Gentry's Blog for Washington

Support Joe Szwaja for Seattle City Council, and I-25

2007-11-04T11:38:00.000-08:00

To everyone still making up their minds on Seattle City Council races, or some of the initiatives. Here's my quick cheat sheet.

Seattle City Council:

Position 1: Vote for Joe Szwaja, an amazing progressive, a personal friend, and someone who has taken exactly zero dollars from special interests. Jean Godden is a fool who is not qualified for dog catcher. She panders to special interests, takes money from the likes of Nucor Steel, and Martin Selig, and has run some of the sleaziest and most dishonest campaigns I've ever seen in Seattle. Her campaign manager, Carlo Davis, is a total creep as well. Vote for Joe!

Positon 3: Vote for Bruce Harrell. Venus Velasquez would have had my vote until getting that DUI, and subsequently pleading not guilty when she blew a .115 while driving 50 through Ballard. Her insistence that she only had two glasses of wine is a joke. Show Venus the door.

Position 9: Vote for Sally Clark. Judy Fenton is a nutjob who thinks naked statues of fathers and sons are going to confuse children. She's a nice enough nutjob, but Sally Clark is wayyyyyy more qualified.

____________________

Ok now on to initiatives.

EHJR 4204, Vote Yes. The world is run by people that show up, let's let the schools win election levies with a simple majority. Everyone should support this bill.

Initiative 960, Vote No. Tim Eyman should not be encouraged.

Referendum 67, Vote Hell Yes! Insurance companies will be forced to cover claims, because this referendum triples their losses if they don't cover legit claims. Watch Sicko if you need to have a crash course in why this needs to happen.

Senate Joint Resolution 8212
Vote No! Prison Labor was outlawed long ago for many, many reasons. For profit corporate prisons are bad enough, prison labor hired out to private companies will make things much, much worse. How this comes out of a Democratically controlled Senate is basically an incrimination of Washington State's Democrats.

King County Initiative 25 provides for an Elected Director of Elections for King County. Vote Yes as many times as you can... which is pretty easy in King County! Know anyone not voting, just ask them to sign their ballot and hand it over. Make it a contest to see just how many times you can vote for this initiative. I would guess if you tried hard, you could probably vote 20 times between now and Tuesday. (I kid of course, just because they've made it ridiculously easy to vote multiple times should not be a reason to break the law)

Anyway, on everything else you are going to have to make up your own mind.

Summary of SEEC Violations Complaint Against Jean Godden

2007-10-27T13:02:00.000-07:00

DAVID M. COONS
Seattle WA 98103

To whom it may concern:

On October 12th, 2007 a complaint was filed with the Seattle Ethics and Election Commission against council member Jean Godden. The complaint describes how Jean Godden has violated election law by using her city calendar and city staff to coordinate her campaign. The Ethics and Elections Executive Director , quickly moved to dismiss the complaint based on a letter he crafted in early 2005. The complainant immediately moved for an appeal. By law an appeal stays any opinion and subsequent dismissal until review by the full commission.

The appeal contends that city staff exceeded the scope of the 2005 letter by repeatedly arranging specific details relating to the campaign including fundraising and scheduling events. This is a serious election violation.

According to legal council sought by the complainant this appeal will hold up in a court of law. Further, the 2005 letter of opinion sent out to all elected officials may in itself be unlawful.

The Seattle Times erroneously reported the matter dismissed when in fact it is under appeal even though they were provided the necessary information to get the reporting correct.

Is Jean Godden Breaking the Law in Her Bid for Seattle City Council?

2007-10-26T14:11:00.000-07:00

This election season has been a real roller coaster. From Tim Burgess and David Della fighting it out in the papers, to Venus Velasquez and Jane Hague having their personal driving records smeared all over the news, we've seen more than a few headlines about people's personal lives crop up almost weekly. Even Richard McIver is in on the action, er... so to speak.

Personally, I think that people's personal lives are mostly their own business. Because to me it's what a person does in his or her professional life that really counts, especially when they are seeking political office. Now of course, driving under the influence when you are leaving a campaign event or while on the campaign trail clearly blurs the lines. And not taking clear accountability for one's actions also speaks volumes. But to me what one does in office is of paramount importance.

And just what has Jean Godden been doing in office? Well clearly her own calendar shows that she's been violating the law.

Over at The Paper Noose Blog, they've posted quite an interesting series of articles on Jean Godden's questionable ethics. But as the author points out, it is really up to the people of Seattle to decide whether or not Jean's ethics are "Black and White" as she has claimed in campaign fliers in the past.

So to that end I've obtained a copy of the complaint and scanned it for your perusal here:

Jean's Calendar Part 1
Jean's Calendar Part 2
Jean's Calendar Part 3

And since those are kinda lengthy reads, I'll post quick highlights of events and coordinating activities that appear on her Official City Calendar below. Pay particular attention to February 7th where she actually blows off a city council finance and budget meeting to attend a campaign event, as well as the amount of coordination that appears between her and Carlo Davis her campaign manager, to the point of even posting his cell number. Also, just what official city purpose could there possibly be for keeping track of where Cathy Allen is? I mean really...

1/23 Mckenna (fundraiser) knows you may be a few minutes late

1/25 Oyster shuck and baby kissing

2/1 Marty Yellam will attend this event-per campaign

2/7 McIvars office and Drago’s office have been notified that jean is unable to attend budget meeting

2/8 Mckenna ill(fundraiser)

2/16 Thank donor

2/16 Cathy Allen leaving for Lummi

2/22 need to make up four hours with Mckenna-(fundraiser) fundraising calls

2/24 Gian Carlo (campaign manager) will meet you at amandas, and I told him to bring cards

2/24 Nickels BBQ-per campaign-they have envelope to make donation

2/26 Rosanne is contact person-per campaign

2/27 Mckenna(fundraiser) will meet you on the 61st floor of the Columbia tower

2/27 Talk to Carlo(campaign manager) about evening events-Marianas? RVD?
Talk to Mckenna(fundraiser) about april(staffer)

2/28 Gian carlo (campaign manager) will accompany you. I made donation of $40 on their website (campaign event coordinated by scheduler)

3/7 Cathys place (political advisor)

3/13 Amanda says it only takes half an hour(Amanda is hair dresser)

3/15 Call Mckenna (fundraiser) to cancel march 22nd if appropriate

3/29 Schedule with Amanda (hair dresser)for april 4th a.m.

