The Herald of Everett joins the chorus of papers predicting that we won't know the outcome of the Governor's race on Election Night:
State Elections Director Nick Handy cautioned that voters shouldn't expect to know definitive results on election night because King County's results will come in slower than the rest of the state."Because King is such a dominate player in the governor's race, we're concerned that the Tuesday night results will not necessarily be reflected in the final results," he said. "We want to encourage voters to be patient and understand only about half the ballots will be tabulated on election night and that there will be many more ballots coming in later."
To be honest, I don't care if Nick Handy is saying the sky is blue. After his apologist role in 2004, I don't want to see another quote from the guy in public ever again, especially one defending our election system against whatever concern might be raised against it.
Posted by Eric Earling at November 02, 2008 09:22 AM | Email This"They" have known for many years the "They" were changing to all mail. "They" should have gotten their heads out of wherever they were and made sure that "They" could count more than half the ballots on election day.
After counting "half" the ballots on election day, "They" seem to take forever to count the other half.
"They" have got to do better than this.
Posted by: SouthernRoots on November 2, 2008 09:31 AMUnfortunately, mail voting gives us the least amount of trust in the system than any other system in use in the United States today.
So it is the worst system for an accurate count, AND it takes the longest.
I was serious when I said before that all the other counties should withhold their results until Kind County produces their final tally. Maybe that way, the rest of the state could get some "electoral justice."
Posted by: Paula on November 2, 2008 09:54 AMSo I will trudge over on election day to my local place of election and vote there.
More mixups like this will disenfranchise many voters....
Posted by: iconoclast on November 2, 2008 09:59 AMI still remember at the automatic recount, with white-out and black felt-tip markers all over the place, when a KCE supervisor ALL BY HIMSELF took a ballot that had a ''problem'' back into some dark far corner of the KCE facility to ''fix it''.
What did he do to that ballot for the minute or so that he had it all to himself ??
Obvious answer:
Anything he wanted.
The lack of proper controls and traceability was astounding.
HAVA requires that ANYONE can vote in person, in order to make sure disabled voters can vote, who can't vote via absentee ballot. In Snohomish County there's a bunch of locations to vote on a voting machine, including the County Auditor's office.
I voted on a machine in the Stanwood Library on Halloween. Snohomish County has been "all-mail" for a few years now, and I've never voted by mail. I've never even used the paper ballot. This year I shredded it without even opening it.
Posted by: pudge on November 2, 2008 10:37 AMNo black boxes. No "companies" tallying the vote for us. No "secret/proprietary" voting machine software.
Also make it a felony to "purge" any legitimate voter.
Posted by: All Facts Support My Positions on November 2, 2008 10:41 AMI am not certain if early voting is the right approach--mostly because I haven't thought about it overmuch. It doesn't seem much different from early mail-in voting, so I cannot see much of a problem other than economic (multiple polling places secured for weeks?? Sounds like it could be an issue).
I would strongly support voting on a Saturday or Sunday. I never have fully understood why voting always happens on a weekday.
But if we vote in person, can we get those cool purple finger marks? I'd support that idea.
I think your frustration is misdirected against Nick Handy. He's no way responsible for King County having slow vote counting systems. Ron Sims and the King County Council members are accountable. Maybe you should ask them what they're waiting for or why they don't think the cost is worth spending?
Posted by: Whacky on November 2, 2008 11:15 AMRan a serious check on King County Gov’t employee directory – no Nicole Way, no Garth Fell and no Carlos Webb. Bobbie Egan is still there as King County sElections spokesperson, and Bill Huennekens is still there as an authority figure to require Round II quite possibly… (sigh)
Posted by: Rossifarian Spy on November 2, 2008 11:53 AMWhy can't we just have all paper ballots like the rest of the world...
False. The rest of the world DOES NOT HAVE paper ballots.
Further, because paper ballots suck. They are easier to forge, they are easier to steal, they are easier to make mistakes on, they are easier to lose, they are easier to damage, they are easier to misread.
And this is compounded by mail voting, which makes it even easier to steal/lose a ballot.
And this is compounded by home voting, which eliminates the entire point of a secret ballot: to prevent illegal influence over voters. Secret balloting was one of the most important voter reforms we've ever had in this country (other than allowing all adult citizens to vote), and mail voting throws that down the toilet.
If we vote absentee, we would have to postmark it MONDAY to have it counted
So you want to violate federal law? Election Day is on the first Tuesday after the first Monday. You cannot force someone to vote earlier than that.
No black boxes. ... No "secret/proprietary" voting machine software.
Yes, all voting machine systems should be "open source."
No "companies" tallying the vote for us.
That's irrelevant if it is "open," since we can then audit their work. Although if it is open, there's less need to have anyone tallying the vote for us.
Also make it a felony to "purge" any legitimate voter.
Only if it is a felony to register any illegitimate voter.
My frustration with Nick Handy has little to do with this year or the reasons for King County's older technology. My beef with him is that he, like Sam Reed, spent a lot of time jumping to the defense of King County in 2004 when red flags were being raised. When those concerns proved valid and the depth of the blunders made by King County became public, Handy and Reed had to walk those statements back.
Their statements after the fact failed to acknowledge their errant defense of a flawed system. Moreover, Handy himself has refused to acknowledge that there was evidence of election administration error discovered by Stefan after the Wenatchee trial. That head in the sand approach is the real problem here.
As such, I could do without him ever being a spokesperson for Reed's office again.
Posted by: Eric Earling on November 2, 2008 01:02 PMOnce again, factless shows that facts and law have no place in the ultra leftwing fringe.
Posted by: Hinton on November 2, 2008 01:28 PMFine. But when you combine that with the fact that there were more votes than voters, excuse me for believing there was something rotten. Thousands of illegal votes were cast and counted in 2004. Each one of those illegal votes disenfranchises a legally cast ballot.
Posted by: Palouse on November 2, 2008 02:18 PMJust in case you didn't know.....
Posted by: Michael H on November 2, 2008 02:27 PMI would say that this is one of the more lucid and perfectly accurate quotes I have ever read about WA elections officials. Handy is a stooge. The entire US election system could use an overhaul and making apologies for it is obscene. For a country that is as adept with cryptography and authentication security, there is absolutely no excuse for how piss poor our elections have been run.
Many third world countries have better systems. And we can thank Democrat Bill Clinton for the motor voter law which caused most of the deterioration of the system to its joke-like status today.
Posted by: Jeff B. on November 2, 2008 10:45 PM