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Dean Logan to King County GOP: "Drop Dead"
My head is beginning to hurt from all of this, but every time I turn around Dean Logan pulls yet another stunt that appears designed to eliminate transparency and public oversight.
Tim Borders, the nominal plaintiff in the governor's election contest lawsuit and a Republican elections observer, just sent this e-mail:
According to ... Maria Seal [chief elections observer for King County GOP], probably for the first time in her 25 years of experience, the Republican Party has been excluded from making key staff appointments in King County Elections.
In the past, we had our own people on the King County payroll that filled vacancies for Republican pollworkers. (They were forced to fill many vacancies with Democrats, especially in Seattle, but that is another story.) This election cycle, however, the Republican Party has been shut out of the process.--
One problem is that many people are willing to claim that they are Republicans, but they are in fact Democrats. For purposes of party identification, REALS takes people at their word. One Seattle resident named Helen Snyder worked at Horizon House (precinct 43-1782) in 2004 as a Republican poll judge. I have chosen her as an example because she claimed that she was a Republican, but PDC reports show that she donated thousands of dollars to Democrats and the DNC in 2004. In this case, Helen was the only "Republican" at her one-precinct polling place in the 2004 election cycle.
If people are willing to lie about their party affiliation, in order to be assigned as pollworkers, what else might they be willing to do? Helen was not assigned to work this year by the GOP. However, if she were to call up the Elections office, and ask to work as a Republican, REALS might boot out her Republican replacement (a legitimate Republican named Erik Tomren) and reassign him to another polling place, since Erik resides in a neighboring precinct, while Helen lives in 43-1782.
If this hypothetical scenario were to occur, it would leave us with the same predicament as before: no legitimate Republican poll judge at Horizon House.This could happen throughout King County, as in 2004.
Despite our best efforts, most Seattle polling places are
shortstaffed--for example, Stefan is the only Republican assigned to the Seattle Central Community College polling place, which has eight precincts. If Stefan were to call in sick, or if he were reassigned to his home polling place, someone other than a Republican in REALS would decide who fills that vacancy.This change is yet another indication that Ron Sims must be quite worried about his re-election chances, and Dean Logan must be worried about his job. They are willing to do whatever it takes to win.Meanwhile, we have a story in the Weekly that suggests that the Republicans might try to sabotage the upcoming primary! What an outrage.
Actually, I've already asked to be transferred from SCCC. I don't wish to be the only Republican at any polling place, especially after Ron Sims' goons smeared me in the press. Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at August 19, 2005 12:03 AM Email This
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