December 19, 2005
Fraudulent Audit Team issues another worthless report

The Election Center, which performed a fraudulent $300,000 audit of the King County Elections section earlier this year has returned with another glowing endorsement of Dean Logan, today's P-I reports: "King County elections gets good report on Nov. 8 vote". This year's election probably was run better than last year's election, but the Election Center did such a good job of ignoring problems in the last report that they incinerated their credibility. We have every reason to expect that if there were noteworthy problems this year, the Election Center would have overlooked them. Shame on the Council for hiring these clowns for a repeat engagement.

Besides, any organization which includes Dean Logan on a "National Task Force on Election Reform" [p. 6] should be considered suspect.

Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at December 19, 2005 11:13 AM | Email This
Comments
1. Didn't read through the whole thing. But did they mention that several hundred (thousands, really) voters are illegally registered at mailbox addresses and businesses? Or that a pollworker was essentially forced out for trying to follow election law by explaining to a 'voter' that he wasn't eligible to vote because he'd only been in town 3 weeks???? Did they mention that at pollworker training, election law forbidding ineligible voters is heavily ignored??

Bet THAT wasn't in there. Bet they DIDN'T mention that Logan falls all over himself to throw election law to the wind and get ineligible voters to vote so my vote can be cancelled out when KCE goes ahead and counts illegal votes anyway.

We deserve better. Much better

Posted by: Misty on December 19, 2005 11:21 AM
2. ..oh, and did they mention that someone in Seattle who voted twice in the '04 primary and general election, managed to do so again in '05??? How does that happen, if things are so much better? This is not at all reassuring to the rest of us that it is so easy to vote twice in this county. Did they mention that Republicans were not allowed to recruit pollworkers, as before; that only Democrats were given that job?? and when asked why, gave a false answer about it (according to my councilperson's office)??

Posted by: Misty on December 19, 2005 11:27 AM
3. Ah, I love it.

Losers repeat losers talk.

Democratic victories and GOP permanent minority. Coming to a Congress near you in 2006.

President Clinton. Returning 2008.

Posted by: name on December 19, 2005 11:31 AM
4. Name: I don't think so, not when the Barrett report is published. Also, have you read the reports published today that in the 90's Clinton had the same NSA surveillance program in place for spying on phone conversations, e-mails, etc., and it was exactly the same as the current one, but it was for DOMESTIC communications, i.e. citizens. It was called Echelon. Go figure. I don't think Hillary has a chance of getting into office which means, literally, Bill getting back into office.

Posted by: katomar on December 19, 2005 12:04 PM
5. katomar, the Dems are trying VERY HARD to suppress that report, because they know how damaging it is. Let's hope they don't succeed, because there are things in there that the American people deserve to know.

Posted by: M on December 19, 2005 01:00 PM
6. Back on thread

My wife had lunch with some other lady friends of hers last week. One of them works part-time for KCE. At lunch my wife learned that there is a very very serious attitude problem at KCE and that in the opinion of someone who works there upper management at KCE should be fire and most of the staff who will not perform.

Specifically, it was indicated that most people at KCE have a "damn if I care" attitude that has been instilled on them by poor management over a long period of time. It sounds like folks just do as little as possible and do everything possible to not make a mistake (i.e. by doing as little as possible). There also seems to be a keep my head down and not make any eye contact and don't take any initiative approach by many.

Considering that Dean Logan was brought in to make chages as the third head of KCE in a short period of time and that there was a recommendation to bring in a turn around team, that has now been shelved, because some of the great improvements might be lost if they come in (say what?); I truly have no confidence in KCE elections nor in any state-wide elections where King County votes change the outcome.

PI and over cover-ups will not prevent a lack of citizen faith in elections. That in turn will mean that elected officials are not trusted and have less authority to act. This state is headed for some very serious governance problems unless people have faith in the election process.

This article and the PI's approach to reporting signals some very bad times ahead.

Posted by: Bob on December 19, 2005 01:51 PM
7. name-

Pot calling the kettle black…

Remind me of who holds the majority in the House, Senate and soon to be, Supreme Court? What party is currently in the White House?

Be proud of the fact that a bunch of liberal Seattle-lites like you can hold this state hostage to the dems. Eventually, so many folks will leave Seattle because of its twisted views that we will reclaim this state and then you'll have to move your sorry a$$ to the bay area.

Posted by: Jeffro on December 19, 2005 01:52 PM
8. name,

The defeatacrats and the MSM did a wonderful impression this morning of Wiley E. Coyote running off the cliff powered by their ACME surveillance gizmo. Any moment now they are going look down and try to scramble back to safety, but are going to to find out the hard way that just because the NYT publishes something don't make it true. And it is a loooong way down.

The Barrett report will get out, and the dems will be known for obstructing its release.

The NYT surveillance story, which if you actually read the story mentions all the forms where followed, congressional oversight, court approvals. Will result in a leak investigation, and will point back to the most likely a dem senators office.

