Sound Politics: More incompetence from Ron Sims' Elections Office

November 08, 2006

More incompetence from Ron Sims' Elections Office

Even record-breaking flooding in some areas could not deter voters in King County, who turned out in greater than expected levels countywide, leading to ballot shortages in some polling locations.

Although Elections officials expected only a 20% turnout of poll voters, they prepared each polling place with enough materials for a 60 percent turnout. Still, workers in 55 polling places ran short of ballots and provisional ballots for some precincts.

They've spent too much time listening to their own dishonest propaganda downplaying the popularity of polling places.

Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at November 08, 2006 01:47 PM | Email This

Comments

1. Stefan~

You must be a huge Zeppelin fan, because no matter what else is going on,

The Song Remains the Same

Posted by: Steven Donegal on November 8, 2006 01:57 PM

2. They ran out in New Mexico after two hours...
GOP Voters Being Turned Away in New Mexico

Posted by: cc on November 8, 2006 02:01 PM

3. You got that right, Stefan.

We were commisserating in the office this morning about how we missed voting at the polls. We also thought everyone should be voting there, except in exceptional circumstances.

Posted by: swatter on November 8, 2006 02:04 PM

4. You see Lauri, et al;
That is exactly the Windmills that I am talking about. You still think because of his snarkiness misleading writings that our governors election was a best 2 out of 3.
That election followed exactly the way the LAW said it should.
Snarky made you believe that there was some sort of laws broken by doing the proper procedures in a close election. Then even when a republican judge in a republican county couldn't find any illegal activity except by REPUBLICANS. You think the guppy would move on. But no he works like Goebbels, just keeps repeating the same lie, over and over again until it becomes truth to the minions.

But it's not.

Do we need to tell George "Maccaca" Allen to just give his concession speech now?

No, the law allows for recounts in Virginia and Washington.

So this is what I mean, that you need to be a critical thinker, versus a party hack. Just like this captain of The Poseidan here. Even when the whole country showed their unhappiness with the corruption and the war, the guppy sees voter fraud. If there was voter fraud, do you think Reichart would even be close?
Critical Thinking, not what this guy tells you what to think.

Posted by: danw on November 8, 2006 02:09 PM

5. Click the link - this "news" comes directly from King County itself. And the problem was easily fixed. You are pathetic, Stefan. Move on.

Posted by: Josh on November 8, 2006 02:13 PM

6. Stefan...

I really want to take you seriously, and I think you could do some good work in elections reform; but when you focus on a single county, instead of focusing on the entire state-wide system, you completely discredit your work.

You've got your followers thinking that King County is unique among county elections office. It just simply isn't true, and your ommissions in this regard make me wonder if I should trust you on other issues.

Posted by: Timothy on November 8, 2006 02:13 PM

7. Uh ... you're kidding, right? Expected 20%, stocked for 60%, let's allow for some "down-rounding" and say there was only 50% ... and they ran out of ballots because turnout went beyond what you normally see in a GE.

Wow. That sure is a sign of incompetence. Or maybe ... voters enthusiastically involved in the democratic process ...? Nah. Must be incompetence.

Posted by: HistoryGuy on November 8, 2006 02:15 PM

8. HistoryGuy,

And if only the predicted 20% had shown up, Stefan would have screamed Oh-my-god Waste of Government Resources! Incompetence! --- I'm going to have the vapors!

Posted by: Josh on November 8, 2006 02:20 PM

9. HistoryGuy - part of this is to show how Ron is full of it when he says that 'the people' want vote by mail. If they ran out of ballots at the polls with a 60% stock, that sort of invalidates that argument.

Posted by: Right said Fred on November 8, 2006 02:22 PM

10. Keep it up, Stefan. God knows the local media does not care about investigating malfeasance at KCE.

Note the silence from the armies of trial lawyers with nothing to do after a Demorat win, except perhaps in the 8th.

danw - Please take your meds. Or a remedial writing class. Or both.

Posted by: Concerned Citizen on November 8, 2006 02:39 PM

11. plan 20% have 60% ?
with enough practice quizzes/tests that are not counted for a 'real grade,' KC Elections will eventually get it right--just like the WASL.

maybe the 40-point difference was due to illegal alien no-show's?

Posted by: jimmie-howya-doin on November 8, 2006 02:51 PM

12. Stefan, you've convinced me -- we should go to all-mail voting, where this problem can't occur.

Posted by: Bruce on November 8, 2006 03:19 PM

13. Something isn't right with these statistics. Was the calculation for 60% of the total number expected to vote (including absentee)in an off year election? Otherwise I don't understand how so many polling places ran out of ballots, especially since the overall turnout was about 30% (ballots cast vs registered voters not counting outstanding absentees). Or are these the polling places that were also used for voters who could not go to their regular place due to the flooding?

When I went to vote, I did notice a large number of people bringing in their absentee ballots. In fact the dropoff box was crammed so full it was hard to get more in (this was about 6:30 pm). I do think it is pretty funny that I had to show ID but the people dropping off ballots could just walk in and put the envelope in the box.

Posted by: Burdabee on November 8, 2006 03:19 PM

14. Burdabee, bad analogy. The people dropping off absentee ballots had already been subjected to some validation: they had received their ballots at the address where they were registered. That's not foolproof (I hear), but it's something.

Posted by: Bruce on November 8, 2006 03:24 PM

15. Bruce--you are making an assumption that a particular person is still at that address. I had to show ID before I was even given a ballot. The absentee voters just have to wait until the mail arrives. My father received a ballot a few months after he had passed away (yes--we did notify the "proper" people within a few days of his passing). We could have filled out that ballot and mailed it back or dropped it off. Instead we shredded the ballot and then notified the elections department a second time and that took care of the problem.

So--how do you know the person living at that address is really that person? Messed up signatures didn't really seem to matter in the last election. There may not be many cases of person and address not matching up, but considering the slim margin in the governor's race, this is still an issue.

Posted by: Burdabee on November 8, 2006 04:08 PM

16. Why can't they count in the poll books how many people are registered that didn't receive an absentee ballot??????????

Posted by: sgmmac on November 8, 2006 06:16 PM

17. What?? You did not know that we planned the floods to get a more sparse turnout from Conservative leaning rural areas?

Posted by: Mike Barer on November 8, 2006 06:48 PM

18. Burdabee, as I said, mailing does not guarantee that the ballot reaches the right person. But it is better than nothing, and, when combined with signature verification, is legally sufficient. The signed absentee ballot can then be returned or dropped off by anyone.

I'm not claiming that this is as good as in-person verification. I do claim that it is some verification, and that in practice it is very rarely abused.

Posted by: Bruce on November 8, 2006 09:19 PM

19. it's not "incompetence"--rather, a lack of funding for additional training seminars and studies that need to be initiated. we need to form another co-'lishin. i propose a 1% property tax for King County--not for me--for the children. the tax will sunset in 2090 as a trial proposal.

Posted by: jimmie-howya-doin on November 9, 2006 10:46 AM