4/3 It’s an hour and a half only Mckenna

4/9 six and a half hour behind on phone calling (Fundraising)

4/10 Carlo (campaign manager)is not going

4/16 8 1/2 hours behind with calling (Fundraising)

4/16 Mckenna gone this week Colby will call with Jean (Colby underwood is
Mckenna hartmens boss)

4/18 Amandas as early as you can (hair dresser)

4/19 with Colby

4/23 Phone bank

4/25 Campaign event
Carlo Davis 206-383-XXXX cell [CELL NUMBER REMOVED BY GENTRY]
Mckenna says its 5:30-7:30 at the palace ballroom

5/3 Carlo will come at 9:30 (a.m.)and drive
11:15 a.m. COPE interview-if possible they would like the questionnaire back ahead of time-they are going to email it (campaign event coordinated by scheduler)

5/4 only 6 1/2 hours behind in calling time ,cancelled april 12th (fundraising)

5/11 Carlos RSVP’d

5/12 Carlos gone through may21st

5/14 contact carlo

5/17 Candidates forum- notes: contact gary poulet
Format: all city council,port and school board considered. 2min statement followed by Q and A with brief answers of yes or no answers. (godden staff took this call for the campaign)

5/21 36th dist dems endorsment meeting- notes; format 2min opening comments followed by Q and A for 25 min. (godden staff took this call for the campaign)

5/22 Carlo will drive/Carlo has returned

5/30 Campaign event- notes; opening statement, two questions, closing statement,rapid fire rounds

5/30 more details to come from carlo

6/2 Carlo will be there

6/6 WCV Interview-note Questionnaire submitted

6/7 RHA PAC Interview-Note; fill out,e-mail back questionnaire

6/7 Tell carlo if Jean goes to bike thing

6/11 SEA WILL CONTACT THE OFFICE WITH A TIME FOR JEAN TO BE THERE
(godden staff took this call for the campaign)

6/20 each candidate will have about two minutes to speak and the time to answer questions

6/26 speak and be considered for endorsement

7/12 Carlo will appear

7/13 Carlo will meet you there
Cathy will meet you at your house and you will drive together to lummi

7/18 pick up carlo at 5:50 at usual parking space

7/31 Carlo will come to office
endorsement interview-questionnaire already filled out- friends of seattle contact person sean sean@sean howell .com 206-372-5979

8/1 Jean Godden fundraiser-NOTES; PICK UP CARLO AT LITTLE PARKING SPOT THOMAS HAS 25 RSVPS EXPECTS 20 TO 30 PEOPLE. TOMIO WILL DO A QUICK INTRO THEN ASK

8/10 festive bites, wine,entertainment carlos’s dad
rsvp’d yes (this is a campaign related event set up by staff)

8/15 campaign event- Notes; $25 suggested donation contact number:206-632-5100—carlo will contact, parking suggestions on invitation

8/16 carlos coming
campaign event-notes Contact Margret Irvine, Informal BBQ 2min speech

8/23 stop by with carlo

Now all of this information is public record, so it's not like Joe Szwaja's campaign had to go out and hire a private investigator to dig into Jean's background. In fact if you look at her calendar most of the entries appear with a notation that says "per campaign request". Um.... that's about as clear of a violation of the law as one could possibly ever hope to find. But hey, with Mr. Carlo "I post under multiple identies all from the same IP address" Davis running her campaign, I can't imagine what else they carelessly have been up to?

Jean Godden's Campaign Manager Carlo Davis Trolling Against Joe Szwaja

2007-10-24T21:37:00.000-07:00

Carlo Davis, the campaign manager for Jean Godden, has spent a significant amount of time trolling the blogs distorting the facts, and posting under a list of fake names. Until recently this was simply a suspicion that I had no way to actually confirm, but recently The Paper Noose Blog traced his IP address and Carlo Davis then admitted to at least one of his blog pseudonyms.

In the comment thread, The Paper Noose writes:

Why is it that Godden supporters don't sign their posts with their real names, while Szwaja supporters do? Please don't avoid the question. The fact that the Godden campaign seems to spend a lot of time trolling on blogs speaks volumes to the fact that the campaign is deathly afraid of where some actual information about your candidate will come out; because sure as hell, the PI or Times aren't going to do it.

Why indeed? One of the most frequent commentators in the blogs has been a poster calling themselves "Xiu Xiu". The Paper Noose:

"CD" in the thread above, is posting from the same (obscure independent) ISP server, and the same IP number as the numerous posts on past Szwaja posts (labeled "xiu xiu"). It is also the same obscure ISP that hosts the Connections Group website, headed up by Cathy Allen.

Of course Carlo Davis then denies that he could possibly be Xiu Xiu, however, from the type of posts Xiu Xiu makes consistently, it's not a far stretch to assume that they are one and the same, especially when the IP address is the same.

Carlo Davis, posting under the name landsfarthereast, has a lengthy track record of distorting the truth on wikipedia as well. So much so that he was eventually banned from further edits, as he pushed Joe Szwaja to the level of wikirage.

His livejournal account confirms this identity as "landsfarthereast" at http://psshutthefuckup.livejournal.com/profile, where he also lists his name as "CD"... the same as the name he posts under at The Paper Noose. The AIM name listed: Landsfarthereast, the same name he posts under on Wikipedia. This IP address is linked to a defunct Bellingham IP address. Carlo used to go to school in Bellingham and has that location listed on his livejournal. So it's fairly clear who CD and Landsfarthereast is.... Carlo Davis, Jean Godden's campaign manager.

Now, I don't know about you, but I find the name "PS Shut the Fuck Up" to be quite charming.

Carlo Davis listed as Godden campaign manager: http://www.jeangodden.com/contact.php

List of all of his edits on wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Contributions/Landsfarthereast

The discussion page on Joe Szwaja's wikipedia page highlights many of the attempts by the Godden campaign to distort the facts.

Carlo on the Seattle PI sound off uses the Landsfarthereast name and calls Joe, "joe "i put women in the hospital" szwaja": http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/soundoff/comment.asp?articleID=328576

If Jean Godden's campaign manager is spending all this time on wikipedia, and other blogs, using fake names, why is it such a stretch to consider that Xiu Xiu is also Carlo Davis?

In fact, Goldy over at Horsesass.org has stated that the Godden campaign shopped the DV story to several news outlets before it finally came out in the PI. Goldy states:

Just to back up Geov here on his explanation of the process, the story on Szwaja was fed to me a few days ago, so it was clearly being pushed to reporters and bloggers. Though I was a bit surprised to see it appear so quickly in the P-I.

And the Seattle PI states that the Godden campaign was handing out the article on Joe at events: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/327973_godden17.html

So from lies and factual distortions, to handing out stories that they've spoon fed to their media friends, Jean Godden's campaign manager has clearly been trolling the blogs, wikipedia, and regular media with negative campaigning against Joe Szwaja. Rather than running on issues, or Jean's track record, Carlo Davis believes that destroying the opponent is his job. Obviously Jean Godden agrees.

