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Posted on 08/02/2005 7:05:27 PM PDT by Publius
The report by the King County Task Force on Elections is a disappointment. The committee that prepared the report might have given us a clear description of what went wrong at the King County elections office in the last election, a diagnosis of the underlying problems, and a set of proposals for curing those problems. Members of the task force gave us no description at all. They did give us a vague diagnosis, but their diagnosis is inconsistent with the facts. And their proposed cures, though not all bad, would do more harm than good.
The committee's diagnosis, such as it is, centers on feelings, specifically the distrust felt by the public for the elections office, and the distrust of those who work at the elections office for one another. The employees there don't get along very well -- something not uncommon in bureaucracies. The committee sees the elections office as an unruly kindergarten class, which can be brought back to order by bringing in a new teacher temporarily, and by persuading the children to play nicely with one another. Once this is done (and some minor procedural changes are made), the committee believes that the elections office will do better work and, in time, convince the public that it can be trusted.
We disagree with the committee's diagnosis. We would like those at the elections office to get along, but we don't believe that would restore the public's trust.
To understand why we disagree with their diagnosis let's review what happened in our last election: No one disputes that votes were cast for dead people, that at least a few people voted more than once, that at least a few non-citizens voted, that hundreds of felons voted illegally, and that hundreds of provisional votes were counted without verification. In short, hundreds of illegal votes were counted in King County in the last election (perhaps thousands, given what we now know about the county's lax controls on fraud and sloppy procedures).
We do not believe that the illegal votes were the result of a conspiracy to commit vote fraud by anyone in the Christine Gregoire campaign or in the Democratic leadership. Instead we believe that the lax standards in our current election laws and the lax practices in King County tempt some individuals to vote illegally, without any coordination, a phenomena we call "distributed vote fraud."
No one disputes that people in the King County elections office failed to count about 100 absentee ballots, counted about 900 absentee ballots that they could not match to voters, failed to review polling place reconciliation reports and knowingly filed false reports for absentee ballots and provisional ballots. In short, people in the elections office violated the spirit and the letter of our election laws.
So the public has good reasons to distrust both the results of the last election and the King County elections office. As long as we have lax election laws and lax administrative procedures, we will have a significant amount of distributed vote fraud -- and every close election will appear illegitimate to those in the losing party. If we really want voters to trust our elections, then we have to reduce the number of illegal votes, which will require changes in election laws and procedures. And if we want voters to trust the King County elections office, we will have to replace the leadership there.
Members of the committee ignored the problem of illegal votes in making their proposals. Their most important proposal, all-mail balloting, would probably increase illegal voting. When vote fraud is detected in the United States, we almost always find that those committing the fraud used mailed ballots. There are many reasons for that, but the main one is simple; committing vote fraud with mailed ballots is almost risk-free.
Not all their proposals are bad, however. Electing a non-partisan auditor for King County is a good idea and moving the primaries to June (or even earlier) is worth considering.
None of their proposals would do anything to reduce illegal votes (except, of course, their proposal to redefine all votes by felons as legal). To reduce illegal votes, we favor common sense changes in our election laws and procedures, such as limiting provisional ballots to the few who actually need them, and putting more checks on voting by mail. Naturally we favor photo IDs for registration and for voting.
We believe that nearly all voters want honest elections -- and will not trust elections in King County until changes are made to ensure that we have them.
Stefan Sharkansky founded the group blog Sound Politics (www.soundpolitics.com). Jim Miller contributes to the blog.
Glad you explained. I couldn't understand why the PI suddenly sounded rational.
The answer is quite simple, thought not "politically correct". Put dedicated poll watchers in all predominately democRAT districts, at least they'll be kept quite busy (where they're (poll watchers) likely to die of boredom in Republican/conservative areas). It is a well known (and documented) FACT that the highest percentage of voter FRAUD occurs in these (liberal/RAT) areas.
Don't blame me, I just call 'em as I see 'em.
Hm. A curious remark considering the screen name...
The problem is not so much what happens at the polling places but what happens in the counting rooms.
1. Make people be registered 1 month before an election.
2. Hook up voter registration lists to make sure people are only registered once.
3. Make people show ID before they vote.
4. Make voting more than once a crime punishable by a minimum of one year in jail.
It's pretty straitforward, really.
With your steel resolve I wouldn't worry about it too much if I were you.
Under circumstances where the Republicans control the national administration, why is not the FBI investigating vote fraud in King County?
The FBI came in just after the manual recount was completed and nosed around. We have no idea who talked to them or what they know. We may see nothing, or we may see arrests. Who can say? These things are all done in confidence.
There is a very simple way to regain complete trust in the US electoral process. Vote out the Democrats.
Here's an Erection killer!
ha! Great balls of fire that woman's ugly
Ugly's only skin deep and a precious soul can lie behind a less-than-beautiful face.
I'm not saying that's the case here...
How about not counting ballots that are "found" by democrats, after the election?
Is she wearing little skull earrings?
A central relational database accessible from handheld client devices in the field would provide very quick and accurate information. Aside from ballots, get the paper out of it.
Also from the P.I.:
In an interview, Sims said he expects to hire a management consulting firm to undertake the task. However, he was vague about specifics, including how much management control the team would have over the elections operation and what management role Dean Logan, the county director of records, elections and licensing services, would have.
Sims said those issues are being discussed. He said finding outside consultants with experience in the complex field of elections might be difficult, adding, "We're in brand-new terrain."
Yeah, it's brand new terrain for "Mr. Sims" alright. I'd like to see him in a brand new line of work, personally.
Repeal most of the election laws that Democrats have gotten passed since Bush '41 left office.
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