The King County Council will receive a briefing this morning on the "Status of King County Elections". Two groups will brief the Council -- the Elections Center, which conducted the $300,000 fraudulent audit last year, and the "Citizens Election Oversight Committee". Members of the CEOC have told me that although the CEOC was specifcally reconstituted last year primarily to "report on problems identified in the 2004 general election", the Democrats and government insiders in the majority blocked the committee from actually investigating the 2004 problems. It'll be interesting to see how many of the Councilmembers ask the briefers why they didn't do the jobs they were tasked with doing, and what the answers might be.
Meanwhile, I'm now in day 157 of waiting for the rest of the voter registration database transaction log, which I expect would identify more serious election errors than any of the official committees have come up.
The briefing starts at 9:30. Tune in to KCTV
Highlights of CEOC briefing:
Councilmember Dunn: "aren't we as a county just dancing around the issue that management of elections needs to change?"
Councilmember Phillips (addressing himself to Deanron): "you were the real turnaround team"
Councilmember Ferguson: "give King County Elections a grade"
CEOC Chairman A.J. Culver wouldn't give a grade.
Highlights of Election Center briefing:
The Election Center is mostly lame, but the woman briefer is laying out some sensible caveats about moving to mail-only voting.
It’s who counts the votes that matters.
Paging Mary Lane. :-)
Posted by: A Watchdog on March 6, 2006 09:34 AMI'm watching Comcast Channel 22 and they just have a slide and music playing.
If the King County Council is serious about fixing the problem, they need to get true consultants with systems integration experience. The Puget Sound Business Journal has a list of the top 25 CPA firms in Seattle. Approiximately 10 of these firms are International. The Final Four (DTT, KY, KPMG, and PWC use to have consulting practices but some of the remaining players sold or spun off their consulting practices after the Enron/MCI implosion and earnings restatement problems.) I think PWC sold their consulting practice to IBM.
In addition Jefferson Wells, Resources Connections, and others have seasoned professionals but do not practice as CPAs. They firms can also do a good job at a more reasonable price.
The Seattle Times has done good investigative reporting on Native American Housing Scandal, Fred Hutchinson Scandal, UWMC/Harborview Medicare Billing Scnadal and other issues that affect us. However, they have chosen not to flip over the KCE rocks and see what's underneath. I do not expect Mr. Blethen to open up an investigation.
Mr McKay, US Dept of Justice Seattle Branch, initially conducted an aggressive investigation of the UWMC/Harborview Medicare/Medicaid Billing Scandal. In July 2002 it appeared he had prevailed against UWMC/Harborview w/ a record setting $35 million fine. Now in 20/20 hindsight it appears he was snookered if you look at the Federal Government settlement in Jan-2006 with UMDNJ (University Medicine and Denistry of New Jersey). In Mr McKay's defense he did not have the support of Washington Governor Locke. In NJ Governors Cody and Corzine (former US Senator and Salomon Brothers? CEO) said this is unacceptable and agreed to Federal oversight. I do not expect Mr Mckay to investigate KCE.
The television briefing has now started. Given the serious database problems, I do not think we should all absentee ballots, and should move back to the standard of extremely limited permanent abseentee ballots such as permanently disabled. Otherwise I think absentee ballots should be temporary such as out of town travellers and students.
Given that five plus(5+) months have passed since your request, you need to file the lawsuit today. My gut feel is you give KCE thirty (30) days to respond and litigate if they don't.
Posted by: Green Lake Mark on March 6, 2006 10:03 AMPrecisely. The games need to stop. Only when enough force is applied to a Statist Administration (i.e. Sims) will they listen.
Posted by: A Watchdog on March 6, 2006 10:26 AMThat said, why the people of King County succumb to Sims-style statism is beyond me...
Posted by: A Watchdog on March 6, 2006 11:09 AMKing County Council has to decided whether they want to follow Best Practices and have a World Class Election department or "something that only a mother could love".
The D gentlemen w/ the beard and glasses is the most lucid testifier. The individuals identified as Rs are week. AJ looks like a great guy to go over to his house for a BBQ and have a beverage, but I cannot follow him. This appears to be one big love fest, kumaya, and hands holding retreat.
Unfortuneately I think the only solution based upon Mr. Logan's failure to respond Public Disclosure Requests is to terminate/reassign Mr Logan to a position where his skills are better suited. I'm sure he was a good "shoe salesman" at Nordstroms and is a nice guy, but he lives in Poulsboro which is an hour away.
King County Council needs to hire a new election director with systems integration experience who can devote the time to bring KCE up to speed for the upcoming elections b4 the Aug-2006 primary.
I disagree strongly w/ the women w/ short hair, black earings, and a black jacket who just testified that there are significant differences between the public and private sector.
You run the process like a business and customers will be happy and will receive a professional service.
Your differences are slight, ie we do not charge customers for police or fire calls, which is a public policy decision and is proper.
Posted by: Green Lake Mark on March 6, 2006 11:24 AMF-
And that even including their extra credit votes that they counted but I didn't.
Posted by: GS on March 6, 2006 11:28 AMF!
What a farce. No mention of many of the problems brought to light by Judge Bridges.
Let's always remember that the left is fundamentally Marxist in its ideology. Marxism quickly learned that it could not compete on a real open Market. So the left has become very good at building Potemkin Villages. Lots of show, rhtetoric and back slapping. Just take any typical politician. It's all about face time, being there to hold the little child up for the cameras, etc. These people have been out of the private sector so long, they don't know anything about real results.
I want to see the absentee envelopes, the database transaction logs, etc. and I want them examined by rational, level headed, private citizens like Stefan and not by some sham commision appointed by the Executive who also appoints the Director of Elections.
Posted by: Jeff B. on March 6, 2006 12:31 PMAbsolutely the bottom-line Jeff. The difficulty is that Stefan has been marginalized & minimized as some "lunatic partisan hack with an ax to grind". The problem for DeanRon and the Sims Fraud Machine is THE FACTS ARE THE FACTS!!
It is easy not to find any "smoking gun" when the Outside Auditors and Oversight Group have their F*CKING eyes closed and are instructed not to look at certain things.
Then they coyly say, "we did not find any evidence of fraud"! What a joke. Of course not knuckleheads....you forgot to look under the blanket where the big bump was squirming around!
My prediction is the Transaction Logs have been mysteriously destroyed....COMPUTER ERROR or THE DOG ATE IT!! Any level-headed Systems Analyst knows the importance of that Transaction Log. Larry Phillips probably knows....but is doing his very best to deflect attention from the squirming lump under the blanket!!!
Posted by: Mr. Cynical on March 6, 2006 12:45 PMFolks, I live in Skagit County and there was absolutely no one more tougher on Dean Logan this time last year than Reagan Dunn who filed Resolution 2005-0219 to declare "no confidence" in "Governor Dean" Logan. Therefore he is my King County Councilor!!
Frankly, if the King County GOP had stood behind that resolution, parroted it every two seconds on talk radio and rallied in front of the council chambers - we would have had a fair up or down vote. Dean Logan must go!!!!
Posted by: A Watchdog on March 6, 2006 04:54 PMIt’s who counts the votes that matters." Joe Stalin and more recently others, including Dwight Pelz, et.al. (2004)
Have Deanron picked up goosestepping yet ? It would only seem fitting.
Posted by: KS on March 6, 2006 08:15 PM