I enhanced the voter database so that it's now integrated with the King County Assessor's property records.
When you look up an exact King County address, if anybody is registered to vote at that address, the output will also show all parcels and buildings associated with that address. It will indicate whether the property is classified as commercial or residential and show the county's land use descriptions and ownership history. That way, when you look up a voting address, you can tell more easily if it's a bona fide residence, or whether it might be, say, a Texaco mini-mart, a Mexican chain restaurant or the Bellevue Public Safety Training Center and Indoor Firing Range.
I hope to add similar data for other counties over time.
Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at February 19, 2006 05:01 PM | Email ThisI fully support stopping voter fraud, but I for one am really tired of you making public all the personal information.
I for one took great care to keep my information private because of threats to my family. The only place you can find my address is the voter database you've published to the web.
I think you need to take a hard look at what you are doing.
Posted by: Wants Privacy on February 19, 2006 06:28 PMthere are legal privacy provisions in place for the bona fide security challenged.
all ya gotta do is follow the law... nice try, shill.
Posted by: dave on February 19, 2006 06:33 PMI was told I had to use my home address and not to worry about it because only candidates request voter lists. Someone could not just walk in off the street and ask for my address.
There was no option as to keeping my information private. I did not even know there was a privacy program in place until the botched election. I went back to the auditors office and asked and was told I needed to produce police reports showing that I had received threats before I could make a change.
So what exactly is the law to allow me to keep my voter registration private?
Posted by: Wants Privacy on February 19, 2006 06:45 PMNow....Is there a way to make the state use your cross database system? Are they taking notes?
I don't want to hear King County - or any other county in this state say "It's just impossible to design a system to crosscheck so many means and methods of voter/election fraud"....
Ron Sims and Dean Logan, Sam Reed, etal...no longer have an excuse for allowing illegal voters to fall through the cracks!
To think...Ron Sims has spent millions of our tax dollars on so-called "temporary" fixes in the election software! These fixes did nothing to improve the system - and in fact - when combined with Dean Logan's watering down of election procedures over the past few years - these expensive non-fixes opened the county up to incredible election fraud!
I wonder how much Ron Sims paid the felons a few years back to produce election software? The state should pay Stefan dearly for his contribution to fix our election voter database!
(WantsPrivacy - If you have a situation where you fear for your safety due to threats of any kind..YOU SHOULD CONTACT THE POLICE!! Anyone who believes they have complete privacy with our government is sadly mistaken... If the county told you that you must file a police report before they remove your public information - THEN DO IT! Don't blame Stefan for information he obtained from a "public" database...)
Posted by: Deborah on February 19, 2006 07:24 PMKing County Elections has had the voter database on the internet for three years now - where have you been?
Ron Sims was advised repeatedly that publishing it to the web would be an invasion of privacy for voters, but he insisted that the law allowed it and it would be helpful to the campaigns of Democratic elected officials, who wanted it on the web.
Don't blame Stefan for attempting to fight fire with fire - in the last three years, King County has completely abdicated responsibility for maintaining the voter registration rolls, insisting that it was a "shared responsibility" with the voters, and that King County was not responsible for accuracy of the lists.
The voter rolls are inaccurate because it benefits left-leaning candidates for the rolls to be mainatined sloppily. Sloppy lists allow for otherwise ineligible voters to slip through the cracks and for the votes of properly registered eligible voters to be diluted.
I'm sure Stefan would prefer that the County did their job in the first place. However, since that's unlikely, it falls to the public to call King County's bluff and review the voter rolls for inaccuracies.
Once again, the Dems ALREADY have the information they need. Secrecy from this point forward FAVORS them. Stefan's work is like shine light on a bunch of SEWER RATS!!!! Watch them screech and scurry for the cover of DARKNESS!
Posted by: Mr. Cynical on February 20, 2006 06:52 AMThere is no "right to privacy", when illegal voters can and do change election results.
Get a clue. If Washington and King County continue to be run by the same corrupt people. Your "right to privacy" is not going to mean much in the future.
Maybe one day, one of them decides that your property is going to be needed in some other city, county or state project.
So they seize it by using "eminent domain" and kick your dumb a** out.
That is likely what your version of "right to privacy" will get you.
First off, not everyone lives in King County. I know that Seattle thinks it runs the state, but there are other residents.
Nobody so far no one has answered my question, just did some name calling. Something I would expect on a liberal forum.
I've not seen any person here offer a viable solution to cleaning up voter fraud AND maintaining privacy.
