The BIAW obtained several King County Elections e-mails regarding the fraudulent ACORN registrations. Read the e-mails.
I applaud King County Elections for proactively dealing with this fraud. I also think they could have been more proactive informing the public last fall (and not just "informing our beat reporters about this...maybe just one of them" as an October 10 e-mail proposes).
Ironically, ACORN submitted these fraudulent registrations only months after successfully suing to prevent Washington state from enforcing integrity checks on voter registrations (and supporting their case with bogus evidence no less).
This incident only reinforces my disappointment with the Secretary of State's office. The documented fraud in voter registration should have informed the Secretary's legislative agenda. But the SoS is lobbying against alleged fraud only in his baseless and dishonest campaign against initiative petition signature gatherers.
Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at February 23, 2007 01:25 PM | Email Thisevery journey starts with steps, but waiting this long to do anything tells me a lot about the traveller's motivations, sincerity and intent to commit to the long trip.
Posted by: jimmie-howya-doin on February 23, 2007 01:45 PMAlso, Egan seems to be perfectly willing to sacrifice ACORN in return for the good PR it can generate for her greatly tarnished office.
Still, nothing can be seen in these records of any follow through by the prosecutor's office. Whats up with that?
Posted by: deadwood on February 23, 2007 02:05 PMHe has also urged follow-up prosecution if the facts so warrant. He has also expressed his concern to the Attorney General so that his office is aware of the situation, and is prepared to assist if King County requests such assistance.
So far, all indications are that the King County Records and Elections (REAL) has taken this case very seriously and is doing all of the necessary investigatory work to prepare a case worthy of the Prosecutor's attention.
ACORN largely operates out-of-state. There may be some jurisdictional issues if prosecution is warranted or an injuction is sought to bar further unlawful conduct. It may require an action in Federal court. Our office is prepared to assist the Prosecutor, and/or the Attorney General, in anyway possible if a case is prosecuted. At a minimum, we would like to see an order barring any future fraudulent practices in our state. Hopefully, if the investigation does identify any person or persons found to have violated our laws, they can be successfully prosecuted.
We are aware of no legislative changes needed to tighten voter registration laws. It is a violation of both Federal and state law to forge a voter registration form in order to cast an illegal vote in a Federal and/or state election.
Despite one's views over the pending initiative legislation (none of which are Executive Request bills by the Secretary), there is no reason to doubt our agency's resolve to make sure that ACORN is held accountable for any violation of our election laws.
In the meantime, the investigation by King County will continue to its conclusion. We will continue to monitor the case and be prepared to assist if called upon.
Steve Excell
Assistant Secretary of State
Legislative Building
Olympia, WA 98504-0220
Email: SExcell@secstate.wa.gov
It might not be possible to call every voter, but it probably would be possible to cross reference the voter DB in such as way as to generate a probable list of fraudulent registrations based on their recent additions, and other suspect info. Once the list was generated, it could be divided up into sections small enough to tackle by readers at SP and other volunteers. All it would take would be a few simple questions to verify name, address, etc.
I like the fight fire with fire approach. If Marxists like ACORN are going to blatantly abuse the system in an obvious attempt to influence elections, then a vigorous challenge should ensue. If this was done in all large urban areas, it would make a real difference.
Posted by: Jeff B. on February 23, 2007 03:09 PMThat's what serious elections integrity supporters want, not enormous hurdles that make it hard for people to vote, but reasonable and simple safeguards that make it much harder for organizations like ACRON to perpetrate election fraud.
Almost every organization that we interact with in life that has sensitive data has better authentication and integrity protections than voting. All it would take would be a minimum to make the registration and voting process much more secure. Why do Democrats oppose this at every turn? This is a "see we told you so" moment that folks here at Sound Politics have predicted since 2004.