Seattle deserves better than Jean Godden and Carlo Davis. Vote for Joe Szwaja for Seattle City Council Position 1.

Impeachment

2007-01-16T13:22:00.000-08:00

In a previous post I discussed Impeachment. Now I'm no fan of George Bush, and I'd love to see him impeached. But pragmatically speaking unless 10 or more Republicans get behind the idea, the Democrats simply don't have the votes. So if you support impeachment, I say the only way to go is to start harrassing Republicans in the House and Senate. Because until there's some swing votes in play, the Democrats are not going to play ball.

There are examples in my mind of Conservatives who may be able to still hear the ringing warning of Dwight Eisenhower. There's people like Chalmers Johnson, who were hard core cold warriors who expected more of a "peace dividend" when the Berlin Wall came down, and now spend their time exposing the facts. The problem is identifying those lonely voices. So my question then is which Republicans are going to figure out that tying their political futures to George Bush is no longer a wise move? But to get a couple swing state Republicans to understand this is going to require their constituents to lobby them, to put pressure where pressure is needed.

My question is not one about which Democrats are needed. Because that is obvious, it's gotta be ALL the Democrats, but even ALL of the Democrats still get us nowhere on Impeachment.
So which Republicans, if any, are in play?

Anyone who is currently calling for Maria Cantwell, or any other Democrat, to support Impeachment care to tell me who those Republicans are? The crimes are obvious, the impeachable offenses, again... OBVIOUS. But the road map to impeachment leads to the Repbulicans doorstep, and this isn't the 60s and Bush is not Nixon. In Nixon's days there were far greater numbers of Eisenhower Republicans still around that gave a damn. Today I don't know who those Senators with an R in their title are, do you?

Blog Comments

2007-01-16T13:01:00.000-08:00

Apparently I had blog comments set to moderation approval before posting, and I haven't looked in on the blog lately. So I didn't notice Bruce Guthrie, or others who tried to post. Sorry about that... back during the campaign I checked in on this blog more often.

Several new blogs are eating up a lot of my time, mainly the site about the problems inherent in voting by mail systems:

No Vote By Mail
http:/www.novbm.com

But I will be keeping this blog alive over time as well. I plan on doing some new traffic media soon. But alas, everything in it's own time.

Federal Way School Board Bans Al Gore's Movie

2007-01-12T13:24:00.000-08:00

So, a quick heads up. Federal Way has banned "An Inconvenient Truth" the Al Gore, global warming movie.

I'm off to track down links, and send some emails. Seems like the Northwest blog community has missed this one so far. But I'm sure they won't for long.

The Washington State Midterm Election Wrap-up

2006-11-13T16:13:00.000-08:00

So as a Green, I was very pleased with the results in the northwest.

Many of you may think that the Greens took a pounding in this election in Washington State, however, I am not of this opinion. This was the first state-wide race for the Green Party, and the Aaron Dixon Campaign ran a statewide race. I am proud of the Greens and the Aaron Dixon Campaign for going boldy where no Washington State Green campaign has gone before. Only a statewide party since 2000, a statewide race was a big undertaking, but it was done well.

From my perspective, Aaron Dixon proved he was the right man for the job. He stood up in public and spoke the truth as he sees it. One may not agree with everything that Mr. Dixon said or did during the race, but that's inevitable in any campaign. The important thing in any Green campaign is to stick it out until the end. Because if you are not willing to stand up for your beliefs in the face of overwhelming negative attacks as a spoiler, on your person, your past, your family, your character, and your motivations, don't even think about running as a Green.

But Aaron Dixon took the inevitable personal attacks in stride, and even when Mark Wilson took the money and dropped out before the primaries, Aaron stood firm.

Aaron also bridged a gap that has existed in the northwest progressive community for a long time, and brought together different groups in a way that rarely happens. What grows from this is yet to be seen. But one thing is certain, as we grow the Green Party in Washington State we will need more candidates like Aaron Dixon. Candidates who when facing a system with the odds firmly stacked against them, are willing to get into the ring and fight until the last bell rings.

The Dixon campaign made national news several times, from the announcement of his candidacy to the day of the protest and arrest, the former Panther never once backed down. And the Green Party of Washington State held firm as well. We stood by the campaign attack after attack. So while every campaign has a rough road to walk, in the end I am personally proud of the Party and the Dixon Campaign.

Last Tuesday marked the end of the beginning for the Green Party of Washington State. We've run races from the local to the state level, and even won some along the way. We've planted the seeds of the party from Spokane to Tacoma. We are the fastest growing political party around, and though the winds may blow from Democrat to Republican year after year, the Green Party continues to grow in the face of overwhelming odds and negative attack. But as we stand firm, the campaigns we run and lose today will become the seeds of the campaigns that we will run and win in the years to come.

On this note, it's important to mention that IRV passed in Pierce county. This is a big win for the people of Pierce County. I hope everyone who supports IRV and who worked hard to pass this initiative gets all the help they need moving forward towards implementation.

Ok now, the 2006 election season is over. Congratulations to everyone who worked hard this year. There's more work to be done. Be sure to check out what the Green's up in San Juan County are doing, they are fighting the County over bar codes on the Ballots. Made by the local company VoteHere, this group has ties to the CIA, most notably the new Donald Rumsfeld replacement, Robert Gates.

The Green Party San Juan County Link
Island Guardian

The Black Box Story on Robert Gates:
Blackbox Report

More about VoteHere:
Free Press Report

As always... there's more work to be done.

Lame Duck - Quack Quack

2006-11-08T18:27:00.001-08:00

Wow, that was quite an election. The Bush Administration is on the rails, and the Democrats are dancing in the streets.

Me, I'm quietly hopeful. Hopeful that Nancy Pelosi, the most powerful women ever elected in this country, will open up some serious investigations into the Bush administration's corruption and cruelties. If the Democrats are smart, they'll bide their time exposing the Bush Administration's myriad crimes, and instead of impeaching the bastard, they'll leave him there, a lame duck, for all to see. But to pull it off, they'll have to start governing again. Figure out a plan on Iraq, and get working undoing the damage done by this drunken frat boy at the helm for the past 6 years.

And that's where I am quietly hopeful. Maybe, just maybe, the Democrats can walk the tightrope they must. And instead of wasting their time trying to impeach W with a razor thin majority in the Senate, they will instead expose this President for what he is, a corporate good old boy and the most corrupt President this country has ever seen.

The Democrats, firmly in control of the House, should work now until 2008, simply and methodically exposing the facts. The facts about Katrina, the facts about Iraq, the facts about Enron, the facts about Global Warming. They could figure out a plan for the country and lead us out of this nightmare that has been the Bush Presidency, by simply exposing the truth. Billions for war, trillions in Debt. The largest federal government ever seen. Billions and billions lost in Iraq, billions lost by his buddies at Enron, and billions lost on all the other corruption tied to these crooks.

