Date: Thursday, January 29, 2009
Subject: Voted for Julie Anne Kempf - Unusual Signature Challenge

Ms. Kempf, and Citizens of King County:

After 30+ years of being registered in King County, with no difference in my signature when I submitted my absentee voting form - voting for Julie Anne Kempf - I've had my signature challenged by the illuminati under the direction of the current Director Sherril Huff.

They are quite good at forwarding my name to the Jury Duty pool, but - there is nothing different about my signature in the last 30 years (other than the fact that it was submitted along with an absentee voter ballot voting for Ms. Kempf). This strikes me as (perhaps) unusually odd.

Any legal eagles out there who might have some (informed, not merely amateur) advice/info that will help me in wording a King County Public Records Request form?

What I am interested in determining - without having to get a slew of pages of documents @ $0.15 per page - is what percentage of people who voted for Kempf have had their signatures challenged (relative to the citizens who happened to vote for the other candidates).

(The ballot itself being secret), it would appear to be an unethical (if not illegal) act for the same Elections employees who verify signatures, etc. to also be viewing the particular candidate voted for on the "secret" ballot. While such activities would be near impossible to establish as a matter of fact,
comparing the percentage of signature challenges relating to each of the individual candidates (if possible to determine) could well be an enlightening statistic, indeed ...

Here seems the conundrum that (it would appear) that the citizenry may face:

If it (in fact) is an unethical/illegal act for a King County Elections employee to note/record the particular candidate selected on the "secret" ballot, then the County (clearly) would not generate or maintain or release any written records that King County Elections employees are going on "fishing expeditions" through submitted "secret" ballots, in order to determine what persons are to have the validity of their signatures challenged.

There is nothing different about my signature affixed to my absentee ballot envelopes in the last 30+ years of voting absentee in Seattle, King County.

Could voting absentee for Ms. Kempf be triggering targeted and specific (and thus, it would seem, arbitrary, capricious, and malicious) signature challenges?

Any geniuses out there with knowledge and/or ideas relating as to how/when to "crack this nut"?

Regards,

Lightning Empiricist