The Economist magazine quotes me this week in an article on mail-in voting "Stamp of approval?" [paid subscription only]
Western states are closing down their polling stations. Should they?The reporter quotes the Ron-half of Deanron claiming that mail-only voting is cheaper, but perhaps wasn't aware that the Dean-half admitted that it's actually more expensive. The article goes on to quote a number of critics of mail voting, including yours truly:
Stefan Sharkansky, a blogger based in Washington state (soundpolitics.com), followed the fateful 2004 gubernatorial race carefully. He says that signature verification was poor, allowing people to vote for others. Some people were caught—King County brought charges against a handful of people who voted for dead family members—but it is painstaking work. He also points to the loss of secrecy and the fact that, in disputed cases, it is harder to spot voter intent. A voting machine at a polling place should automatically stop a voter from submitting a double-marked ballot; but they can post them in.I gave the reporter several more arguments against mail voting, including ease of double voting, lost ballots, inadequate accounting systems, reduced transparency, etc., but space constraints are what they are. Not to blow my own horn or anything, but when the world's leading news magazine wanted comments from a chronicler of Washington elections, it didn't quote any of the state's legacy media outlets, it quoted this blog. Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at March 16, 2006 12:20 PM | Email This
There is REAL investigative journalism here in WA. It's at sites like Sound Politics.
Posted by: Right Wing Wacko on March 16, 2006 01:19 PMKeep up the good work!
Posted by: Matt from Olympia on March 16, 2006 01:45 PMThe Economist has its share of biased reporters (and editors), but they certainly recognized the only party in Washington who has meticulously documented the mess that Dean Logan has created at King County Elections - while our resident MSM at the Times, P-I and local TV diligently dove into bed and pulled the covers tight over their heads.
Posted by: Hank Bradley on March 16, 2006 02:08 PM(And I hope all of you will excuse me for taking some pleasure in the egg on the faces of some local journalists, who were scooped by the Economist, in their back yard. Not the first time that's happened, either.)
Posted by: Jim Miller on March 16, 2006 03:01 PMI was a long time subscriber to The Economist for many years, but even they 'jumped the Shark' (pardon the pun) in the runup to the '04 elections. They had major lead articles saying in effect: 'Don't judge John Kerry based on what he's said and done in the Senate for 20 years, base your judgement on what he says he's going to do'.
They seem to have backed off on the BDS after the election itself, it was just disappointing seeing rank editorializing (and bad editorializing at that) in what was a news piece.
Posted by: chunkstyle on March 16, 2006 03:15 PMIt is telling that you are quoted by a national news organization. You have worked long and hard on making things (elections) right in King County and without a doubt you know more than anyone else about the ins and outs and what went wrong in KCRE.
Posted by: sgmmac on March 16, 2006 03:20 PMGregg
Posted by: Gregg on March 16, 2006 03:25 PMNow, maybe some bored Federal agent will read The Economist on his lunch break and realize we have a big "election fraud" problem here in Washington state.....? Does the President read The Economist?...(OK...I'd be happy if he loaned us Rumsfeld and Ann Coulter for a month!....snicker..)
Posted by: Deborah on March 16, 2006 07:07 PMThat said, congrats Stefan. It's very interesting that the Economist came directly to you. This is a major sign of the power of the new media.
I think your post tonight "Seeing Double" really sums it all up. Even a liberal who's willing to put aside their hatred of you simply for your dogged pursuit of what happened in 2004 has to acknowledge just how thorough you've been in researching, comparing, cataloging, and learning how all thing in our election process work. I'd venture that you probably know more than any other person in the state about how to properly handle ballots and conduct an election.
I doubt that you would want to, but maybe you should run for SOS at some point?