July 16, 2007
ROTFLMAO at the Council hearing on mail-only voting
Do watch the Council hearing on the vote-by-mail transition plan, now on KCTV
This is the most screamingly funny Council hearing I can recall watching.
1) The partisan Democrat Councilmembers are insisting with a straight face that mail-only voting is needed for more reliability and accuracy
2) The Elections Office staff are testifying that they can't run a mail-only election using existing technology without incurring risks
3) The Secretary of State's representative says she's concerned about the risk of human error and decreased accuracy from using the existing technology in the face of an enormous increase in mailed-in ballots.
4) Sherril Huff testified that she wouldn't want to do anything to reduce confidence in the elections system.
This discussion confirms for me that the Democrats' desire for mail-only voting is motivated solely by partisan political considerations and has nothing to do with improving accuracy and security.
Maybe it's best not to force us into mail-only voting when the infrastructure can't handle it.
Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at July 16, 2007
12:02 PM | Email This
1. "...reduce confidence in the elections system." Should have started thinking about that somewhere along the time of the fourth "discovery" of new ballots.
2. I am registered to vote in King County. I was unable to vote in last year's Primary because my absentee ballot did not arrive in time for me to vote. I was out of town on election day, and I requested a mail ballot from the KC web site, and I did so with adequate lead time. It arrived in my home mail after I had left town. King County messed up.
3. Stefan, your last sentence makes all the sense in the world. Would that the council understood that concept.
4. Am I the only one worried about voter fraud from amil in ballots"
Imagine the following ad on Craig's list:
$25 and free beer!
Join Voter Corp for a free beer.
Bring your ballot and let us help you fill it
out an we will pay YOU $25.
Or if that is somehow against the law:
Boeing Engineers Union Meet to Vote
Brothers ... join us for the annual crab feed
and vote. Bring your ballots!
And howsa about freedom of religion or ?????????????????
SeattleJew
5. HI,
I have worked in the post office and from my experience a lot can go wrong, especiall on the night shifts with part timers who can intentionall and non intentionally do a lot of harm. I was one, training is quik and incompleat.
I am very much against the current voting legislation pending in congress. I want a paper ballot only, hand counted by voting officials, partisan and non-partisan counters in full public view 100% of the time, from first ballot cast till last recount, including ballot box opening .
I want no computer or program counting. All these programs CAN be changed during counting to give an unfair result either intentionally or by accident and leave no record of the intervention. I want the voting and counting to be video taped with several back ups, as well as, broadcast live. Scanners for counting can be used, but only as a system to verify the hand counts, never as a final official count. In addition, I want an automatic required 20 percent random verification count in every race or referendum done by partisan, non partisan and officials counters. I also want this verification counting broadcast and video taped. The 20% recount districts should be chosen by partisan, non partisan and official choosers. The partisans should also be able to pick 10% additional recount percents to make sure that questionable districts get recounted.
All the best
God bless you and yours and everyone everywhere
jimmy f
6. SeattleJew,
No, you're not the only one. I've been cringing for a couple of decades now as more and more people have been voting absentee. And the state has been making it easier and easier to do. There's absolutely no security in sending millions of ballots out into the ether and getting them back weeks later. The best you can possibly confirm is that the person who signed the envelope is a registered voter. Not the person who filled it out.