The 'crats are being seen by more and more people as not only anti-war, but anti-victory, anti-democracy, defeatist, and weak on national security.

Those positions will not play well with anyone expect the McDimwitt voters on Capitol Hill.

The current situation has more parallels to '79 and '80 and Dhimmi Carter than anything else. The 'crats have been losing ground every since at the local, state and federal levels. As long as the 'crats continue the current direction, the losses over the next two election cycles will be nothing short of cataclysmic for the them.

Sorry to burst your bubble.

Posted by: JCM on December 19, 2005 03:41 PM
9. Oh wow, SoundPolitics.com claimes that some other entity has no 'credibility' concerning elections. Tell us again, oh mighty seekers of truth, why Judge Bridges will set aside the election's result?

We liberals here in Seattle believe Judge Bridges' evaluation of the election. That's why the election has legitimacy. Or do you propose spending your money until Gov. Gregoire wins by ten thousand votes? (That would cost ten thousand million dollars at the current court rates, I believe.) Would SoundPolitics.com refer to this expenditure as 'sound' financial management?

Posted by: Paddy Mac on December 19, 2005 06:45 PM
10. Acid flashback Paddy Mac? You've been hangin' out with Norm Stamper too much. It would have been cheaper to oust the illegitimate queen had Dean purged voter rolls prior to the 04'election, but that's all behind us. We are looking forward to continuing the "good fight" right up to the 2008 election. Dino will win, Christine will be hoisted on her rail and run out of town. She can't help it, she is too liberal. She will run this state into the ground and the seeds of that destruction are already planted. Merry Christmas!

Posted by: Just Say No on December 19, 2005 08:19 PM
11. Paddy Mac:
If you believed Judge Bridges' evaluation, you would be 100% behind cleaning up the voter rolls. Judge Bridges stated the KCE was a pathetic excuse for election efficiency, agreed that it was impossible to tell who won the election because of the thousands of apparently improper ballots/votes/voters, and could not rule on who won due to voter confidentiality. He advised the people of the State of Washington to take care of the KCE problems themselves. Get it? That's what most of us would like to see. Why not you? Shoe could be on the other foot next time, and then what are you going to say? All any of us want is to know is that we have clean elections, and not be embarassed in front of the entire nation because of the Larry Mo and Curly antics at KCE.

Posted by: katomar on December 19, 2005 08:36 PM
12. Judge Bridges had unsparing criticism of King County's Elections Department, which is why we taxpayers of King County have since spent much money reforming that office. He rejected all claims of fraud, and described the petitioners' (and SoundPolitics') proposed vote-reduction scheme with the words "unscientific " and "fallacy". He also speculated that felons had voted for Rossi in large numbers, implying that proper maintenance of King County's voter rolls would have made the election an even larger victory for Gov. Gregoire. So, of course I support improvement at King County's elections department. I pay their salaries, and I want them to exclude felons from voting.

Look, in the immortal words of President Clinton, "I feel your pain." Mr. Rossi's aborted tour of the Governor's Mansion was the closest that any Republican came to occupying that residence in twenty years. His good showing was an anomaly (q.v. candidates Craswell and Carlson), and I can understand your belief that he was robbed. But he put that idea to the legal test, and it failed. Get over it. If Governor Gregoire stands for re-election in 2008, she will do so on her own record in office, not as a repeat of the 2004 election. Anyone who regards it as a simple re-match will lose. I want the next election to showcase the record of the incumbent, not discredited mutterings about the previous election.

Find a candidate or a cause, and work to empower your beliefs. (I always do.) But don't seek to de-legitimatize our duly-elected government on a fit of pique. Destroying our great democracy serves no good purpose.

Posted by: Paddy Mac on December 19, 2005 09:23 PM
13. ..frankly, if the Gregoire ship never turns around in the polls, I think we can look forward to the Dems dumping her before she even gets to the general election. They've done it before to their own.

Posted by: Michele on December 19, 2005 09:24 PM
14. Shark - How meta of you. You spout fraud and back it up with a link to... another Shark posting, which makes its case by linking to... another Shark posting. Thanks for letting us know that your sources are... well, yourself.

Posted by: Daniel K on December 19, 2005 09:36 PM
15. My sources, Daniel K, are dozens of ballot envelopes and other primary county documents that nobody else was diligent enough to bother to even look at.

Posted by: Stefan Sharkansky on December 19, 2005 09:51 PM
16. The King County elections audit illustrates just one reason I don't expect audits of state government to achieve any more than enrich the auditors and further protect the entrenched bureaucracy. There are far better ways to bring about more efficient government.

Posted by: State Worker on December 19, 2005 11:42 PM
17. I found Mr. Logan's name on page 6 of the report. Look at that, he is a member of the "Election Redesign" committee.

Posted by: Gary on December 20, 2005 02:42 PM
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