Congratulations to to the Democrats. Thanks for winning and not screwing up too badly. Don't let John Kerry tell any more jokes. Now if you can get us out of Iraq, and win the 2008 election you'll have the hat trick. Nothing will erase the memory of your votes as a party for the war, for the Patriot Act, for Nafta and Cafta and all the rest, but still, this was a victory over the Bush Administration. The enemy of my enemy is sometimes my friend.

The Democrats either engineered their best election in decades yesterday, or rode the wave of anger towards Bush to victory. Either way, Bush is lame duck. And I'll drink to that!

Now hopefully the new Democratically controlled House and possibly Senate will get busy and prove my skepticism about the Democratic Party wrong.

King County's Optical Scan Machines Part of New HBO Documentary

2006-11-03T16:57:00.000-08:00

For all those Ron Sims synchophants out there, and specfically to Goldie, over at Horsesass.org, I would like to point out the key element in the new "Hacking Democracy" film that just debuted on HBO, is very well summarized by Brad Blog:

Finnish computer security expert Harri Hursti discovered that Diebold stored an executable program on the same removable memory card used to store the tabulated votes on each Diebold voting machine. "If someone had told me there was a modifiable, executable program in the same place where the most secured data was stored, I'd say you'd have to be misunderstanding something, crazy or lying," Hursti declares.
The attempted Hursti hack, as allowed by Sancho, moves forward throughout the film. By the time it was completed (in pitifully short order), the e-voting world would be turned on its head. Hursti succeeding in exposing that both optical-scan systems and touch-screen voting systems manufactured by Diebold -- and apparently tested by no one -- could be hacked, an election result completely flipped, and no trace would be left behind. All that was needed was a $100 memory card reader bought off the Internet and about 60 seconds of access to the machine's memory card. RadioShack or Best Buy has all the necessary tools, in fact.

To repeat: It's not just Diebold's DREs that can be hacked. The Hursti hack targeted the memory card. Not only DREs but optical-scan units can record their information to memory cards. In either case, they're vulnerable. The ability to have an election flipped, and to do so with a small number of people involved, was no longer a "theory."

Yep, as I've said all along. King County's Opt Scan's with central tabulators are no better than Touch Screens.... Ron Sims bought into both.

About That Spoiler Myth

2006-10-22T10:14:00.000-07:00

From the PI:

Veteran Seattle Democratic political consultant Blair Butterworth said most votes for third-party candidates "aren't being taken from anybody (else). They're being taken from the I-don't-vote-for-anybody file. They're non-participants." But he said especially in Eastern Washington, Libertarians probably take more votes from Republicans than Democrats.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/

Greg Palast Reports on Absentee

2006-10-20T11:11:00.000-07:00

From Greg Palasts new article:

"-Absentee Ballots Uncounted. The number of absentee ballots has quintupled in many states, with the number rejected on picayune technical grounds rising to over half a million (526,420) in 2004. In swing states, absentee ballot shredding was pandemic. "

Now I don't know yet where he got his numbers from, but it certainly is an interesting read. And published right here in the Northwest.

http://www.yesmagazine.org/article.asp?id=1511

Forcing Your Way In The Door

2006-10-19T15:27:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I received a phone call from a reporter at Western Washington University. He was working on a story about third party campaigns, and asked me a particularly poignant question, “What's the biggest hurdle standing in the way of third party candidates?”

My response, “Exclusion.”

It was an apropos question because at the time I was downtown with the Green Party Candidate for Senate, Aaron Dixon, and his supporters, protesting King 5 TV's exclusion of Mr. Dixon from the one and only televised Senatorial debate. Aaron Dixon was excluded from the debates because as King TV's President summarized:

“We invited all the Senate candidates to participate in the debate under the condition that they met any one of a number of criteria to establish their viability. These criteria were based on the guidelines established by the Debate Advisory Standards Project. It is unfortunate that Mr. Dixon did not meet any of those criteria. It is also unfortunate that he refused to leave the premises when asked to do so."

These are the same standards King 5 pointed to when they excluded my campaign for King County Executive from last year's televised debates. These standards basically consist of an eight point list of criteria that a candidate must meet in order to be included in debates. I'm not going to belabor the entire list of rules, as you can read them for yourself online, here:

The Debate Project Report

But I will highlight this particular section of Debate Project's report:

"It is fair and reasonable that inclusion criteria during the pre-election period may be more difficult to meet than during the out-period. If a nonmajor or third-party candidate who is given an opportunity to participate in public debates during the out-period does not earn significant public support going into the final 30 days of an election campaign, debate sponsoring organizations that wish to limit participation have an acceptable rationale to tighten the inclusion criteria.

1.Out-period test. The test for including a candidate during the out-period should be seriousness of purpose. All candidates who have a serious purpose should be included in debates. Candidates who do not have a serious purpose include "joke" candidates; candidates who do not campaign in a meaningful way; and candidates who admit that their candidacies have only symbolic or trivial intentions. It is important that nonmajor and third-party candidates who begin their candidacies with little public support or name recognition are nonetheless equitably provided reasonable opportunities to present their credentials and their positions on the issues during the early stages of an election campaign.

2. Pre-election period test. The test for including a candidate during this period should be twofold: seriousness of purpose plus demonstration of significant public support. All candidates who demonstrate seriousness of purpose and significant support going into the final 30 days of an election should be included in debates."

These rules then state that in the “out-period,” 30 days or more before the election, polls should be conducted to see if candidates are viable. If a candidate polls at 5% or more during the “out-period,” he or she is to be included in any debates among candidates for that office.

But most pollsters freely admit they don't typically poll on 3rd party candidates. So this rule is simply ignored and these news organizations conduct biased polls from the outset. A fact recently pointed out by a local Washington newspaper, The Herald:

“Polling shows Cantwell leading McGavick by 8 to 10 points. These polls usually exclude the three other candidates: Bruce Guthrie, a Libertarian, Aaron Dixon, a Green, and Robin Adair, an Independent. None are invited to today's event.”

The Herald Story

The typical poll in the out-period that is actually conducted asks if you are going to vote for the front-runner Republican or the front-runner Democrat. At best they include Democrat and Republican primary candidates. They rarely, if ever, poll on 3rd party candidates.

