Posted on 04/26/2005 9:57:58 AM PDT by schu
More mistakes revealed in ballot counting
By David Postman and Keith Ervin Seattle Times staff reporters
In his first questioning under oath about the governor's election, King County Elections Director Dean Logan revealed additional errors in the handling of ballots and acknowledged that the county did not follow recommendations by its elections-oversight committee that were designed to avoid some of those very mistakes.
Logan revealed the mishandling of 125 provisional ballots in addition to 660 disclosed earlier. He also said three absentee ballots had been found in counting machines in a discovery never made public.
And he detailed more than 200 ballots that were set aside for more research but were never dealt with; at least some of those should have been counted in what turned out to be the closest gubernatorial election in the nation's history.
Over two days of questioning last week in a Seattle law office by Republican and Democratic attorneys, Logan defended King County's election system and his staff, saying there was neglect in the handling of some ballots but not any misconduct.
A 474-page transcript of Logan's deposition in a lawsuit brought by Republican gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi was released late yesterday by Rossi's office. He lost to Gov. Christine Gregoire by 129 votes after a hand recount reversed the outcome of the original count and a machine recount.
As Republicans bore in on questions about ballot tracking and security, Logan said he was sure that election observers made it virtually impossible for anyone to purposefully vote more than once.
"So if people sneezed at a polling place, we got a phone call about it," he said. "So if somebody was trying to stuff the ballot box, I think it would be very unlikely that we would not have heard about that."
Republican attorney Rob Maguire said to Logan near the end of the questioning, "Do you know whether the returns in King County were accurate within 129 votes?"
Logan: "No, I do not."
Maguire also questioned Logan about a report by the King County Citizens' Election Oversight Committee. The panel was appointed after foul-ups in the election division in 2002, before Logan was hired.
Maguire had Logan read a series of recommendations by the committee that were designed to avoid errors in counting provisional ballots, including the suggestion that provisional ballots be printed a different color so they could be differentiated from other ballots.
The report was released last May and Logan said that left little time to implement changes.
"We had to consider what changes in polling processes were the most easily achieved in time for a brand-new election in September in a manner that could contemplate the literally thousands of election-board workers being able to absorb and comprehend those changes in time to administer the fall elections," Logan said.
Rossi filed his legal challenge to the election in January. A trial begins May 23 in Chelan County Superior Court on Rossi's claims that errors and illegal votes mean the election should be overturned and Gregoire removed from office.
Republicans have focused their investigation on King County. April 18 was their first chance to grill Logan on previously reported counting errors and about details of the process the county uses for tracking ballots, policing voter rolls for felons and the deceased and other practices.
But it is clear that Democrats are unhappy with the county, too.
The two days of questioning began with Democratic Party attorney Kevin Hamilton saying the county failed to turn over documents as promised in court.
King County deputy prosecuting attorney Don Porter said during the deposition that he disagreed with that characterization but did not give specifics.
Republicans focused many of their questions on trying to determine what precautions King County takes to track ballots from the printing plant through the final recount.
Among answers from Logan:
• The county has a "ballot-on-demand" system that allows workers to print additional ballots in the elections office and at the mail ballot satellite office. Logan said probably less than a dozen people have access to the machines and that the system is password-protected. But he said there is not a "specific inventory of the number of ballots that are produced on the ballot-on-demand system."
• King County does not have a report of how many absentee ballots were mailed in by voters. The county does keep track of the number of absentee ballots counted and those rejected.
• Three uncounted absentee ballots were found in the base of voting machines long after Election Day.
• Some valid ballots were mistakenly rejected because of incorrect data in the voter-registration database.
• Election workers had difficulties getting exact numbers from the new database.
• Absentee voters were credited with voting if they returned envelopes with no ballots inside.
Logan confirmed that more provisional ballots were mishandled than last reported. The county previously had acknowledged 660 provisional ballots mistakenly went through tabulators without being verified.
