The Evergreen Freedom Foundation has filed lawsuit against Washington Secretary of State Sam Reed for allowing underage voter registrations. Incredibly, voters are allowed to register even if they are not going to be 18 before the next election, and in some cases have actually voted illegally, and the Reed hasn't actually stopped it.
Oh, and speaking of the EFF, check out their recent podcast about the bailout bill, featuring EFF CEO Lynn Harsh and Tom Henry. As if you haven't heard it already!
Cross-posted on <pudge/*>.
Posted by pudge at October 08, 2008 05:23 PM | Email ThisReed and his cronies at the Secretary of State's office need to take the issue of illegally voting seriously.
Posted by: Matt from Olympia on October 8, 2008 05:46 PMWhen I asked his opponent, directly, several times, his views on illegal voters, he said nothing. He even ATTACKED Reed for purging those bad registrations!
So no, voting against Reed would not do any good for anyone who wants to make sure all voters are legal. Voting for Jason Osgood would be a step backward, no matter how much you dislike Reed. We've made some serious improvements under Reed, and we would make none -- and probably go backward -- with Osgood.
Posted by: pudge on October 8, 2008 06:45 PMDo you have any proof of this? Honest question, does he have any public statements on the matter?
Because if that's true, I'd be forced to agree with you. But earlier, it sounded like he took this stuff seriously, and if that's the case, I'd really, really struggle with whom to vote for.
Posted by: Cliff on October 9, 2008 06:48 AMI think this is where I found his statement attacking Reed for purging the voter rolls, but now it's even worse: Our "opt-in" voter registration system ensures that we continue to argue. The right is most concerned about ineligible voters and voter fraud. The left is most concerned about disenfranchising voters. The whole system is expensive, complicated, and error prone.
An "opt-out" system of universal voter registration system resolves the impasse. It eliminates the risk of voter fraud. It ensures that all eligible voters can vote on election day. It's also simple and cheaper to administrate.
You read that correctly: he will eliminate the problem of illegal voters by assuming every person is a legally voting citizen. Surely Osgood knows that we don't have a list of who is and is not a citizen, so therefore he be unable to draw any such distinction.
He also wants to move the primary back to September, disenfranchising overseas military voters, and give all released felons the right to vote.
Posted by: pudge on October 9, 2008 07:17 AM"We have tightened our procedures and we are monitoring the situation very aggressively," Handy said. "We are working closely with the counties and we are confident that policies and procedures are in place to insure that underage voters are not allowed to vote.
"Our system for keeping ineligible 17 year olds from being added to the state list of voters is working very well.
"We were pleased that out of nearly 1.5 million ballots cast in the primary, we had no instances of underage voters and we don't expect any problems in the upcoming General Election. There were no problems reported in the 2007 election and four cases of human error that allowed four 17 year olds to vote in the presidential primary this year. Since that time, we have tightened our procedures further and stepped up our monitoring."
A statewide voter registration database launched in January, 2006, allows state election officials to spot any potential problems and to make sure that citizens who won't be 18 before Election Day do not get a ballot. State law allows 17 year old to register, as long as they'll turn 18 by the election, but they aren't entered on the central database until they actually turn 18.
An independent administrative law judge, Rebekah R. Ross, dismissed an EFF complaint in August. Her written order said, "I find that the evidence does not support a finding that the Secretary of State has a policy or procedure that allows counties to register underage persons, resulting in underage voters.
"The fact that there were no actual underage votes in 2007 and only four in 2008 is strong evidence that the current policies are working to prevent underage registration and voting."
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Nick Handy is at (360) 902-4156.
- Brian Zylstra, Deputy Communications Director, Office of Secretary of State
It's not about "monitoring" or "spotting problems." It's about simply forbidding it in the system. That human error allowed it to happen is the problem.
Unless you can tell us exactly what procedures you have in place, we're going to -- almost surely correctly -- assume that you are not actually forbidding it, and therefore not doing enough.
But facts are troubling things. The Sept. 26 version of the database shows seven underage registrations for the General Election. Screenshots here:
http://www.libertylive.org/blog_main/post.php?post_id=907
Posted by: Reitz on October 9, 2008 10:22 AMAre you saying that the fact that there are current illegal underage voter registrations might reflect poorly on their claim that it isn't happening?
Similarly, when does the responsibility transfer from the individual to the government?
Is there a particular state law that addresses this?
Posted by: BA on October 9, 2008 10:41 AM