Dean Logan in the news again
L.A. County's election pilot is taking flak again Interim Registrar-Recorder Dean Logan left Washington state after a disputed election. Now he's facing criticism over the county's ballot design. But he still wants the job. By Jean-Paul Renaud, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer March 27, 2008 Ask a Republican in Washington state about Dean C. Logan, Los Angeles County's interim elections chief, and this might be the answer: "I'm really shocked that anyone would consider hiring Dean Logan to run... [read more]

How did they do it?
I'm still curious. In the primary, you have a non-partisan ballot issue - like a school levy. You are forced to vote by mail. You did not want to swear an oath, but you wanted to vote on the levy. If you didn't mark the box on the outside envelope, how was your vote for the levy processed? Was it separated from the envelope and put into a special stack that would go to a machine that only read the... [read more]

Secure Elections Still A Value In Pierce County
I feel sorry for you folks up in King County who are being strong armed in to all-mail-balloting. Especially when King County Executive Ron Sims lied and said that he had a plan in place for all-mail-balloting. Come to find out he didn't have a plan, and now King County is still trying to figure out how to implement a system that will leave voting less secure, less open, and more costly. Fortunately down here in Pierce County, we still... [read more]

Whither the primary?
Hey folks, I am working on an essay for an application to a Masters in Public Administration program, and I would be very interested to get the community's input. My paper (5 page limit, unfortunately) is titled "Who's Coming To The Party: A Study in Representative Democracy," and addresses the purpose and direction of the primary election system in Washington. My advocacy may or may not be popular in this community: I oppose the attempts to make all primaries "Qualifying... [read more]

Election reflections with some surprises and a small rant
I offer up front that because of the mail in vote delays, many of these races are not actually certified, so there is a possibility that some results may shift. I am not betting on it, but it is possible. I posted my thoughts on Elections in general yesterday, and I still remain somewhat disgruntled.  I was reminded that moving to an adjacent county would offer me my ballot again, and I admit it is tempting, but I do like... [read more]

King County Elections Does It Again!
The King County Elections Office just forwarded my newlywed spouse's ballot to our house! I'm going to suggest that we both go down to the polling place in the old precinct, vote there, AND fill out the mail ballot. Maybe we should also register all the bunnies and deer that frolic in our backyard!... [read more]

Ballot tracking serial numbers; end of secret ballot?
I have not confirmed this allegation; the sponsor's web site is out of date ... +++++++++++++++++ --- Jason Aaron Osgood, zappini [a*t] gmail.com wrote: PROTECT OUR SECRET BALLOT King County plans to adopt mail ballot tracking. This is more than envelope tracking. It adds a unique barcode to each ballot that is linked to the voter's id. This eliminates the secret ballot, taking away all voter privacy. Unique barcodes on ballots are unconstitutional, illegal, and bad policy. Tuesday May 1,... [read more]

Honest and Complete Voter Rolls?
Wide range of expert opinions aired On February 24th, the Bellingham Central Library was the venue for a gathering of election administration experts, expressing at least as many opinions as experts. From "we don't see widespread problems" to "there are many ineligible people registered to vote," a continuum of assessments from guardedly optimistic to pessimistic was asserted and defended. The presenters included three election administrators: Shirley Forslof (Whatcom County Auditor), Paul Miller (Elections Information Manager for Washington State) and John... [read more]

Sam Reed Monument
Seems Gregroire wants to send Secretary of State Sam Reed a $111 million (taxpayer-funded) thank-you note for services rendered during the 2004 election debacle. It is buried on page 229 of her capital budget proposal. Sam's pet project: Yet another new state office building in Olympia to house his growing staff. (HB 1092) http://apps.leg.wa.gov/billinfo/summary.aspx?bill=1092 "31 (1) Office of the secretary of state: Enter into a financing 32 contract for up to $110,820,000 plus financing expenses and required 33 reserves pursuant... [read more]

Why does counting take so long?
I am curious, maybe someone knows the answer. How is it that Snohomish County can count 94,000+ ballots on election day and only about 6,000 ballots on the following day? I noticed this during the primary too. As the daily reports came up on the States web page, SnoCo could only seem to count 8-10,000 ballots a day after election day. Anyone know why there is such a drop off? It could be that they count the ballots before election... [read more]