Most of the polls in the 2005 race for King County Executive, a race in which there were only three candidates, asked only about the Democratic or Republican candidate, and if 5% actually responded with “Gentry Lange” it must have been recorded as “other” or even less honestly as “undecided.” I only know this because at least five of my own supporters were polled and told me about their experiences. Two reported being presented the “Democrat, Republican, or other” options, and two others reported being given only the “Republican” or “Democrat” choice. Only one person who reported back to me said that my name was specifically offered as an option during the poll, 1 poll out of 5, and even that amount of direct inclusion in a poll is highly unusual for a 3rd party candidate.

So in a race in which there were only 3 candidates, the third candidate was excluded the vast majority of the time. Ralph Nader calls this the “No chance to have a chance” phenomenon.

The standards cited by King 5, say the same thing as Ralph Nader. All candidates for office must be included in events during the “out-period.” This includes community forums, radio interviews, and any and all debates. Otherwise the excluded candidate will not have been provided a fair playing field from which to compete with the other candidates in the race. So due to the media's continued use of polling that excludes third party candidates during the out-period, according to their own rules these debate sponsoring organizations do not have an any, “acceptable rationale to tighten the inclusion criteria” during the in-period.

Interestingly, in the 2005 race for King County Executive, there was an initial poll conducted during the out period that found I was polling at 5%. But this was an internal poll in one of the other campaigns, that was shown to me, but never provided to the media. I think it's safe to say that since I got almost 5% of the vote during the general election, that it was a fairly accurate poll, and therefore never saw the light of day. So even though most of the polls excluded me, by the rules King 5 purports to play by, they should have included me in any debate or discussion with my Democratic and Republican opponents during the initial out-period.

So King 5 was actually breaking two of their own rules:

1. They never conducted a poll during the out-period that included “Gentry Lange” as an option.
2. King 5 television never allowed me to participate in a single media event, debate or discussion during the out-period.

Nor did any other major news organization bother to include my campaign, that is until I learned how to force my way in the door. A tactic effectively employed by Aaron Dixon yesterday at the front door of King 5 studios. And until media outlets, and all the other debate sponsoring organizations start playing by their own rules, it is one of the few tactics that forces the issue of exclusion onto the front page and into the lead story on television.

It wasn't until the in-period that I was even interviewed by Robert Mak, the political news reporter for King 5 News, for a 3 minute segment in which the edited segment badly summarized my political views for half of the interview. And the best explanation I have for this minor coverage they gave the campaign is that I was polling at 7 % in the final weeks of October and threatening to upset the race. In short, I became newsworthy. But from June to October, a period in which numerous polls were conducted featuring my opponents, the only other poll to include me that I ever saw would come out on October 17th, when the race was nearly over.

Survey USA Poll

By excluding me in the out-period against the rules they feign to play by, King 5 as well as several other news outlets, affectively colluded to limit my chances to gain traction in the out-period by excluding me from television coverage. After all, in politics nothing is as important as free time on television.

In the end, after battling tooth and nail for every column inch in the media, the same media coverage that is handed on a silver platter to the “chosen two” major party candidates, I still ended up getting over 24,000 votes in the general election. A number greater than most statewide 3rd party candidates ever receive, and almost the same percentage of votes that Ralph Nader got in 2000, the year he received the most votes he ever received in King County. So by their own rules it was obvious that my campaign was “serious.”

It should be equally obvious that Aaron Dixon is a candidate with serious intent, and does not fall into the Mike “The Mover” category. But with the exclusion of Aaron Dixon from the debates, the question that is remaining is this, “Why is any legally qualified candidate allowed to be excluded from the debate?” And why is it that this Debate Advisory Standards Project gets to choose the criteria of inclusion or exclusion in these debates?

The Debate Advisory Standards Project is funded by the PEW Charitable Trusts. I don't know much about the PEW Charitable Trusts, but I do know this, they were never elected to decide who is or is not a viable candidate. And most polls show an overwhelming number of Americans would prefer more candidates included in political debates, not less.

Furthermore, if King 5 is going to act as if they are following the rules outlined by the PEW Charitable Trusts, then they should at least follow these rules. Any polls conducted during the out-period should include all candidates in the race, and serious effort should be extended to make the system as fair as possible. In fact, as I read and re-read the PEW's rules on debate exclusion, it occurs to me that if King 5 and the other major media organizations actually followed the rules they purport to play by, the debates would be far more inclusive then they are today. Instead, King 5 simply hides behind the rules they like when challenged, while ignoring the rules and recommendations they dislike.

In the end, the fact that Bruce Guthrie was smart enough and wealthy enough to play by these rules, though heavily weighted against him, and force his way into the debates, was little more than a fluke. Guthrie, in a stroke of pure political genius, bought his way into the televised debate, and in the end doesn't even have to spend the money.

It will be interesting to see the final numbers from this race come November, because prior to the TV debates Guthrie was polling at just barely 1%. Televised debates have launched third party candidates to victory before, most notably Jesse Ventura who was polling under 10% until his televised debate appearance. Mr. Ventura then went on to win the Governor's race in Minnesota.

But I'm not predicting Guthrie will win. No, his inclusion in the debates was a fluke, because up until air time, it wasn't even certain that Bruce Guthrie would be allowed to debate, regardless of the rules he had figured out to play by. And he obviously didn't hit a home run... but he did get his point across, and it's likely he'll pick up a few percentage points along the way. Thanks to a spot at the podium. In fact, if he gains 5% the Libertarians will win big on this gamble, because they will become an official “major” party in Washington State once again, and many of the barriers to inclusion will be eliminated with the achievement of major party status.

While we may not be able to bring back the Fairness Doctrine, killed by President Reagan, the next coarse of action should certainly be to sue King 5 for unregulated campaign contributions. Because free air time is the equivalent of giving away millions in paid advertising to these campaigns. The final vote totals that Bruce Guthrie receives will offer a glimpse of the increase in votes a television appearance can give to 3rd party candidates. But until networks like King 5 are confronted, harassed and sued repeatedly for what should be prosecuted as illegal campaign contributions, they will continue to silence dissent and exclude the voices that they alone decide should not be heard on the public airwaves. Regardless of the rules they choose for themselves, this is not Democracy, hell it's not even a fair way to run debates in a Republic.

What it is, is unacceptable. So regardless of your political persuasion I urge you to contact King 5 news, the Seattle Times, Mike McGavick's Campaign, and Maria Cantwell's office, to register your disgust with this type of blatant electioneering. And if you are a lawyer, feel free to give me a call.

Regards,
Gentry Lange
Former Green Party Candidate for King County Executive

Sam Reed Promotes Vote By Mail as the Solution to Problematic Voting Machines

2006-10-15T11:12:00.000-07:00

Doing a little research over the weekend on Vote By Mail, I came across the pro-VBM website, called "The Vote By Mail Project".

