Posted on 12/26/2004 6:03:57 PM PST by freespirited
Garbage In, Garbage Out One of the (many) reasons to set aside our tainted gubernatorial race is because King Ukraine County's voter information database is full of garbage. Leaving aside the thousands of questionable registrations that we'll continue to document, the database simply has so many errors in it that it would be folly to trust the county's data processing capabilities to give us the correct answer when the tolerance for error is as tight as it is in this race.
The following example is not by itself a show-stopping smoking gun, but it is illustrative of the mess to which we would entrust the determination of who gets to run the state for the next four years.
By state law, the voter information that every county must maintain and publish shall include a list of the most recent elections in which every voter has voted.
I wrote a script to process the June 2004 KC voter file to tabulate how many currently registered King County voters had participated in each of the last elections. Among the other figures, the report included the following:
Election.........Voters
November 2004......3
November 2005......8
February 2006.......43
November 2006........2
November 2007.......181
January 2010.........8
September 2011........1
November 2012.........1
March 2015............2
June 2017.............3
September 2017........1
September 2019........1
February 2029.........1
September 2030.........2
September 2055.........1
Total Future Elections.......258
Some of these elections, such as November 2007, include several people who are scheduled to vote twice!
[joke: The November 2004 is obviously wrong, but the other numbers might in fact be prescient. If these guys keep screwing up as badly as they have been doing, why should anybody bother to vote in the future?]
But in all seriousness, if King County's data processors can believe that 258 people have already voted in elections that are months and years into the future, why should we trust them to determine within 130 the number of people who voted last month?
BTW the "I" in the above post is not me; its Stefan Sharkansky, one of the authors of Sound Politics.
Ping.
I've posted it before, will post here again: The obvious answer is a new election, but the Dems know that their recent tactics have alienated so many -- including Dems -- that Rossi would win it in a walk.
I know I've had a couple beers but, WHAT?
Among the many things that need to be changed, to eliminate the (phoney) "lost ballots, found ballots" sham, there ahould be some hefty fines ready to descend on anyone who "loses" or "misplaces" ballots. At the precinct level (where the votes are cast) there should be a $500 or $1000 fine for any precinct inspector whose voting machine comes back to the county with ballots still in it. (Personally I don't believe that actually happened. I think the King Co. Elections Dept. wants you to THINK it did. (They have to have some excuse for the never-ending parade of "found ballots.)
Then all County Elections Dept. employees should be held PERSONALLY responsible (with $10,000 fines) for any "misplaced" ballots. All stacks, piles, bins, etc. of ballots should have to be counted and SIGNED FOR each and every time they are turned over to someone else. With some really healthy fines hanging over their heads, perhaps they will think twice before "misplacing" enough for "insurance policies in-case-of-necessity" should their Dem candidates be losing and needing more Dem ballots.
Finally for the "Dean Logans" (head election honchos) of this world, there should be a $one-million dollar fine if ANY ballots are lost or misplaced. I think a little accountability and personal responsibility plus BIG fines and jail time would go a long way toward no future "lost" or "found" ballots.
I agree with you to a point but I would like to add that every state needs laws in place that requre ID to verify the voter, we need to stop provisional ballots and I would even like to see absentee ballots require some sort of ID number, Drivers license ect., and to also limit them to people who are really absent during the election. Also, ballots found after the first count should be outlawed, in other words a clearly worded law the prohibits counting of Ballots found after the initial election count should be tossed regardless of the whining and moaning coming from Democrats. These things would go a long way toward stopping the count and recount until you win syndrome. A real court would never have allowed the third count, after all Dinno won two counts how many do you need to win in order to prove you won?
I agree with you that we need voter ID, however as a poll worker (judge) I can tell you we aren't even allowed to ask to see ID. We just verify that they're in the book,, ask them to sign beside their name and issue them a ballot.
I haven't had a beer, but, WHAT? I don't get it.
call all the other counties and tell them to include excluded votes based on WSSC's 2nd ruling
I like how you think!!!
A completely new election is in order. Put in a call to Jimmah Cahtah.
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