More things that bug me about my absentee ballot
Hi, I'm new to the forum but a concerned American and needed a place to voice my concern. Hopefully this forum will eventually be found and read by someone who can or will affect a change. Obscure ballot measures hide the issue proposed to the people. More to the point; the way many Initiatives, House Measures, and Referendums are written (specifically to amend or repeal earlier measures) makes it nearly impossible for a voter to accurately understand that which they... [read more]

Things that bugged me about my absentee ballot and its instructions
Hi, I'm new to the forum but a concerned American and needed a place to voice my concern. Hopefully this forum will eventually be found and read by someone who can or will affect a change. Let me start by saying that I have nothing against Americans for whom English is a second language. I think this great country was founded by immigrants with great determination to leave oppressive other countries to make a new life for them selves and... [read more]

SnoCo Voting Machine Hacking, and Revealing My Votes
I voted yesterday, and found out more information about hacking Snohomish County's voting machines, and about why you can see who I personally voted for in the primary.... [read more]

ACORN is busy
ACORN has now been formally charged with voter fraud in Kansas City (ACORN Indictments ). The same group that couldn't get votes turned in on time and wants to sue King County or Washington State because their ballots were late. The same group that Ron Sims forced Dean Logan to accept their ballots that should not have been counted. The same group that turns in incomplete voter forms and then threatens to sue if the fraudulent forms aren't accepted. The... [read more]

Lost in Space
It's so hard not to make a snarky comment to KCE staff when I call. I restrained myself on the phone though so now I fully intend to make snarky comments about them here. Apparently my ballot was already mailed last week, correct address and everything. I haven't seen it yet though. I called yesterday to comment on this and the guy told me to call back today if I hadn't received it. Called today and what did they tell... [read more]

Not worried about Integrity?
Remember those 192 Democrats that were against Integrity of Federal Elections last week? The Roll Call for Public Expression of Religion Act has just been released. http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2006/roll480.xml I guess things are getting better, because only 166 Democrats voted against God.... [read more]

Is Integrity in Federal Elections a bad thing?
On 20 Sep 2006, the US House voted on a bill titled Federal Election Integrity Act of 2006. The final vote results are shown here. http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2006/roll459.xml The bill passed on a basicly party line count: RESULTS FOR ROLL CALL 459 (Republicans in roman; Democrats in italic; Independents underlined) H R 4844 YEA-AND-NAY 20-Sep-2006 4:00 PM QUESTION: On Passage BILL TITLE: Federal Election Integrity Act of 2006 Yeas Nays PRES NV Republican 224 3 3 Democratic 4 192 5 Independent 1... [read more]

How many Tax Payers Dollars Paid to Aides?
Do you know how many aides will be provided employment by your election of a person to fill a House or Senate seat? Do you that these aides are aided by another group of aides? See the Committee staffs, etc. to determine who aides the aides. No wonder it seems our elected officials don't listen to the voters who elect them. http://www.legistorm.com/ The site has a tremendous amount of info regarding who is employed and the salaries paid.... [read more]

Names Left Off Ballots in Snohomish County
My wife called me this morning, upon going to vote in person at the Snohomish County Auditor's office, that my name (Chris Nandor) was left off the ballot (for Henning PCO). It is on the paper ballot we received in the mail. She notified them of the problem and added me as a write-in candidate, and they said they would look into it, but at this point we don't know what caused the problem, what races it may affect (I... [read more]

All-Mail Voting Protest Today in Snohomish County
As the Herald noted in Tuesday's edition, we'll be at the county auditor's office at noon to vote in person, to protest the move to all-mail voting. You can also read more about some of the reasons behind the protest. See you there ...... [read more]

What's So Bad About A Party Line Primary?
I've noticed lately that just about any time there's a blog at Sound Politics on the vote-by-mail fiasco the blogger, or commenters, or both leap at the opportunity to take a swipe at the "party line primary". I find this hard to understand. It seems to me that the underlying principle of the current primary system is this: if I don't (or refuse to) identify with a party, I don't have a right to tell that party who they can... [read more]

To No One's Surprise...Mail Ballot Problems Happening in King County.
Whether voters are just plain clueless, or whether they are rebelling against the relatively new "pick-a-party" ballots, one in ten voters in King County are not marking the oval indicating a party preference. The King County Journal reports that King County Elections officials discovered this while doing a sampling of the ballots that had already come in for the primary. Of course, those ballots will count for the non-partisan races such as judgeships, but not for the primary party races.... [read more]