Now, this website is interesting, it makes itself look like a homegrown Oregon based grassroots type organization. A bunch of voters in Oregon just got together and decided to support Vote-By Mail. Why just look at what their website copy says:

"The Vote By Mail Project was launched in 2005 by a group of people in Oregon who looked around the country in 2000 and 2004 and realized just how well our Vote By Mail system works. No lines, no touch screen voting machines, no intimidation or voter suppression at the polls, a guaranteed paper trail, the nation’s highest turnout (87% in ’04) plenty of time for individual voters to make informed voting decisions, more convenient for working people and families with children, and voters love it."

"Across the country, an increasing number of cities, counties and states are making it easier for citizens to vote without standing in long lines or using potentially flawed electronic voting equipment. Whether by allowing no-excuse absentee balloting, enabling voters to permanently choose absentee balloting, or adopting vote by mail, election officials, particularly those in the West, are embracing this trend."

http://www.votebymailproject.org/

Long lines, polling place intimidation and potentially flawed electronic voting equipment got you down, well we've got the answer.... Vote By Mail. Gosh we won't even need to train poll workers anymore.

So obviously, I want to know more about this organization, so I click around and find the advisers page....

The Advisers Page

Oddly the second name on the list Sam Reed is Washington's very own Secretary of State, Sam Reed.

I'm shocked. Isn't this the same Sam Reed that went around the state touting Electronic Voting Machines to kids in highschools?

"We hope hands-on experience with touch screen machines will motivate students to get involved and actually prepare them to vote," said Reed. "Traditionally, young voters have not been represented well at the polls. They deserve a say in their future and they ought to exercise their rights to get it."

Yep it's still on the Washington State's SOS website

So now which is it, are the voting machines faulty? Or are they the best thing since sliced bread? I hope someone besides me decides to ask Sam Reed this question.

And to everyone who thinks Touch Screen Voting Machines are the problem, why is it that the same people who bought the Touch Screens are now trying to sell you the cure?

This is pretty amazing to me considering Sam Reed is the President of NASS, the National Association of the Secretaries of State. Sam Reed is supporting a group that's attacking voting machines as faulty while simultaneously promoting the adoption of touch screen voting machine statewide and nationally.

Hawaii Reports of Union Review of Absentee

2006-10-15T10:59:00.000-07:00

This comes from the, "I told you so" file:
______________________________________________

"There were complaints in 1998 and 2000 by union employees reported to the Hawaii Republican and Democratic Parties, Lagareta says, that union employees were being forced to vote by absentee ballot at work, submitting the ballot to a supervisor for review before being returned to the county clerk for tally."

http://tinyurl.com/y6ngg2

Let Aaron Dixon Debate!!!!!!

2006-10-03T11:13:00.001-07:00

Here's part of an email from Mike Gillis, of the Aaron Dixon for Senate Campaign:

_____________________________________________________

Everyone,

I don't know if you've heard, but Libertarian candidate, Bruce Guthrie has
given his campaign for U.S. Senate $1.2 million of his own money. And
because of that donation, he will be allowed in the U.S. Senate debates on
KING-5, because large sums of money is a crtieria of the debate.

Even though Guthrie isn't polling as well as Green Party nominee Aaron Dixon
(3% in the last poll to Guthrie's 1%) and that Aaron has RAISED more money
than Guthrie (Aaron raised over $50,000 to Guthrie's $33,000), it is
disgusting and hypocritical that he be allowed to debate and Aaron is
barred.

AARON DIXON CLEARLY HAS MORE SUPPORT THAN BRUCE GUTHRIE, HE SHOULD BE
ALLOWED TO DEBATE!

-- The criteria for this debate is unfair to third parties and
non-millionaires. The money criteria is stated to be a judge of popular
support, but all of Guthrie's money is self-donated. Aaron Dixon has RAISED
more money than Guthrie has ($50,000 all from individual donors, while
Guthrie has raised $33,000 and written himself a big check)

-- Aaron Dixon currently polls THREE TIMES AS WELL as Bruce Guthrie does.
From a September 27th SurveyUSA poll, Aaron Dixon is at 3%, Bruce Guthrie is
at 1%

-- Aaron has consistently gotten more media coverage than Guthrie, who never
got an article in a mainstream media source until he gave himself a million
dollars.

Mike Gillis
Press Secretary,
Aaron Dixon for U.S. Senate
www.dixon4senate.com

___________________________________________________________________________

WHAT I NEED YOU TO DO:

IMMEDIATELY CALL THE TWO FOLLOWING PEOPLE AND LET THEM KNOW THAT AARON
DESERVES TO DEBATE!

Pat Costello, Executive News Director, KING 5 News: (206) 448-4516
David Boardman, Executive Editor, the Seattle Times: (206) 464-2205

Broken Computer, New Computer

2006-10-03T11:08:00.000-07:00

So I accidentally destroyed my laptop. And after a couple months in between, shuffling files from portable drive to external, then onto a new laptop, I think it's time I started blogging again.

More to come...

What's that Smell?

2006-07-05T17:32:00.000-07:00

While I live in Shoreline, I keep an apartment in the Eastlake district, and last night, after the fireworks display, apparently the Pier at 1801 Fairview Ave East caught on fire. Now I'm no big fan of what I like to call drunks with explosives day, and yesterday's fire was a pretty good indication of why celebrating freedom by getting drunk and illegally setting off fireworks is a very bad idea. How is getting drunk and blowing things up an appropriate celebration for Independence Day?

Now my neighborhood smells toxic, and I woke up with a pretty bad headache, a probably result of the fumes aggravating the sinus infection I am fighting. And while the fire department won't say it yet, I am pretty darn sure that drunks with explosives day was the cause.

Happy Fourth of July everyone! Hopefully you survived and kept all your fingers! National health statistics report almost 9,000 emergency room visits for injuries due to fireworks in 2002... mostly kids!

Health Care IS Emergency Preperation

2006-07-05T17:20:00.000-07:00

Recently I came down with a sinus infection. Actually, it wasn't that recently, it has actually been months. But I until recently I didn't have health insurance or a regular doctor, so I have developed a bad habit of ignoring my health problems to see if they'll just go away on their own. This one didn't, and by this morning, it was pretty bad (and kinda gross). So I went down to the Country Doctor Health Clinic on Capitol Hill, and luckily they got me in quick and prescribed a bottle of antibiotics.

On the campaign trail for County Executive last year, I was asked quite frequently about things like pandemic flu, SARS, and other infectious diseases that could be considered security risks to the region. Now I have to admit that Eric Holdeman, director of the King County Office of Emergency Management, is by all accounts doing a bang-up job on preparing the King County Region for possible disasters, but there's a deeper problem here. With so many uninsured Americans, if a flu pandemic were to arise, how many of the uninsured would do like me and wait days, weeks, perhaps months to see a doctor, or go to the emergency room? How many more people will be infected with some deadly disease because of this?

