Posted on 03/07/2005 9:14:46 PM PST by Seattle Conservative
Today's update on King County's magical binder of precinct-by-precinct reconciliation worksheets, which the lunatic-fringe blogs tell us are "sitting down there at KC Elections for anybody to inspect".
The punchline is: the lunatic-fringe bloggers are living in a sick fantasy world (but you knew that). The binder is not now, nor has it ever been, available for public inspection. King County is perpetrating a cover-up.
Two things happened today: First, County Councilmember David Irons confirmed to me that he's been asking for these documents for the last six weeks but that the Elections office has still not made them available to him.
Second, I made a personal appearance at the Elections office this morning and asked to see the binder, as a follow up to my written public records request of February 22. Spokeswoman Bobbie Egan, who is a very nice lady, did provide some of the other documents that I requested and promised to follow up with a more detailed response soon. But the binder with the reconciliation reports? She wouldn't allow me to see it. She said only that it would be available "when it's available" without giving me any specific timeframe. The only explanation is that it is "being worked on" in relation to the election contest lawsuit. She went so far as to consult with a county attorney, who apparently advised her not to show it to me. An attorney friend who is knowledgeable about both public disclosure law and King County government says this excuse is nonsense, especially since King County has been excused from the lawsuit and is no longer a defendant.
The public disclosure act states that
The people of this state do not yield their sovereignty to the agencies that serve them. The people, in delegating authority, do not give their public servants the right to decide what is good for the people to know and what is not good for them to know. The people insist on remaining informed so that they may maintain control over the instruments that they have created. The public records subdivision of this chapter shall be liberally construed and its exemptions narrowly construed to promote this public policy. and continues Responses to requests for public records shall be made promptly by agencies... Within five business days of receiving a public record request, an agency ... must respond by either (1) providing the record; (2) acknowledging that the agency ... has received the request and providing a reasonable estimate of the time the agency ... will require to respond to the request; or (3) denying the public record request ... Denials of requests must be accompanied by a written statement of the specific reasons therefor. The Guiding Principles of King County Elections include: We share timely and appropriate information with all.
... We encourage the public to participate in the election process through education, public notices and transparent processes.
My written request was delivered on February 22. Nine business days have come and gone, and King County has not responded to my request as required by law.
What is King County hiding? Other than the fact that hundreds or even thousands of ballots were counted that can't be matched with voters? That this year's ballot/voter discrepancy is by far the worst in recent county history? That this astonishing discrepancy would have been enough to change the outcome of the election?
thanks the update. I had been wondering what was happening. Good luck!
I think most are too disgusted over what has happened in WA state to even view this thread much less post on it. disgusting.
Nice to see someone is still keeping the fires burning on getting to the core of what happened up there. Keep up the good work.
I just bet that it is.
Congressman Billybob
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.