Sam Reed: Secretary of Snivel (and Whining).

Where it really matters, which to me is election security, defined as:

* Keeping illegal aliens from voting and;

* Keeping all non-American citizens from voting and;

* Proving citizenship to register to vote and;

* Providing legal identification TO vote and;

* Keeping felon voters who have not had their rights restored from voting...

... Sam Reed has been an utter, abysmal, failure.

He has had EIGHT YEARS to get this straightened out, and has done absolutely nothing but whine and snivel and bitch and complain.

Well, here's a clue, Sam... that don't get it done.

The problem we have with you is that since you don't want to do these things, these things haven't happened.

It's not that you CAN'T address these issues. It's that you WON'T address these issues.

To my mind, you not only shouldn't be re-elected; you should, in fact, be thrown out on your incompetent ass.

You see, Sam... you've had EIGHT YEARS to fix this. And what's the result? 24,000 illegal felon voters THAT WE KNOW OF.

And all you can do is whine and moan and complain when you're busted.

You're a disgrace to elected officials generally and Republicans particularly. You're a part of the reason why I have left the party. You're a disgrace in every sense of the word as you have done NOTHING to address these most important issues.

Hopefully, you haven't had lunch when you read Sam's punk-ass whine, below, because if you have, you'll lose it.

Here is an e-mail sent by Secretary of State Sam Reed to supporters on Monday, Oct. 20:

Hi.

You probably have noticed that I haven't asked you for any campaign help (including money) since the August Primary. Now, I need help. I hope you will be able to take a few minutes to do this.

Last Tuesday, a story was run on the 11:00 P.M. news on KIRO TV alleging that the Secretary of State's Office is allowing 24,000 felons to illegally register to vote: http://www.kirotv.com/news/17714516/detail.html . We were appalled. We had been talking with the reporter, Chris Halsne, for a month. This report was so reckless that other major news organizations - including the Seattle Times, KING TV and KOMO TV never used the story. Some news organizations used a brief, balanced Associated Press story.

But, as happened during the 2004 gubernatorial recount, a few of the blogs have gone wild - particularly the Evergreen Freedom Foundation's blog and -- to a lesser degree - Sound Politics. Also, Bobby Williams has gone on talk radio to blast me and my office. So, learning from that experience, I ask for your help to respond to those blogs and talk radio shows.

Needless to say, this is also a shot at Rob McKenna - since he and his staff have provided all the legal direction for us on this issue, and he personally handled the felon voting case when we appealed it to the State Supreme Court.

So, what are the problems with this? Here is a succinct summary:

1. KIRO's assertion is reckless.
2. They acknowledge they have no proof these voters are ineligible.
3. We cannot deprive citizens of their right to vote based on inconclusive evidence.
4. The KIRO list is unreliable because:
a. The state Dept of Corrections has removed from their supervision 99% of the people on this list (based on the 6,000 sample we checked);
b. Undoubtedly most have paid their debts to society and are eligible to vote;
c. On many others, the state has no way of determining whether their rights have been restored
d. Many may not have been felons to begin with.
5. Our voter database project was rigorous and used every reliable resource.
6. We have removed over 480,000 ineligible voter registrations.
7. Among that number, we found and removed 11,600 felons from the rolls.
8. We have publicly called attention to the shortcomings of our state's records.
9. Washington State is a national leader in creating the cleanest, most modern voter database management possible.

Why was it reckless? Because the list they used consists primarily of old, closed files of the Department of Corrections going back into the 1800s - with most from the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. When we looked at a 6000 name sample of the list they used, it became obvious that there are multiple problems with using such a list - including the fact that many were convicted of misdemeanors (therefore not losing voting rights), many were convicted as juveniles (therefore not losing voting rights), and most probably had their voting rights restored by now. When we asked Chris Halsne if he checked to see if these people had their voting rights restored by Superior Courts or the Board of Prison and Paroles or governors, he said no: "We have no way to use a computer to show which felons may have had their rights restored..." Most of those felons were just sentenced to prison time, and when their time was served, the Department of Corrections issued them a Discharge Certificate restoring their civil and voting rights. KIRO didn't ask for that list either.