Logan did not have a specific number. But a spreadsheet given to the attorneys showed the number of mishandled provisional ballots is now 785. Election officials found that 122 of the voters were not registered.
Democrats asked Logan about 208 absentee ballots that had been set aside and labeled, "Not registered, needed further research."
Logan said that "is sort of a miscellaneous category" where ballots were put that couldn't be verified "but that there was indication that there may be other research that could help us identify who that voter was."
Logan said that since the election his staff has determined that some of those should have been counted, but he didn't know how many.
"I believe there are some that fall into that category, again, where we got subsequent information after certification of the election that indicated a name change or where through further staff review, somebody else was able to decipher what the handwriting was or something to that effect."
Attorney David McDonald, manager of the Democrats' legal team, said he didn't believe Rossi gained much legal ammunition from Logan's depositions.
"If the transcript was available this morning and they didn't have a press conference this afternoon, my conclusion is they probably didn't pick up much," McDonald said.
But Rossi spokeswoman Mary Lane said Logan's testimony adds details to the Republican case.
"We said all along you can't tell who won this election. In light of these depositions we find out that the situation in King County was much more chaotic than we originally thought, from lack of accounting for blank ballots, to even the head of elections being unable to say with certainty who won this election."
David Postman: 360-943-9882 or dpostman@seattletimes.com
I wouldn't say the citizens don't care, I think everyone (including the Feds) is just waiting for the election contest court case to be settled. If they do not throw out this election, that is the time to take to the streets and/or call in the Feds.
You know something ... I'm done with that conversation ... now I can say "get over it" and mean it ... (my post, not this election issue).
I see your point. I guess waiting for the court to rule is the best thing. But .. when we went through Bush 2000 - we did not wait for the courts to rule - we took to the streets every weekend to protest what the dems were doing. Otherwise .. how do the courts know the public even cares one way or the other.
Just a thought.
The Shark at Sound Politics has a fresh post: Logan Deposition (I)
Perhaps they will let the election thing run its course before the DA gets involved. But if someone starts taking the 5th, then what happens? If you were in this spot (like Logan) and saw some things going on that you KNEW were illegal and that potentially you personally would have legal exposure, what would you do?
Funny thing is, both counties machine totals had Rossi winning. In every other county, including King, the "extra" votes received by a candidate from the hand recount tended to favor the candidate who already led in the machine count. There were a few exceptions, but only in low-population counties where there were not enough votes to make a significant difference in the final outcome.
Why has nobody focused on possible fraud in both the Everett and Tacoma courthouses? Both are controlled by ultraliberal Rat politicians, and stuffing them would have been a LOT easier with all eyes focused on Seattle. I feel that the King County proceedings are a bit of misdirection on the part of the enemy.
LOL! You might look into creating a ping list then!
Welcome to FR, glad to have you aboard.
At the least, the fraud will soon be too obvious to deny.
As thick as your skin is, you might survive long enough to learn something. ;^)
A Garth Fell is the assistant superintendent of ballot processing delivery, and Alycia Luke is the supervisor of the distribution center.
There is an assistant supervisor of the distribution center, and I'm having a blank on his name. I'm sure it will -- Marvin Lew.
Political party observers were present or were aware of the opportunity to be present at the warehouse during all activities, and at the admin building during all activities. we did not have political party observers riding in the vehicle when they were transported between those two facilities.
Q When you say, physically removed, you mean, the envelopes are taken out of the bags, but the ballots remain in the security envelope and the outer envelope?
A Correct.
Q Do they also check to see whether the person has already voted by another means?
A That is part of the process. You know, simultaneous to this processing, the staff is also crediting voters from poll books so that -- so depending on where we are at in the processing, there may be -- that is a step that is ultimately conducted before the -- before it's determined whether the ballot can be counted. But we are not able to verify that until after we have given credit from poll books for those people who voted at the polls.
Q Have you completed the process of counting or did you complete the process of counting absentee ballots before counting provisional ballots?
