King County not an anomaly when it comes to voter registrations
The P-I had an excellent article last Friday looking at how King County Elections handles voter registrations:
They seem to be hoping they'll be able to win close elections in the future if they can mount a successful assault on the voter rolls in heavily Democratic leaning King County. Above all, the GOP wants to win and hold power. Nothing else appears to be important - not honesty, not accuracy, not fairness, and certainly not democracy.
Although it has been the target of harsh Republican criticism, King County's credulous approach to voter registrations largely reflects the policy of the Secretary of State's Office and the practices of other counties' elections officials -- including some GOP auditors.The article is a great read (follow the link to see it all). It's good information and great reporting from the Post-Intelligencer. It once again illustrates how phony the Republican attacks on King County elections are. Had Dino Rossi been the winner in last year's gubernatorial race, the party wouldn't be doing this right now.
[...]
[King County Elections Director] Logan said it's not his responsibility to police voter registrations. "That's not contemplated in the laws," he said.
But there's no requirement that Logan undertake address reviews on his own initiative, elections officials at the state level and in other counties agree.
"There's nothing in state law that says (elections officials) must investigate any questionable registration," said Sheryl Moss, who trains county elections officials for Secretary of State Sam Reed, a Republican who is the state's chief elections officer.
And in King County, with its more than 1 million registered voters, "It would be an impossible task without a huge, giant investigation crew to determine that every address is valid," Moss said.
Beyond that, Logan's role as hearing officer for challenges filed outside the 30-day window could raise questions of a conflict of interest should he also investigate the voters' claims on the registration forms, Moss said.
They seem to be hoping they'll be able to win close elections in the future if they can mount a successful assault on the voter rolls in heavily Democratic leaning King County. Above all, the GOP wants to win and hold power. Nothing else appears to be important - not honesty, not accuracy, not fairness, and certainly not democracy.