Fairwood Incorporation Vote
I just got a call from a real person reminding me to vote NO on the Fairwood Incorporation Proposition. I noticed that the caller ID had 1-111-111-1111 for the return phone number. So I asked the woman why her caller ID was fraudulent. She told me it was because they were a calling firm. I asked where they were located. "We can't supply that information." I then asked who their client was, "We can't supply that information." I told her... [read more]

Replace the Pick-a-Party Primary
At www.replacethepickapartyprimary.blogspot.com, we are collecting reasons why voters do not like the pick-a-party primary. Please come to the site and register your comments about why you dislike/disdain/hate the pick-a-party primary. Soon we will be taking a poll on the best reasons to dislike the existing election system in Pierce County. Kelly Haughton... [read more]

Does New Format for King County Voter's Pamphlet Give Democrats Unfair Advantage?
In looking over my newly arrived King County Voter's Pamphlet, I observe a different format than previous years---a format which has the appearance of being a built-in advantage for democrat candidates for public office. It used to be that candidates for each partisan race, whether it be federal or local, would be grouped together. i.e., for U.S. Senate you would see all the democrat candidates followed by the republican candidates in the same section. Then for the next race--e.g., state... [read more]

Vote In Person In Snohomish County
The Snohomish County Council voted early this year to move to all-mail voting, and many of us are quite angry about the change, for many reasons. But there's still one voting machine in the county, and any registered voter can use it, unless they've voted already. So, we'll be having a protest of sorts: everyone who wants to should show up on Primary Election Day (preferably, at noon or 7 p.m.; be prepared to wait in line!) at the County... [read more]

Election Problems Solved? 70% of Washingtonians Say "No They're Not" and Majority says "We Want Dino!"
The newly released August Strategic Vision poll of 800 likely Washington voters shows that 70% of those surveyed don't yet believe that the problems of the last election have been solved. Forty-six percent of respondents were democrats, while just 37% identified themselves as republicans. Even those in Ron Sims' own party still aren't impressed with his Election Department's performance. (hat tip to Wednesday's King County Journal editorial for highlighting this info). The poll also notes that only 43% of Washingtonians... [read more]

WA Democrats Reject One Of Their Own
The Washington State Democratic party Tuesday announced that it will not throw its support behind incumbent state Senator Tim Sheldon (D - 35th District), but will support his primary election opponent, Kyle Taylor Lucas. Just as the Democratic in Connecticut did with Joe Lieberman, the Washington State Democratic Party has chosen to distance itself from a well-respected, long-term, lawmaker in favor of a much more liberal Senatorial candidate. Just what is going on here? If the goal of the Democrats... [read more]

Amendment 3 - A Better Solution to the Pick-a-Party Problem
CITIZENS FOR A BETTER BALLOT For Immediate Release / August 22nd 2006 Contact: Ryan Griffin, Campaign Manager (253) 228-1991 - info@yesonthree.com -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ninth Circuit Strikes Down I-872 Pierce County Charter Amendment Three Has Better Solution to Pick-A-Party Primary In 2004, voters in Washington rejected the pick-a-party primary by approving I-872. However, I-872's "top-two" primary system failed to protect the associational rights of the political parties and, like the blanket primary, was ruled unconstitutional by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.... [read more]

Voter Registration is still a mess
I just logged onto the voter registration list provided by Sound Politics and in a few short minutes found felons, people with advanced dementia, people who have not lived in the state for 20 years - and these are just my in-laws! When is the state going to finally take voter registration seriously? If I, a rank amateur sleuth can find these mistakes, then how many are really still out there? Unbelievable.... [read more]

Something interesting to think about
From the usually conservative King County Journal Time for third political party? When is a Democrat not a Democrat? When he's Sen. Joe Lieberman, or at least that's how Ned Lamont characterized him during Lamont's campaign to become the Democrats' senatorial candidate. And it worked -- Lamont defeated Lieberman in Connecticut's primary last week by branding him a hawk for his support of the war in Iraq. Never mind that Lieberman, a moderate, was once considered Democrat enough to be... [read more]