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Posted on 07/11/2007 8:24:04 AM PDT by sionnsar
Duncan M. McDonald, the Australian shepherd-terrier mix, has been disenfranchised at last.
Eight months after the first of three elections for which King County officials sent ballots to an Australian shepherd-terrier mix, he's finally off the voter rolls.
County elections director Sherril Huff said she canceled the dog's voter registration Tuesday. The pooch belongs to Jane K. Balogh of Federal Way, who signed him up to vote with a mail-in registration form in April 2006.
Duncan stayed on the voter rolls even after he was mailed an absentee ballot for the November 2006 election and Balogh wrote "VOID" across it and mailed it back with an image of a dog paw-print on the signature line.
The ballot wasn't counted, but Duncan remained eligible to vote even after an election official called Balogh after the November election and she admitted what she had done.
Duncan subsequently was mailed an absentee ballot for a school bond election in February and another for a May 13 election.
The dog's removal from the voter rolls didn't occur until three weeks after Balogh, 66, was charged in King County Superior Court on June 19 with making a false or misleading statement to a public servant, a misdemeanor, for filling out the false voter registration.
A sheriff's investigator said Balogh admitted doing so "to make a point that anyone could vote, even an animal," and that the voter registration system was flawed. The investigator said the owner contended that Duncan was eligible because he is an American citizen, was born in the United States, is over 18 years old (in dog years) and has never been convicted of a felony.
Bobbie Egan, a spokeswoman for the elections department, said, "Quite frankly, the process (to remove Duncan from the rolls) did take too long, and it should have been addressed after the November election."
Egan said department procedures are being reviewed to allow for speedier action "whenever fraudulent activity is apparent."
The county prosecutor's office offered to charge Balogh only with a misdemeanor and to agree to a sentencing recommendation of a one-year deferred sentence, a year of probation, 10 hours of community service and a $250 fine if she pleads guilty. If she doesn't, the prosecutor's office will charge her with a felony.
She is scheduled for a preliminary court hearing Wednesday.
Get out while you can.
I bet the dog voted pro-Democrat.
“the owner contended that Duncan was eligible because he is an American citizen”
You have to be an American Citizen to vote???
Every dog has its day. In this case, until now, that day came early in November.
If it had been a yellow hound...?
at least it was alive.
Recall this priceless exchange from the contest trial, regarding King County's new computer system, whose "learning curve" was blamed for much of the 2004 election disaster [TVW audio, 3:30:24]
Judge Bridges: I guess I have to ask, whose idea was it to install this new computer software program just prior to that general election?So naturally, King County Elections intends to install another slew of new computer systems just prior to the 2008 election:
Nicole Way: not mine. [laughter all around]
[Council staffer Nick] Wagner said in a report to the council that elections staff "continues to deny that there is reason for concern" about moving to a new building, switching to mail voting, installing ballot-tracking software, and using tabulators and signature-verification software not used in any previous election, all in one year.Indeed. Holding the 2008 election entirely by mail is obviously not motivated by a desire for greater reliability. So why are Ron Sims and his Elections office so firmly committed to this reckless scheme? I can think of exactly two reasons: (1) the state Democrat Party wants to carpet bomb King County with mail ballots, in the hope that enough extra ballots will slip into the system to give their weaker candidates the needed victory boost. (2) As we learned so well after the 2004 meltdown, King County Elections workers can get away with ballot-stuffing, if they shrug their shoulders and claim it was a mistake caused by the learning curve with the new computer system. Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at July 10, 2007 10:45 AM"Gosh," said Councilmember Kathy Lambert, R-Redmond, "any one of those seems like a recipe for disaster. Putting them together is frightening."
Good thing she pointed out what she was doing or they never would have suspected anything was wrong.
Is the owner a democrat?
Washington State...where dogs and dead people get to vote!....(HMMMM, I have an idea for a T-Shirt)!
Apart from the fact that this woman did this to prove a valid point, I’d like to know one thing.
Why wasn’t the dog’s name removed from the voter rolls when the woman first called?
Cripes, are King County employees that blitheringly stupid that they couldn’t even do this in a timely manner?!
See today’s MALLARD FILLMORE for the right take. You are spot on.
Yellow or Blue Dog DemoRAT?
Must have been a republican if they took him off.
I’m sure this women was a republican b/c she was outraged.
If she was a democrat she would have seen nothing but opportunity not outrage.
And ol’ Duncan would probably still be voting a straight Dem ticket.
Waiting with bated breath the prosecution of the PEOPLE who voted multiple times, felons, illegals, those registered at PO Boxes and vacant lots, or 60 to a house address... Uh oh, I’m turning BLUE!
Dog exit poll:
What’s on the top of a house? “Roof”
What’s on the outside of trees? “Bark”
See? I told you he was smart enough to vote.
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