You have no right to privacy as long as you vote or own property. These 2 activities are and need to be available as public record for what should be obvious reasons. If you don't like that,
then you shouldn't engage in either. Or go under witness protection. Sorry, that's the way it is,
for now, in the US.
Since you are posting on the blog, I assume you are somewhat familiar with the Internet, and even perhaps Google?
Try typing "washington voter confidentiality" into your Google search. The first hit in the list takes you to the King County Elections Voter Registration page (http://www.metrokc.gov/elections/register.htm). The sixth bullet down is labeled "Address Confidentiality Program."
That wasn't so hard, now, was it? (Took me less time to find than it did to type this out).
Posted by: Patrick on February 20, 2006 09:33 AMYes, liberals are into name-calling and are very emotional in their responses, even their most reasoned responders.
The only way for the voter rolls to be cleaned up seems to be postings everyone's record. You don't like it and I don't like it, but when you can't trust your own government, this seems to be the only solution.
From what I can get, it does seem possible to hide your name and address, but you have to be proactive to do it.
Did you know candidates can get that list easily? They (we) use it for a variety of things. I remember going around two precincts the last cycle and dropping off Democrat literature for a candidate I was supporting in the primary. It got pretty interesting when the home owners wanted to engage in a political discussion and I had to bite my tongue as best I could.
Instead of buying habits, the list shows which elections you have voted in and my list showed if you were an R or a D, so the sales pitch could be directed at the owner.
As Cynic says, SP is not the main perpetrator of violating your privacy.
Ever go to Amazon and start clicking around? Pretty soon they have a list of books you should buy and it is fairly accurate.
Privacy went out 20 years ago.
Posted by: swatter on February 20, 2006 09:34 AMTrying to make Voter Registration Databases totally confidential with no addresses is not doable and a ridiculous path to go down. My guess is you are a Democratic Party Hack trying to divert this "clean-up" onto a path that is even more secretive and allows the Dems to maintain their database advantage. Hey, hats-off to the Dems....they have outworked the Republicans up to this point in Washington State. No doubt. Chris Vance should have made voter ID and validation of Voter Registration the number 1, numero uno priority long, long ago. Republicans would rather talk about it than roll up their sleeves and work on their database. It's hard, labor intensive work that takes courageous, persistent workerbees too relentlessly strive to develop an accurate database AND then to maintain it...including calling all new registered voters!! Frankly, I don't see the Washington Republicans doing what is necessary. They seem to prefer being the "whooped dog"!
I saw glimpses of brilliance and potential in the Rossi Campaign. The R's desperately needed to follow-thru on that momentum. Doesn't appear they have....sadly.
Frankly, Stefan's work post-election is certainly enough to have gotten Rossi elected had it been done pre-election.
The Dems like "wants privacy" really wants to backslide once again into a more unaccountable system where cheating can occur and be buried.
Bad try "Wants Privacy"===No Sale!!
Since I'm not a victim of domestic violence or stalking I don't qualify.
Posted by: Wants Privacy on February 20, 2006 11:41 AMIn the old days, and still today at some New England town meetings, we voted by public outcry, which is to say, to vote you showed up at a meeting and voted by voice. "John Smith, how do you vote for mayor?" "I vote for William Jenkins." Then in the late 1800s people decided they wanted their votes to be secret, because of voter intimidation and such making the elections not fair, so we adopted the Australian system of voting by marking a piece of paper in private.
Somehow some people seem to have confused our choice to provide secrecy of the ballot with secrecy of the voting act. But you have no "right" to a secret ballot, and you especially have no right to keep your participation in elections secret.
Posted by: Legast on February 20, 2006 12:11 PMAmen. No one should know WHO you voted for...but everyone should know WHO voted.
AND THE TOTAL NUMBER OF VOTES COUNTED MUST MATCH THE TOTAL NUMBER OF PEOPLE CREDITED WITH VOTING!!!
It doesn't have to be that tough. It's folks like "wants privacy" who is willing to compromise the integrity of the whole system in order to address his special problem.
Perhaps the Address Confidentiality Program needs to be modified. I don't know what your specific circumstances are that forces you to live in anonimity....if true, it must be something serious.
When you moved here, did you leave a forwarding address from your past home??
If "wants privacy" is serious, he will focus on expanding or modifying the Address Protection Program. I know someone who is in it....Witness Protection.
PS If you are merely trying to avoid loan-sharks and creditors....not good enough.
So what precisely is causing your angst "Wants Privacy"?? Obviously this is anonymous....or you aren't worried about your stalker ID'ing you here. What precisely is causing you to live in anonimity that isn't covered under ACP???