Countries with universal health care are far more prepared for pandemics than the US will ever be until we can figure out how to cover the uninsured. All the money pouring into disaster preparation in the post 911 word will do nothing to counter this problem. Universal Health care is about more than helping the poor, it's about security for the Nation.

The Brennan Center Report

2006-06-30T12:34:00.000-07:00

Another report confirms what voting activists have been saying all along. Check it out here (pdf summary).

It's called the Kathy Dopp Analyses The Brennan Center Report on Electronic Voting in the U.S. And it's a fairly detailed report. With the previous GAO report, and numberous books, and thousands of activists nationwide, we might just reach the tipping point yet. Here's a quick breakdown for those who don't want to read the full summary as a PDF.

The report recommends random audits, and several other procedures championed by voting activists for years. It also questions systems like Washington State's in which paper ballots exist, but are not routinely used for hand auditing. Machine recounts are not enough, apparently... something that should have been made clear by the hand recount in Washington of 2004.

Holy Illegal Prisons for Illegal Combatants Batman

2006-06-30T11:09:00.000-07:00

Apparently the Supreme Court just slapped the Bush Administration around on Guantanamo, and the Military Tribunal System installed to try prisoners there. The ruling is only suprising in that the Supreme Court has been quite the rubber stamp for abuses by the Bush Administration. From the start by installing Bush as President the Supreme Court has been slowly and steadily stripping away Civil Rights in favor of Big Government control. In fact, just recently the Court ruled that Police don't have to knock to enter your house anymore.

Call me a skeptic, but one decent ruling does nothing to quell my fears of a court that has been packed by Conservatives. However, with this ruling Congress is finally poised to have hearings regarding the issues raised by Guantanamo.

Caleb Schaber in Baghdad

2006-06-28T15:20:00.000-07:00

My friend, Caleb Schaber, who wrote for the UW Daily, and who ran against Greg Nickels, is back in Iraq. His most recent article appears here.

Caleb has pursued a more interesting life than most. Just google his name and you will find a soul that is further outside the mainstream than most gonzo journalists. As I was listening to a story by Mike Pesca on NPR's "All Thing's Considered" today about how some journalists are too chicken to cover Baghdad and news listeners are tiring of Iraq War News, I thought to myself what Caleb is doing in Afghanistan and Baghdad would make normal reporters pee themselves with fear, and his news and blog reports are far more interesting than mainstream media.

But without the AP behind his name, Caleb must fight his way into every assignment, and most the time he just creates his own. In fact he created his own newswire service, just to get the job done.

The Northern Nevada Newswire

Randomly Drafing Poll Workers

2006-06-27T09:15:00.000-07:00

Here's an interesting story from Mexico. Interesting, mostly, because it points out that in Mexico they simply draft 1 million people randomly to work the polls. Pretty much solves the problem of a lack of vote counters. And seems like a Patriotic thing to do. Kinda like the Jury System maybe.

"He said a comprehensive voting list, ballot papers that could not be falsified, an efficient counting system and the presence of 1 million people chosen at random to work at ballot booths would prevent vote fraud."

King County Needs a Team Bike Challenge

2006-06-26T12:34:00.000-07:00

June is the Second Anual Team Bike Challenge in Santa Barbara. In order to replace and expand the region's "Bike to Work"" day, this Santa Barbara group challenges infrequent bicycle riders to change their habits by competing for a month with other teams.

In these days of high oil prices, air pollution, and global warming concerns, wouldn't it be nice to see someone like Global Warming cheerleader, Greg Nickels, get on a bike and publicize a good way to lower weight, improve traffic, and decrease air pollution. Why not a King County Team Bike challenge, and we can start by challenging all the fat polticians to change their lifestyles first?

Just a thought...

New Roads or New Ideas to Improve Congestion?

2006-06-26T10:57:00.000-07:00

Germany works to solve their traffic problems through vision.

"The Ruhrpilot system constantly picks up electronic data on the traffic situation on motorways, federal highways, state highways and primary municipal roads and from 200 sensing points in urban centres such as Bochum, Dortmund, Essen and Gelsenkirchen. This traffic situation data is then analysed and integrated with data on other modes of transport, such as the railways and urban mass transit systems, reported from 11 towns, 4 boroughs and 13 transport operators, and thus provides the region with access to up-to-date traffic information and traffic forecasts.

Transport users can select a route which is optimal for their needs and decide how they wish to reach their destination - faster and safer than previously. This up-to-date information is already available on the internet and in future will also be disseminated by radio, newspapers, teletext, mobile telephones and motorway information displays."

Is Canada Moving Away From Hand Counts?

2006-06-24T15:29:00.000-07:00

This article suggests that Canada might be working to follow the United State's in foolishly changing their election systems. The all too familiar sounding approach combines Absentees and Private Computer companies making the "counting machines".

Vote By Mail Problem in NC, Poll Voting Fraud Doesn't Exist

2006-06-24T15:24:00.000-07:00

From North Carolina
Vote By Mail Problems

The Commission found that actual fraud on election day at the polls is almost non-existent. Where the system breaks down is absentee ballots. The Commission discovered that blank ballots mailed to wrong addresses or to large residential buildings were easily intercepted. Further, citizens who vote at home, at nursing homes, at the workplace, or in church are more susceptible to pressure and intimidation. Vote-buying schemes are far more difficult to detect when citizens vote by mail. The Commission therefore recommended that “state and local jurisdictions should prohibit a person from handling absentee ballots other than the voter, an acknowledged family member, the U.S. Postal Service or election officials. The practice in some states of allowing candidates or party workers to pick-up and deliver absentee ballots should be eliminated.”

How Sig Verification Works, and What's Coming

2006-06-23T20:52:00.000-07:00

A great Column in the Herald June 21st, 2006. It covers some of the key problems with signature verification, and the problems that are soon to encumber King County's election system.

Vote By Mail a Barrier to the Disabled?

2006-06-23T18:35:00.000-07:00

http://www.konp.com/local/2164

"The WA State Legislature found that vote by mail can create a barrier that restricts the ability of many voters with disabilities."

_____________________________

Clallam County, unless it bucks the state trend, will likely act like The Help America Vote Act, HAVA, requires touchscreens. HAVA, of course, does not require touchscreens, but it's a mantra repeated so frequently most people just assume it is true.

Well I won't hold my breath to find out.

1965 Voting Rights Act

2006-06-23T16:53:00.000-07:00

The fight over the re-enactment of the 1965 voting rights act is telling, much like when this Administration put Kissinger in charge of the 911 investigation. It shows the hand of those of both parties. And the partisan divide could not be clearer in this fight.