When we looked at their list, the first person is from Franklin County, was born in 1918, was convicted in 1956, and has voted since 1962. It turned out that he was good example of the list.

After their lengthy search for someone who is a felon and is voting, they came up with Tracy Wilkinson from Snohomish County, who was charged with a felony for a prescription drug charge in 2002. They included an interview with her in their report. We were perplexed how we could have missed her, so we checked with the Department of Corrections. It turned out that her attorney "plead" for her, and she ended up being convicted of a misdemeanor - therefore not losing her voting rights. (We are still checking to see if she was ever convicted of a felony.) KIRO basically used the name crude name-matching process that got Florida into serious trouble in 2000:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florida_Central_Voter_File.

To further illustrate just how bad this data is, I provide you with this analogy. It would be like someone taking all the immigration rolls of everybody who immigrated into the United States since 1900, running it against our voter rolls, and concluding that everyone on that list is an illegal alien not allowed to vote - without checking it against the list of naturalized citizens.

In the State of Washington, a person who has been convicted of a felony does not lose the right to vote for life. A felon can regain the right to vote if he or she completes all requirements of the sentence. In fact, as a matter of public policy, we want people who were convicted of felonies to complete their sentences, to reform, to become upstanding citizens, and to participate in our electoral process. To become a registered voter, a person has to sign an affidavit (under penalty of law) that if convicted of a felony, his or her civil rights were restored.

On the other hand, the Evergreen Freedom Foundation wants us to go through that list of 24,000 and take anybody off the rolls whose birthday matches (http://www.effwa.org) -- no matter whether they were ever convicted of a felony, whether they were juveniles, and, most significantly, whether their voting rights were restored. The most recent EFF message was that I supported the Madison case to loosen up the requirements for convicted felons - in spite of the fact that I was the defendant in the case and succeeded by appealing it to the State Supreme Court! That is incredible! The same writer attacks me for complying with the Superior Court ruling when I lost the first round. He doesn't seem to understand that I took an oath of office to uphold the law and, with that ruling, it was the law - until we successfully appealed it.

Unfortunately, they are succeeding in riling up their troops throughout the state.

So, I would appreciate it if you would defend me by writing on the EFF blog, the Sound Politics blog, and any of the others. You may want to listen to me refuting Bobby Williams on the Kirby Wilbur Show Monday morning at 7:05 A.M. (570 AM on your dial). Kirby is very fair, but if he accepts callers, it would be nice to have some friendly calls.

Thanks for any help that you may be able to give.

[Signed] Sam
*****************************************

Now, this is moronic on so many levels, but let me start with this one.

NO one wants to deprive ANY legal voter of the right to vote, INCLUDING felons with their rights restored.

Now Sam doesn't give a damn if felons pay their restitution or not, an attitude he might change if the felon in question owed HIM restitution.

In his pin head, he wants all felons that get out of jail, WHETHER THEY'VE PAID THEIR RESTITUTION OR NOT, to get their voting rights back.

Why? Well, it's sure a HELL of a lot easier to figure out who can and can't vote if the only ones restricted are locked up.

That's a crock, or course. Restitution is just as much a part of a sentence as serving time. But not to ol' Sam!

Also, he says nothing about the other major issues he did nothing to address, the issues listed in the first part of this post.

His utter and complete failure to address this issue; his reliance on blaming others ("When we asked Chris Halsne if he checked to see if these people had their voting rights restored by Superior Courts or the Board of Prison and Paroles or governors, he said no: "We have no way to use a computer to show which felons may have had their rights restored..." Well, Sam, WHY DON'T WE? YOU'VE HAD EIGHT FRICKING YEARS TO COME UP WITH ONE!) and his failures in all of the other areas he's responsible for means that re-electing this clown means we'll be having this discussion AGAIN... in 4 MORE years.

I don't know the name of the democrat running against Reed off hand. But truth to tell, I also don't care. He's getting my vote... and I hope he's getting yours as well.

Hinton, Out.

Posted by Hinton at October 21, 2008 01:09 PM | Email This