Posted by: Jeff B. on February 23, 2007 03:19 PMSteve, your prompt acknowledgement of this matter is a respectful move. However before you make comments about legal jurisdiction I would hope you confer with the AG's office. Even more so I hope someone in the AG's office didn't indicate a jurisdictional problem because an entity or person that might come under investigation for a crime in WA is out of state. If someone in the AG's office were to make such a claim regarding a suspected crime in this state I would hope that person is quoted by name.
Posted by: watch norm waffle on February 23, 2007 03:24 PMHow about this tightening of voter registration laws - require positive ID (photo driver license, passport, birth certificate, etc) and proof of citizenship when registering.
Seems common sense, but the Dems are absolutely dead set against it. They say it presents too much of a "burden" for some voters, but really the Dems do in fact want tens of millions of unqualified people to be able to vote illegally.
That is why we have govt. employees falling all over themselves to register anyone receiving any kind of social service at a welfare office, but not at govt. offices where people apply for building permits, business licenses, pay their taxes, etc. The WA legislature just nixed that idea last week (because those folks can't be counted on to vote Dem. 95% of the time). Pardon me if I think your response is less than adequate.
Posted by: Steve on February 23, 2007 03:48 PM"ACORN largely operates out-of-state." In the sense that it's a nationwide group, yes. But it has a local office and has operated here for years.
"We are aware of no legislative changes needed to tighten voter registration laws." That statement suggests a lack of imagination and/or lack of will. How about prohibiting 3rd parties from collecting registration forms period? How about allowing more transparency by permitting (at least limited) public disclosure of registration forms, instead of the outright exemption that currently exists? And if registration forms should be exempt from disclosure once they're submitted to the county, why should 3rd parties be allowed to collect a voter's completed application in the first place? How about requiring proof of residence and citizenship for new registrants?
In any case, there are a lot of things that the Secretary of State's office can do to improve election integrity. Lobbying against citizen initiatives and seeking to prohibit the copying of mishandled ballot envelopes are steps in the wrong direction.
Posted by: Stefan Sharkansky on February 23, 2007 04:11 PMAnd tighten up residency requirements for running for office. That punk kid in Kitsap is one of two prime examples last election.
This is what the SOS should be doing.
Posted by: swatter on February 23, 2007 04:37 PMHere's another question. How many of the ACORN employees who received payment for forging voter signatures last year were hired as part of the 2004 effort by Democrats, sanctioned by Seattle Judge Lum, to "find" Gregoire voters who had problematic signatures and help them "revise" their registrations to fix the problem? This fiasco gave Gregoire several hundred extra votes from voters whose identity/signature only had to be "verified" by the Democrat operatives collecting them to be counted.
I continue to believe many of the signatures on the "revised" voter registrations were forged...and clearly the ACORN folks have no problem with forging signatures.
Posted by: T90ValleyGirl on February 23, 2007 05:53 PMBobbie Egan appears to have recognized there was a problem with the registration cards and that going public about fraud prevention serves as a deterent to others and also begins the long rehabilitation process for King County Elections to regain the trust of the voters.
Steve Excell, Assistant SOS, posted a nice comment Friday afternoon trying to put the best spin on Reed's incompetence
Sam Reed was Thurston County Auditor from 1981 to 2000 and SOS from 2001 to present. This week he made a big deal about removing 176,373 names from the state's database of about 3.2 million registered voters.
The 40,000 duplicate registrants could have been minimized if the voter registration cards requested the individuals previous address and this information was shared with the County Auditors.
The 40,000 deceased voters could have been minimized if the County Auditors bothered to obtain the death certificates from the County Medical Officer monthly
When a voter moves to another state and obtains a new driver license, DOL would cancel their Washington license and DOL/SOS would notify the County Auditors the individuals were no longer Washington residents
Sam Reed could have really made a difference in ensuring voter integrity prior to the state wide database and consciously chose not to.
Norm Maleng has chosen to be silent on this matter
Posted by: Hiker on February 24, 2007 01:58 AMIf Sam's office can't come up with a central solution for timely and trustworthy monitoring of voter registrations how can they handle one big building for public records?
Posted by: just another peon of the state on February 24, 2007 10:37 AM