"Can I vote too?"
Posted on 06/23/2007 4:45:39 PM PDT by Baladas
KING COUNTY - A fake utility bill and a paw print was all it took for one Federal Way woman to register her dog to vote. Now King County Elections is under fire for what this woman calls a "broken system".
It may all sound like a joke, but Jane Balogh says she wanted to prove a serious point. If her dog can get a voter registration ballot, what's stopping others from voting illegally in our elections?
"I guess I care too much about my country," she said.
Balogh said she never meant to commit a crime; she said she just wanted to expose a flaw in the voting system.
"There are so many things in the state that don't make sense and they're not for the betterment," she said.
So Balogh filled out a voter registration form with a real name, a real birth date and a fake signature.
"I thought to myself, 'God, our system is so lax, even my dog could vote. Hey, that's a good idea.'"
Sure enough, the registration card arrived in the mail for "Duncan McDonald." Balogh had managed to get a registration for her Australian shepherd-terrier mix, no questions asked.
"He's an independent, just like his mother," she said of her dog.
Duncan filled out his ballot in September and signed it with a paw print. He didn't actually vote, but Balogh mailed his ballot to King County Elections.
At first, there were still no questions being asked.
"Nothing. I thought, 'what is going on here? This can't be true. Someone has to show an interest,'" Balogh said.
An elections worker did show an interest in the next election. She called with questions about the signature.
"She said, 'you can't sign with a paw.' I said, 'you can if you're a dog.' There was a long hesitation. She said, 'it's a dog?' I said 'yes,'" Balogh said.
But the county never followed up, until last month. On Thursday, Balogh got a letter saying she would be charged with a misdemeanor.
"This situation confirms that our safeguards are in place to detect voter fraud," the letter said.
But Balogh wonders why it took so long.
Balogh says she checked the county Web site and, at last check on Friday, the site still listed Duncan as a legal voter.
Balogh will be arraigned in court Tuesday. Prosecutors say they could up the charge to a felony if she pleads not guilty.
Arf! Arf!
It wont be ‘broken system’ once she is serving prison time — but that’s just my opinion.
but the dog is still a registered voter...just like my great great great grandma Agnieszka in Chicago...
Figures. The dog's a minority so he's no doubt a registered democRAT.
She should be prosecuted, even though I think she was just trying to make a point like “even my dog can vote in this state”.
Duncan should be purged from the voting rolls or call the ACLU NOW.
likely an illegal alien to just doing the voting American dogs wont do...
I’ll bet that dog would be a more reasonable, rational voter than the average leftist voter in King County. I was just in Seattle last month and what a bunch of leftwing fanatics and kooks. The progressives up there live in their little utopian bubble tucked away in a parallel universe. Yeah, I would wager that the dog would make a more informed decision than most of the conformist kooks down at Pike’s Public Market.
"Can I vote too?"
I live in East King Co., and I have to agree with you. On the very rare occasions I must go to Seattle, I want to take a shower and wash my clothes when I get home. I can literally smell the place on me.
My wife and I were staying at the Inn at the Market. While walking to the juncture at Pine and second street, a guy screamed in my face, “Do you want to save the planet? If so, then you’ll become a member of GreenPeace.” This guy made the panhandlers seem normal.
That was most likely a member of the City Council, or possibly even the Chief of Police.
She won’t, and shouldn’t, serve any “prison time.” She proved what so many of us here know....our election officials should probably be SERVING PRISON TIME!
Keep him registered and count his vote. Any dog is smarter than 98% of Washington State voters. Look at the crap load of legislators we have without dogs voting!!
Yeah, that sounds like Seattle...
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