Posted by: Mr. Cynical on February 20, 2006 01:08 PM"Since I'm not a victim of domestic violence or stalking I don't qualify."
Wants....
I believe you are not being honest here....
Only a Democrat would approach a crisis situation with a "Victim" mentality...A Republican would take advantage of every resource available and raise Hell with those paid by our tax dollars to protect us... Most conservative Republicans are like attack dogs - they just wont let go - when it comes to protecting our personal freedoms, family and property! If I had people threatening me - or my family - I would not rest until they were stopped or until I was protected. I would keep going up the chain of command until I spoke to the person who makes the policies...
A Democrat will make a call - then give up and whine and not pursue the matter any farther with those they need to contact....They may even hope for future personal injury so they can sue!....In the meantime - a Democrat will complain and complain about their problem - to people who can't do a thing about it - never looking for a solution....never taking personal responsibility...never getting mad and taking charge.......just a victim....who think they should be entitled to more privacy than others...
I don't think you're being entirely fair to Wants Privacy. The reference to being "a victim of domestic violence or stalking" is straight off the SoS Web site on the Confidentiality Program. You can't suppress your physical address in the voter registration records unless you have a specific fear for your safety - "I just want my privacy" isn't enough. Which (in my mind) is entirely appropriate. As has already been noted here, voting is and always has been a public act. Though your ballot is secret, you must openly declare who you are and why you are qualified to vote in a specific precinct. Otherwise, how can we ensure the integrity of the process?
Posted by: Deborah on February 21, 2006 07:26 AMThe voting process lacks integrity. The real question is how to minimize the obvious corruption. Stefan in a brilliant stroke demonstrated the power of technology by linking two different data bases. One corrupt data base is used to validate voting registration, the other is used, in part, to validate ownership of real property and ultimately collect taxes. Using the "tax" data base to test the validity of the "registration" data base is a stroke of genius as the tax data base, for the time being, is probably more accurate in reporting ownership and type of property.
Without great effort "Privacy" doesn't exist in modern society. People are listed in hundreds of public and private data bases for an equal number of services: voting, driving, taxing, insurance, medical, credit, library, subscriptions, phone books, are a few that come to mind. In this case comparing two public data bases to test accuracy is not a violation of privacy. The selected data bases are public after all.
The outcry for "privacy" may support legislation preventing comparison of data bases. This is not as outlandish as it may seem when one considers the fate of the citizenship question.
Society may ultimately demand cleaning up the state wide registration base which obviously is quite dirty. I suspect that this will only occur when the pain to maintain a corrupt data base exceeds the rewards. Until that far off day, Stefan methods will shine light in the dark corners.
Now if we only can resolve the recent loss of our property rights as decided by the recent Washington State Supreme Court decision.
Posted by: Snuffy on February 21, 2006 09:31 AMWants, "First off, not everyone lives in King County. I know that Seattle thinks it runs the state, but there are other residents."
"Maybe one day, one of them decides that your property is going to be needed in some other city, county or state project." I do not see King County specified here!
"Nobody so far no one has answered my question, just did some name calling. Something I would expect on a liberal forum.
I've not seen any person here offer a viable solution to cleaning up voter fraud AND maintaining privacy. "
Wants, you assume that you have a right that does not exist. (ps, that makes it more likely that you are a liberal Democrat than a Republicain) The act of Voting is private. To be registered to vote is not.
For if you can not prove where a person lives, how can you tell if they are truly qualified to vote in that areas elections?
Society may ultimately demand cleaning up the state wide registration base which obviously is quite dirty. I suspect that this will only occur when the pain to maintain a corrupt data base exceeds the rewards. Until that far off day, Stefan methods will shine light in the dark corners.
I agree with Snuffy. None of us is pleased with the idea of ratting on our neighbors and shining the brilliant light of error on our friends' registration records. But we have lost the integrity of our voting system. We lost it when we initiated vote by mail for convenience sake. We lost it when we moved responsibility for maintaining voting lists from bipartisan precinct captains to partisan county bureaucrats. We are losing it even more by moving responsibility to incompetent state bureaucrats. How can Sam Reed do a better job of knowing that my neigbor moved away than Ron Sims can? How can Ron Sims do a better job than the two precinct captains that live (or would live there, if we had them) in my neighborhood.
We've lost it folks. We ain't getting it back until we take it back from Sam Reed and Ron Sims!!!
Posted by: huckleberry on February 21, 2006 03:09 PM