Rove, Ballot Challenges and a Request for My "Updated Signature"

[Rose Siding]

In King Co, Washington we just received letters from the Election Program Mgr of Voter Services.

Initially, we were disturbed to learn that we are being transitioned to all mail voting next year. I need to find out more about that to be comfortable with it. Previously, we'd used paper ballots across the street at the school house and watched as an optic scan counted our vote. Then, at the end of the day we walk over and see the totes for our neighborhood taped to the window. We are dependably liberal. Our district sends Jim McDermott to Congress (you're welcome)

Besides informing us of this impending change, the program mgr included a form requesting an updated signature..."sign under penalty of perjury...you may be prosecuted...blah blah". That doesn't intimidate me, though I'd imagine there could be some who have unpaid tickets or maybe a financial judgement against them somewhere who might think twice. But I do have some problems with it:

A. How many King Co residents will actually return these forms? How many votes won't count because they didn't? The letter reads: "By law, the signature on your ballot envelope must match the signature on file for your ballot to be counted".

B. Who will be comparing my signature card with the signature on my ballot and will my vote be challenged because of any variance? (Sadly, I rarely write my name the same way twice)

Maybe you remember ballot challenges in our last election for Governor:

Seattle P-I: King County Democrats just found 561 wrongly-rejected absentee ballots. Among them was the absentee ballot of King County Council Chair Larry Phillips, a Democrat.

King County went heavily for Gregoire in November, and is 2-1 in favor of Democrats on the county's Canvass Board.

Without rehashing the P-I, Phillips himself found the mistake in going over a list of the rejects. He normally votes in person, but was in Ohio this November working for John Kerry. Thus, the absentee. Needless to say, he was shocked to see his own name there, and discovered the mistake at that time.

Elections officials had originally rejected the ballots because the signatures did not match the ones on their registration records. However, the signatures simply were not on file in the county's voter registration system, according to Dean Logan (Director, King Co. Elections).

http://www.blueoregon.com/2004/12/recount_gregoir.html

Of course, the judge dumped the Republicans' case. And maybe these sig cards are simply a worthy attempt to limit the possibility of erroneous challenges, but a new report has heightened my unease.

Washington is one of the states claimed as a battleground. Our populous county frequently swings the whole state blue. McKay, the federal prosecutor for this area, was one of the purged USAs. In today's Post:

Nearly half the U.S. attorneys slated for removal by the administration last year were targets of Republican complaints that they were lax on voter fraud, including efforts by presidential adviser Karl Rove to encourage more prosecutions of election- law violations, according to new documents and interviews.

Of the 12 U.S. attorneys known to have been dismissed or considered for removal last year, five were identified by Rove or other administration officials as working in districts that were trouble spots for voter fraud -- Kansas City, Mo.; Milwaukee; New Mexico; Nevada; and Washington state. Four of the five prosecutors in those districts were dismissed.

It has been clear for months that the administration's eagerness to launch voter-fraud prosecutions played a role in some of the firings, but recent testimony, documents and interviews show the issue was more central than previously known.....

White House officials also criticized John McKay, then the U.S. attorney in Seattle, for not pursuing an investigation after the disputed 2004 gubernatorial election in Washington state. McKay, who was fired, has said that claim was baseless.....Rove, in particular, was preoccupied with pressing Gonzales and his aides about alleged voting problems in a handful of battleground states, according to testimony and documents.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/13/AR2007051301106_pf.html

The Math. Black box voting is no longer the villain's only tool.