 | Today's dumb e-mail from an elected official is from Secretary of State Sam Reed. Reader Shannon recently e-mailed Secretary Reed to ask why he directed his staff to testify against HB 2526, which would have enabled citizens to challenge a duplicate voter registration. Shannon forwarded Secretary Reed's dumb reply, from which I quote. |
The Voter Registration Challenge process is to catch people are either not eligible to vote or who have given an improper address. 99.9% of the duplicate registrations occur when a person registers at a new address without canceling his or her previous registration. It is a simple and quick administrative step to correct that. It doesn’t require a costly, time-consuming public hearing embodied in HB 2526.[Emphasis added] Reed's numbers imply that only 0.1% of duplicate registrations (1 in 1,000) are caused by something other than a voter who reregisters at a new address without canceling the old registration. That's almost an accuracy rate that any bank would envy! But Reed's math has an accuracy rate that makes Ron "99.98%" Sims look like Albert Einstein. As I reported several days ago, the new statewide voter database contains 1,353 pairs of duplicates with a perfect match on first, name, last name, birthdate and exact address. (and there are even more duplicates at the same address, these were only the easiest to identify). If these alone represented only 1/1000 of the total duplicates, the imputed number of duplicate registrations would be 1,353,000 or roughly 35% of all voter registrations in the state. Obviously that's absurd. Reed also implies elsewhere in his email that county auditors will readily remove duplicate registrations when such are brought to their attention. But if that's the case, why is Dustin S. O'Coilain still registered three times, months after he was prosecuted for double voting? Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at February 23, 2006 05:36 PM | Email This
Coming to bookstores soon.
Posted by: MES on February 23, 2006 05:56 PMAs to the "Motor-Voter" garbage, we need a state executive that will tell the feds to "go cry in you milk. We're not going to do that here!"
If the libs had their way, people would here this all the time: "Ok, that's 1 big-mac, large fries, small diet coke. Is that it? Ok, your total comes to $5.66. Would you like us to automatically register you to vote with that?"
Argh!
Posted by: Jeremy on February 23, 2006 06:03 PMThe question IS: Can the non existent be DISenfranchised?
FOUL~! Sam Reed, sorry, but you actually BELIEVE that Dean Logan wants to get rid of all double registrations. Current evidence suggests that there are far too many in the mix to make that true!
Posted by: Misty on February 23, 2006 09:02 PMI was taught as a child that voting was the most important thing you could do for society and that it was "sacred". My grandfathers fought in WWII and they knew what it was to be an American and why to fight for what is right. To bad our WA government believes in a different America.....one that Stalin and Hitler would love
Posted by: Dengle on February 23, 2006 09:56 PMI’m given’ any of yous 7/2 odds that Sam knows how to count “BAG” money.
Forgetaboutit
I mean - if they allow this mismanagment of one state database...how can they create a national voter database with any confidence and integrity?Why bother - if they can't assure the nations voters that all that of these fixable errors have been corrected on a state level under the oversight of the Feds?
At some point - Sam Reed will not be able to play this game of ignorance any longer...
Posted by: Deborah on February 24, 2006 12:20 AME-mails from Dumb Elected Officials
Posted by: righton on February 24, 2006 07:07 AMWake up and smell the coffee. The voting system is undermined. Let there be no doubt about it. When we quibble about legal meanings to straight forward regulations, see aliases, and other assorted problems, such as citizenship, then the system is broken, perhaps beyond repair. And Sam Reed is just doing what is expected of him.
Given just the following facts:
1. Non-citizens vote
2. People register multiple times, frequently using address which are not their abodes.
3. People vote multiple times, sometimes using aliases
4. Dead people rise up and vote.
5. People cast and sign ballots for the infirm and mentally incompetent.
6. Criminals vote, sometimes from prison.
7. No attempt is made to assure balances prior to certifying elections.
The above are just a few examples that immediately come to mind. Examples which clearly violate regulations. I am certain that the readers may add to the list. My point is that the system is intentional undermined. What else will explain the abhorrent behavior of the leaders and managers. Corruption has become a way of life in Washington State. Judge Bridges called it a culture. I prefer the term, corruption.
The real question is can one political party accomplished all of this corruption? I seriously doubt that only one party is to blame. Sam Reed is just the poster child of that activity. I refuse to believe that past Republicans did not aid or abet in a wink and nod fashion. Only when the corrupt pot boiled over and stunk to high heaven across the state and country did the Republican Party challenge the voting contest. Prior to that no other state wide voting contest were seriously challenged, even the close race between Slade and Cantwell went unchallenged. Silence implies tacit acceptance. For had Slade challenged the results of the Senatorial race the outcome of the Governor's race two years later made had been different. And that is my point, Republicans quietly acquiesced. And they continue to quietly acquiesced on a daily basis by voting for legislation that further diminishes the values they campaigned on. If the Democrats are the Devils incarnate, what are the Republicans? Judases.
Posted by: Snuffy on February 24, 2006 08:46 AMCould we just send him to Tehran to run their air defense network?!?!?!?
I presume he'd do a heck of a job (and not hit any of those pretty Israeli Air Force jets)!!!
Posted by: A Watchdog on February 24, 2006 10:13 AM