The King County Council is now actively considering Deanron's proposal to switch to mail-only voting. This letter against the proposal appears in today's P-I: "The big problem is with mail-in ballots" It opens:
As Gregory Roberts reports May 2, the problem with King County elections is not in the polling places, it's with absentee voting.[The entire letter is in the extended entry below]. The author, Richard Borkowski of Seattle, is an active Democrat. There are a lot of people across the political spectrum who have looked into the problems with mail-voting and correctly concluded that it only undermines the integrity of our elections. Borkowski e-emailed me:
Perhaps the left, right and center can form a united front on this issue and at least defeat the mail-only portion of the King County elections plan. I attended the Committee meeting yesterday and they said they'll be discussing it in the entire King County Council next Monday afternoon. ... I think this can be defeated, just like the monorail, but it will require cooperation and public appearances.I will be there.
The entire letter:
As Gregory Roberts reports May 2, the problem with King County elections is not in the polling places, it's with absentee voting.Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at May 09, 2006 01:48 PM | Email ThisIn 2002, there were "repeated failures to mail absentee ballots to voters on time" and in 2004, problems "included overlooked absentee ballots left out of the count."
Yet King County government insists on pushing toward mail-only voting with its blinders on, ignoring the well-documented fact that the problem is with the absentee ballot processing, not the polling places.
Mail-only voting increases the unacceptable practice of outsourcing our elections. The Postal Service provides no security for ballots, easy targets for theft. Mailboxes are targeted for checks and credit card information. The stakes in elections are far, far higher.
No wonder confidence in voting is so low. In fact, 51 percent of all Americans doubt that votes are counted accurately, according to a November 2004 Pew Research Center Poll [here]. Perhaps this is related to the fact that 55 percent of King County voters are mail-in voters who wonder if their ballot is being counted correctly.
Richard Borkowski
Seattle
You get the point. We all lived it and the one regret is not being someplace where I could have had my byline over a story that I've written about that. Just infuriating.
Thanks again Stefan for the good work instead.
Posted by: Reporterward on May 9, 2006 04:30 PMIf the issues and candidates are important enough to you, then you'll take the 5 to 10 minutes to stop off at your precinct and vote. If voting is not important enough to make 5 to 10 minutes in your day for the few times a year when we vote, then you should not be voting anyway.
There's plenty of simple and effective ways to authenticate ballots and assure the integrity of the elections. If they can do it in Iraq, then they can do it in King County. I think we should ink stain people's fingers after they have voted as well. I don't trust moonbats any further than I could throw them.
I'm willing to support Richard Borkowski and Stefan to do whatever it takes to abolish all mail voting. This battle is worth fighting.
Posted by: Jeff B. on May 9, 2006 05:16 PMThis is an easy step to take - our reps won't know our opinions if we don't tell them!
(I didn't forward the SP post, as I wanted to use my own words. But I did mention that SP was where I heard the vote is coming up.)
At this point.....you Stefan, and Richard Borkowski - ARE the cavalry!
Posted by: Deborah on May 9, 2006 11:07 PMCollege students regularly get ballots both at home and at their college. People who move get both home and their previous residence, forwarded to them.
Families have to deal with the spectre of one strong member forcing everyone to vote a certain way... or simply voting for them and mailing it off. How could anyone possibly know what happened?
Add this to the US Constitution's requirement that all federal votes take place on the same day and prohibiting the requirement to pay to vote and you've got some real issues.
Vote by mail is fraud-inducing, untrustworthy, and incredibly frustrating. One of the greatest joys in my life as a citizen was going to the polls to vote along with everyone else. I wore that I VOTED sticker almost as proudly as a purple finger in Iraq. Now all I have is papercuts and a stamp gone to what purpose?
Posted by: Christopher Taylor on May 10, 2006 09:41 AMI will cede this socialist hell-hole to the rest of you.
If this is FORCED on us (notice no vote on the issue?) there is no way we will ever get our rights back, short of armed rebellion.
This state (and country) is at a crucial fork in the road. Which way are we going to turn?
Posted by: elmo on May 10, 2006 12:34 PMRon Sims wants this to be like Cook County, Ill or Philadelphia or other bastions of corruption, in spite of what he says - his actions speak quite differently.