Spent the morning in Olympia at the House State Government Operations and Accountability Committee where I testified on two of the election reform bills on the agenda. Testifying on the other side of the bills were Nixon Handy and his aides from the Secretary of State's Office and Snohomish County Auditor "Sideshow Bob" Terwilliger. These Elections bureaucrats do not like HB 2526, the House Republican bill that rationalizes the challenge statute, in spite of (or perhaps because of) the fact that it would be the only way for anybody to challenge the registration of an unlocatable phantom voter (e.g. a total stranger who is falsely registered at the challenger's own home). They also don't like the fact that it would enable a citizen to challenge a doubly-registered voter, presumably because that would embarrass the auditors who fail to do their jobs properly. The Elections bureaucrats do like HB 2752, their own bill that makes only minor tweaks, but leaves in place enough slop and loopholes to permit undetectable and unmitigable election fraud. If I had to guess, I'd say most of the Democrats in the room are on board with this. I'd be surprised if 2526 passes out of committee, and would expect that if 2752 passes, it would only be in a weakened form. If the Dems keep up their drive to render election integrity laws moot, our elections will one day turn into little more than ballot stuffing contests, if we're not there already. This would be a good opportunity to e-mail your own legislator and ask for their position on 2526. If they are opposed, ask them what they would do if they discovered a total stranger registered to vote at their own home.

I spoke briefly with a House Republican and asked for his thoughts on getting the Democratic Caucus on board with sensible election reform. He said: "Last year we had some good bi-partisan bills that would have improved integrity, but Sam Hunt shot them all down.

These people are Communists. They're not Democrats."

"Do you think they really want vote fraud?" I asked.

"Oh, yes" he replied.

I disagree, though, that Sam Hunt and his fellow Democrats in the legislature are actually Communists. Communists at least have enough decency to reject election fraud.