A Not necessarily, no. But the tabulation system is set up in a way that differentiates absentee ballots from provisional ballots. So they're counted at separate processes, but we didn't -- there are provisional ballots counted prior to completion of all absentee ballots being counted.
WAS THE ALARM TRIGGERED AT ANY PIOINT? Let me back up and say the facility itself is a secured and alarmed facility, so it's on an alarm system where we would get notified if -- if the alarm is triggered at any point.
Q And when the alarm goes off the private security company is notified and they contact your office?
A Correct.
Q Who in your office?
A I believe that the first contact is Nicole Way, who is the absentee ballot administrator.
Q Did the alarm ever go off during -- after the election until the hand recount was completed?
A I'm probably not the best person to tell you that. I don't
A No, it was opened to identify the precinct that the ballot is issued from.
Q Issued from. Why do you need that information?
A To determine whether or not -- if we verify that the person is a valid registered voter, we need to be sure that we're counting the ballot in the precinct where they're registered to vote. So we need to know if they've cast the ballot in the precinct where they're registered to vote, or if we're going to have to duplicate that onto a ballot associated with the precinct where they're registered to vote.
Q So when the poll worker removes the ballot from the security envelope and the outer envelope to investigate that issue, they do so prior to verifying that it is a lawful -- cast by a lawful registered voter?
A That's correct. It was done prior -- it was done prior to the verification of voter registration. The people who oversaw that process include Carlos Webb, who is the assistant superintendent of voter registration, Lisa Moore and Vicki Moore, who are the two supervisors within the voter registration system.
A From conversation -- from my staff who oversaw that process when the ballots were processed and through discussions with my communications specialist and her conversations with reporters who recalled it.
Q Who on your staff?
A Carlos Webb, assistant superintendent of registration, and Bobbie Egan, who is the communications specialist.
Q Do you remember generally whether we're talking more than a hundred, more than a thousand?
A The number that's in my head, although I have to tell you that there are so many numbers associated with the work that I do on a daily basis, that I don't know how meaningful this is, but I believe that it was somewhere in the range of 258.
Q Do you ever contact voters directly or individuals directly?
A If there was missing information on the envelope or incomplete information to allow us to do that, there -- we do ask for a day time contact number, and it is -- there are certainly situations by which we would contact the voter again. I don't process those ballots myself, so I can't give you specific examples of where that occurred, but that is one of the means that we would go to, not to verify the registration, but to verify the information that they've provided on the envelope.
Q Who would know about those calls or if any occurred?
A Well, again, the processing of the provisional ballots was overseen by Carlos Webb, assistant superintendent of voter registration, and his two supervisors, Lisa Moore and Vicki.
Q Who does the training?
A It's a variety of people. On the provisional ballot side it would be Vicki Moore and Lisa Moore who train the employees or the staff who were doing the verification. On the absentee side, that was -- I believe that training was provided by Celeste Dorsey.
PG 55
Q I'm trying to get an image of the mechanics. Election worker receives a tray filled with provisional ballot envelopes that are still closed. They open up the -- or they, excuse me, compare the information on the outside of the envelope to information in the data base. If it is -- if it matches,
Q Who crates the in-house batch batches?
A Lead staff at our mail ballot operation satellite.
Q Do you know the names of the people who do that?
A Like in the main people are overseen by Nicole Way, who is the absentee ballot administrator, and then underneath her during the November election, there was essentially three leads, Celeste Dorsey, who oversaw the verification process, Mikki Asmundsen, who oversaw the opening process, and Joanne Gardner, who oversaw the -- actually, Joanne oversaw the insertion process.
PGS. 76 77
Actually, that entire process that I described from verification to opening to tabulation, duplication enhancement, all of that is observed by political party observers, major party observers that we -- that are designated by the political parties and paid by us to be there to provide that oversight as well as any other observers who are provided by the parties.
Q What opportunities do observers have to object to anything they see?
