Sound Politics: King County Elections E-mails (XIV): Ron Sims urged targeted get-out-the-vote drives

May 25, 2007

King County Elections E-mails (XIV): Ron Sims urged targeted get-out-the-vote drives

I found only a few e-mails from Ron Sims directly to elections officials. But this one is pretty interesting:

From: Sims, Ron
Sent: Wednesday, August 30, 2006 9:31 AM
To: Buck, Jim; Whitney, Sheryl
Subject: Mobilevoter.org

Jim - Cayan showed me how this works. It was easy to use. Filipino political activist are using this to reach young voters who are frequent user of text messaging. I'd like your thoughts. - Ron
http://mobilevoter.org/about.html

Since when is an elections office supposed to conduct a get-out-the-vote campaign targeted at specific demographic groups?

Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at May 25, 2007 11:24 AM | Email This

Comments

1. Any marketing campaign targets specific demographic groups, whether intentionally or not. E.g., motor voter targets drivers; mobilevoter targets text messaging users. There is potential for abuse, but you haven't shown any actual abuse.

The ethnic reference to Filipinos might trouble me, although it looks like Sims was just referring to how he'd learned about the system.

Posted by: Bruce on May 25, 2007 11:34 AM

2. I agree with Bruce on the above message.

However, is anyone foolish enough to believe that Sims and company will target any other than philosophical aliens?

Under the guise of improving voter turnout the elections office will without question target liberal demographic groups.

Posted by: Ron A. on May 25, 2007 11:55 AM

3. The Following is a quote from the state election laws, for what it is worth.

"It is the policy of the state of Washington to encourage every eligible person to register to vote..."

It seems that "mobilevoter" is just another means of doing that.

Posted by: Desert Rat on May 25, 2007 12:01 PM

4. You bet. Every eligible voter is encouraged to vote. The issue here is how that policy is implemented and when the elections administrators proactively spend public resources to target specific groups of voters. In this case, as Sims puts it "young voters". The efforts to reach out to voters should be broad-based and even-handed and not just selective efforts to target favored demographic groups.

I don't believe that this specific program was implemented. But I'm also uncomfortable at the prospect of the Executive using the elections staff to help him boost turn-out among his favored constituency groups.

Posted by: Stefan Sharkansky on May 25, 2007 12:19 PM

5. Absolutely, Stefan. Elections staff should not show favoritism, especially toward any group that may be considered to be particularly partisan. However, nationwide, voter registration efforts have been aimed at the youth (ages 18 to about 30) because they are notoroiusly absent from the voting rolls. Now, whether they are not registered or are registetred but simply don't vote is another topic for discussion.

Posted by: Desert Rat on May 25, 2007 01:21 PM

6. Stefan--
The more important e-mail might be any response received by Jim, Whitney or Sheryl.
The e-mail does say "I'd like your thoughts".
By the way...is Sheryl actually Sherill Huff???
And if so, did she turn over this e-mail to you??
If not, why not??
I would assume that County Employees would respond via e-mail when Ron Sims asks questions.
Pursue the responses.

Posted by: Mr. Cynical on May 25, 2007 01:59 PM

7. Why do we need to spend $$ to get out the vote anyway? Vote - don't vote - whatever. It's a citizens RESPONSIBILITY to vote. Any citizen too lazy or incapable of remembering to get out and vote deserves what they get.

Posted by: ultraman on May 25, 2007 02:11 PM

8. I agree with Ultra on this. Every instance I know of of government involvement in GOTV has been to favor the D's. This is appropraite for parties, but not for government.

Posted by: deadwood on May 25, 2007 02:31 PM

9. However, nationwide, voter registration efforts have been aimed at the youth (ages 18 to about 30) because they are notoroiusly absent from the voting rolls.

What's "acceptable" in terms of turnout for a particular group that it makes it okay to specificially target them?

Let's say turnout among "religious people" is only 20%. Would it be okay for the executive to target all religious people to vote?

Posted by: Palouse on May 25, 2007 02:56 PM

10. I think KCRE should just concentrate on Counting the ballots, and looking into corners and under old boxes for ballots they may have missed.

Why should any election dept. spend precious resources ( MONEY ) trying to get people out to vote, when they have enough problems of their own counting (finding more) them.

Leave the politiking to the politicians.....Keep on task, and count the legal ones.

Posted by: Chris on May 25, 2007 03:50 PM

11. One more thing, before I forget.... If their was an Elected Auditor, that elected official would tell Sims to "blank" a duck.

That official would be saying something like this

" Hey, if you want to target ethnic's groups, age groups, and designated voters for the Get out & Vote, DO IT ON YOUR DIME AND TIME, I am responsible to the ALL the VOTERS of this county so go for it, but don't include ME."

Posted by: Chris on May 25, 2007 03:58 PM

12. Palouse,

Since over 70% of Americans call themselves evangelical Christians, I kinda think your analogy is bunk.

btw, I am not one of them.

There are many reasons, and not just to elect democrats, to use public dollars to somehow mobilize our younger generation to think about something besides themselves.

Posted by: GriffithQ on May 25, 2007 07:31 PM

13. Griffith, I didn't say Christians, or even evangelical ones. I said merely "religious people". That could include Muslims, Jews, Sikh, among many others. In many religious groups in this country, even Christians, I think you would be surprised at what the turnout rate is. It's certainly nowhere close to 70%.

The point is, elections departments have NO BUSINESS targeting ANY group with the public dime, REGARDLESS of what their turnout rate is.

Posted by: Palouse on May 26, 2007 07:41 AM

14. Leftists like Sims belive that their way is the "one true way." That's why they believe in targeted GOTV drives aimed at the most impressionable voter audiences. If they can convert a few newbies to "The One True Way" before they learn to think and make decisions for themselves, they might have Democrat voters for life. Or even better, Marxist drones that believe in the collective and stay dutifully in their assigned victim class.

An appearance of impropriety is always *the least* of a Puget Sound Democrat's concerns.

Posted by: Jeff B. on May 26, 2007 09:03 AM

15. Shark-
you are stretching here, dogg. Keep to the fundamentals. Don't go off the deep end, bro!

Posted by: RC on May 26, 2007 10:20 PM

16. 7's right--most voters--esp. foreigners & other "targeted get-out-vote" groups--go out of their way to easily figure out how to get cable, text message, have satellite TV or operate their electronic toys. funny how all the recent immigrants who need "help" voting/registering have the public welfare & Section 8 rent systems down cold & mastered as soon as they arrive.

our focus should be on accurate and tamper proof (as possible) voting systems & strict voting eligibility checks & detailed reviews of voter rolls. anything else is a sham & a waste of our taxes.

Posted by: jimmie-howya-doin on May 27, 2007 09:12 AM

17. Jimmie-- Even if there were any basis for your xenophobic assertions, they would merely prove the point: cable TV, etc. are marketed much more heavily than voter registration.

Posted by: Bruce on May 27, 2007 11:14 PM

18. Bruce--no xenophobe here--just observed in the real-life field that most immigrants here are dialed in to all the juicy benefits. that's fine, if you they are legally here and were in line legally.

was not that way years ago--they generally came to MAKE something, not to TAKE something. and they found their own help, privately, not on our collective giveaway dime. IMHO, pandering does not promote unity.

as for cable, etc "promoted heavily" and such as you compare, i would venture that voting & courting LEGAL voters has much more of an impact on me & my taxes than some silly cable choice. that's why i'm concerned. they are affecting my life and taxes. i want to know who they are & why they are so courted.

Posted by: jimmie-howya-doin on May 28, 2007 08:33 AM