes on to connect me with a number of ideas that I do not hold or agree with. And finally, I get the distinct impression he does not feel I have the same right of free speech afforded to others who post on this blog.
But I have to ask, who has been indicted? Ron Sims, Dean Logan, or Tom Delay?
Whos' policies have led directly to tens of thousands of deaths and scores of thousands injured and wounded? Christine Gregoire or George Bush?
Who implemented and maintains laws like the "Patriot Act" that allows those invasions of personal privacy that Amused feels I should be subjected to? Conservatives or liberals?
Believe me when I say it's not a bunch of bungling liberals like Sims and the election gang that can't shoot straight that scare me. It's some very competent, but mis-guided conservatives who are so certain they know what's wrong with human nature that they are ready to resort to some fairly drastic solutions to fix them.
If you think I'm a 'ding dong' for using my real name, so be it. I think you are a coward to have so little courage of convictions that you will not reveal yours.
Posted by: Unkl Witz on October 26, 2005 09:59 AMI don't think anyone here thinks your a 'ding dong' regarding your name, they think you're a 'ding dong' regarding your constant hijacking of threads and the fact that you're a lying cowardly POS.
Why don't you grow a pair and live up to your bets?
Posted by: alphabet soup on October 26, 2005 10:16 AMI'm fully prepared to pay off if the charges against Tom Delay are no longer standing as of Nov 1. Trouble is, I haven't ever heard from Larry whether he accepted my bet.
Posted by: Unkl Witz on October 26, 2005 10:29 AMYou chose to challenge me into that bet and I accepted.
It is up to you to tell me a date, a time, and a place where I can meet you....or for you to STFU
Posted by: alphabet soup on October 26, 2005 10:41 AMI'll be there
Posted by: alphabet soup on October 26, 2005 11:17 AMI guess it doesn't matter since it looks like you'll be buying the beer anyway.
Posted by: Unkl Witz on October 26, 2005 12:45 PMTrue, I believe I said 'In a month....' - but why do you insist that the wheels of justice turn so quick? Don't you want the prosecutors to be CORRECT - whether Delay or Rove or Clinton or whoever - rather than quick?
So I'll take a pass on the wagering. But please say a little prayer for me the day it's announced that Tom Delay is in the clear. A week, a month - whatever - it is going to happen.
If you want to exercise your 12 oz. curl on my behalf, toast one for me when Rove and Libby are cleared as well. That'll probably happen a little sooner.
But never forget - you heard it here first!
Peace
Posted by: Larry on October 26, 2005 08:57 PMGood point; why rush to judgement? Let's let the wheels of justice grind away at their own pace and see who prevails.
But aren't you jumping the gun here on Rove and Libby? Unless something broke while I was off playing basketball, they haven't even been indicted yet. Or are you just feeling a little defensive these days.
Tell ya what, when Delay is aquitted, I'll buy you that drink (decaf root beer if you prefer). And I won't make the mistake of including Mr. Soup. If Delay is convicted, you can pick up the tab.
As for Rove and Libby, let's just agree they are innocent until proven guilty. And while we're at it, maybe we could extend the same long held tradition to Sims and Logan as well.
Posted by: Unkl Witz on October 26, 2005 11:08 PMFor once we agree. And yes, I must have been a little defensive about Rove and Libby - I keep hearing from liberals (incorrectly) that they've been indicted or whatever.
As for Sims and Logan - they are innocent until proven guilty. But it would be my wish that they are INVESTIGATED as thoroughly as Rove, Libby, Delay, et al. Whether they're guilty or innocent - will we ever know? Even you have to admit - an investigation of the King County Elections Department by local or federal prosecutors wouldn't be an affront to justice. It would in fact be long overdue.
Posted by: Larry on October 27, 2005 09:53 AMWhenever folks stop calling me names and attaching all kinds of ridiculous ideological positions to me, they usually find we have a lot more in common than they had ever imagined.
I'm not here to defend Sims or Logan, they can stand or die on their own. My theme has been to point out the hypocracy of folks who weep and wail about local government mis-feasance when we are literally in the midst of a national tragedy of mis-feasance at the federal level. Mis-counted votes in King County is pretty small potatoes compared to an international armed conflict with tens of thousands of deaths. I feel THAT is where the THOROUGH investigation ought to be.
Posted by: Unkl Witz on October 27, 2005 10:24 AMHalf-witz, your "theme" has been to disrupt and disparage and generally make a fool of yourself.
BTW - you gotta an address for this Mountlake Alehouse place? It doesn't show up in any address searches...
You wouldn't be making that up too, would you?!
Posted by: alphabet soup on October 27, 2005 09:56 PMThe fun thing about these pages is, even though they pass from immediate public view, they never go away (unlike a POS like you).
See ya around half-witz....
Posted by: alphabet soup on October 29, 2005 10:38 AMI'll find you........
Posted by: alphabet soup on October 29, 2005 05:04 PM