A Again, the observer process doesn't contemplate an objection process. It is an observation process. So keep track of what you observe and form your opinion of what you've observed, but that the law does not -- the interpretation of the law, as we understand it, does not allow for an observer to disrupt that process, or to object to the manner in which that's being conducted.
Q Do you know what an absentee ballot audit trail is?
A Well, I think an absentee ballot audit trail could be many things, and I think I understand the concept of an absentee ballot audit trail, yes.
Q What is your understanding of the concept of an absentee ballot audit trail?
A I would define it as an accounting of -- of the processing of that absentee ballot from time that it was received through tabulation.
Q Are you familiar with the Washington Administrative Code provision governing absentee ballot audit trails?
A I believe so, yes.
Q Did King County maintain an absentee ballot audit trail?
A Yes, we did.
Q What information was contained in King County's absentee ballot audit trail?
A Well, I think there are different portions of that absentee audit trail. Some of that is contained in the records that are tracked in the voter registration and elections management system associated with when that ballot was issued, when it was received back, when it was verified, which batch it was associated with. And once it's associated with a batch, there is an individual batch slip that we talked about that accompanies it through the process, and that maintains an audit record of that as well. I know that the staff at the mail ballot operations satellite maintains some spread sheet records based on the information on those batch slips, and ultimately that there is also an audit trail associated with the ballot tabulation system that tracks the number of absentee ballots that were counted in each precinct, were required to count to differentiate absentee ballots from poll ballots and to be able to report on those by -- by precinct.
Q If somebody delivers an absentee ballot to the admin building, how do you identify the precinct to which you're going to assign that ballot?
A Well, the ballot is already associated with a precinct based on the registered voter who the ballot was issued to and who returned it.
Q So the precinct returned would reflect an absentee ballot, even if it was -- regardless of whether it was sent in by mail or delivered to a particular poll site, or to the admin building?
A That's going to occur when that ballot gets associated with the batch, and then the batch is uploaded to begin the process of verification, opening, and tabulation.
Q Was part of the King County's absentee ballot audit trail a reconciliation that all absentee ballots counted plus all absentee ballots rejected was equal to the total number of absentee ballots received?
A Can you repeat that?
Q Sure. Was part of King County's absentee ballot audit trail a reconciliation that all absentee ballots counted plus all absentee ballots rejected is equal to the total number of absentee ballots received?
A That was reported in a mail ballot -- in a mail ballot report that is produced to the canvassing board in every election. There is a clear record and audit trail of the number of absentee ballots counted, the number of absentee ballots issued, and the number of absentee ballots rejected. I do not believe that there is a clearly identifiable record that -- that other than from the voter registration system based on those batch uploads that would indicate the total number of ballots received.
A Our voter registration section under the direction of the superintendent and the assistant superintendent of voter services.
Q And what are the names of those people?
A Bill Huennekens and Carlos Webb.
SOMEWHERE IN THE MIDST PG. 134
PG 141
Q The next recommendation listed on Page 48 of Exhibit 3 says: Track the error rate, and if significant, implement procedural and/or technical changes to reduce the errors.First, did you track the error rate in the November 2004 general election?
A To the extent that I just mentioned, yes, we did track where we were able to identify that this issue existed, yes.
Q Did you consider the error rate significant?
A Yes, I do.
Q Who is on the canvassing crew?
A It's led by Linda Sanchez, who is the elections operations supervisor, and she utilized approximately I would estimate between 25 and 35 individuals in that process, temporary election staff that had been hired to work on the canvassing crew.
Q And to whom does Linda Sanchez report directly?
A She reports to the assistant superintendent of elections operations, Julie Moore.
Q Do you know whether Ms. Sanchez passed along information prior to the certification about these unverified provisional ballots, passed it along to Ms. Moore?
A I don't know specifically about conversations between Linda Sanchez and Julie Moore.
In my post, #95, I noticed some Q&A run together. Sorry. My the text doc has margin notes.
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