Democrats argue for "inclusive" voting procedures. Republicans argue for "exclusive" procedures. Democrats don't mind including a few extra felons here and there, or illegal voters of any stripe, because high turn-out generally favors Democrats, and Republicans would rather restrict the system to the fewest voters possible because low turn-out generally favors Republicans.

Much like in King County, the partisan divide only serves the corporate master's interest, and instead of reform we get more privatization, corporatization and corruption.

Real reform would look far different, and starts with:

1.VVPB, Voter-Verified Paper Ballots
2.An Elected Auditor
2.Run off elections when the margin of error exceeds the margin of victory
3.A renewed registration database, and clear registration procedures
4.Publicly owned open sourced software
5.Precinct Level Hand Audits of Optical Scan Ballots
6.Felony vote purge reform (cleaned up procedures for re-enfranchising the formerly incarcerated)
7.The restriction of Vote By Mail to those who truly need it
8.The retention of polling places
9.The eventual elimination of corporate controlled processes involved in elections
10.The prosecution of the companies that have so far been involved, and have lied to public officials, and seemingly participated in what seems like racketeering to this lonely activist.

But that's just where voting reform starts. I pledge to write a longer piece on what system we should adopt in King County over the next few weeks. But until we can start the conversation that addresses what system we want, all we can do is complain that the current system is broken. Fixing a broken system involves consensus building around the solution. It is no longer about pointing out the flaws. So from here I will continue to build my list of what “real voting reform” should look like.

Until then, here's a few articles on the Voting Rights Act debates in congress:

The ACLU's position press release

Article II
A great, longer piece on the problems with the Voting Rights Act from a left of center perspective

The Greg Palast analysis

Lone Star Article
A more right leaning perspective from The Lone Star Times.

England Vote Fraud By Mail

2006-06-22T10:30:00.000-07:00

From the Times Online

"OVER the next few days there will be probably the last chance this decade for Parliament to introduce stronger safeguards against voting fraud. At present, the opportunity looks as though it will be missed as the Electoral Administration Bill shuttles between the Commons and Lords before becoming law."

"The need for action has been underlined by the various scandals over postal and other vote frauds revealed in The Times. The Electoral Commission has for some time recommended changes to improve security."

________________________________

Interesting how vote fraud by mail is always in the news.

Kill the Messenger, Ignore the Message

2006-06-21T17:25:00.000-07:00

There are two articles that I wrote in college that a few in the blogosphere continually quote, and misquote, to try and attack my credibility. One was titled, “Chronic Problem Chronic Solution,” and one is titled, “Honesty is so Passe”. The first is an article I wrote, I believe, when I was 19, as a Sophomore about smoking marijuana for migraines. The second was an article I wrote upon graduating. One is satire, one is about medical marijuana, you can decide for yourself which is which.

I don't necessarily agree with my everything I wrote over 10 years ago when I was in college, but I have never hidden from these articles either. Yes, in my life I smoked pot for migraines, but today I wouldn't “thank” people involved in illegal drug trade, as I did in the article. It's a little too over-the-top for most people to find humorous, or to even see my point. However, I remain opposed to the drug war, and I continue to support medical marijuana. As for my satirical piece, Honesty is So Passe, I have typically relied on people to read it for themselves, because most people can easily comprehend my frustration concerning a liberal arts education, and the lack of job training college offers. Nowadays, at the age of 31 now, I believe I am a much different person than the college student who wrote these articles, but I admire the frank and outspoken person I was then, and still feel a passion to speak out about my beliefs.

The most interesting thing about these two articles, however, is that in the age of the Internet, the stupid stuff you wrote in college just might be around 10, 20, or 40 years later. And today, as an outspoken member of the public, it's even more interesting to me that there are people who track this stuff down in order to try and discredit the messenger. Obviously, this type of argument rarely fools anyone. Most people are more than capable of noticing when people attack the messenger and not the message.

Forced vote-by-mail schemes, Diebold Touchscreen machines, and the abject failure of King County Elections department have nothing to do with two articles I wrote in college.

But for those of you that are having problems with me, as a messenger, here's the articles:

Honesty Is So Passe

Chronic Problems, Chronic Solution

Feel free to post them far and wide. If your only weapon against logic and reason is to attack and discredit those you speak against, well, to quote George Bush, bring it on.

Democrats Vote for Diebold Touchscreens!

2006-06-20T12:31:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, the King County Council voted 5 to 4 to move to Forced Vote By Mail and Diebold Touchscreen Voting Machines.

The only council members who spoke against the proposal to do away with the polls and bring in Diebold's Touchscreen Voting Machines were Republicans. Republican Kathy Lambert actually raised questions regarding the Diebold's TSX system and the potential for fraud when these machines are used. Living in King County feels more and more like Cook County, Illinois every day.

The last few weeks have been truly eye opening. On the national scale, I was a Dennis Kucinich Delegate in 2004, because he helped confront Diebold, by posting the infamous Diebold memos on his Congressional Website. But in Washington State, I have never found much help in the Democratic party concerning voting reform. Rank and file Democrats all over are pulling out there hair over this issue, but the Washington State Democratic leadership does not give a rats ass about opening the process, and addressing the concerns we as voting activists raise, loudly, daily, and perpetually.

With a very partisan vote, and with much disrespect shown to the multi-party coalition of activists working to save “Poll Place Voting” in King County, the County's Democrats showed that in the face of overwhelming public testimony, and what the Democrats kept calling, “valid concerns” throughout the June 5th public comment period, that the Democrats were willing to ignore those concerns and push this vote through.

Let's make it clear that the people that are voting to continue to support bringing in Diebold's Touchscreen Voting Machines, forced vote by mail, and doing away with poll places, virtually guaranteeing unverifiable elections procedures, include:

Bob Ferguson
Larry Gossett
Larry Phillips
Julia Patterson
Dow Constantine

King County deserves better than this.

An Election in Turnaround

2005-11-01T15:26:00.000-08:00

Here's an article I wrote last year, I thought I'd share it as it gives some background on the election history, my role as an activist, and how I view election reform issues. It was orginally posted and published by Seattle's Independent Media Website, http://www/seattle.indymedia.org, here:
http://seattle.indymedia.org/en/2004/12/243608.shtml

For almost a year I traveled Washington State as a voting activist thinly veiled as the campaign manager for an unknown candidate for Washington State's office of the Secretary of State, Andy Stephenson. Together we warned everyone we could about the upcoming catastrophe that King County, Washington State, and the Country would be facing during this election. Namely that the election system is flawed, the machines are faulty, the procedures are unclear, the people running the show are partisan, and that corporations like Diebold and ES&S are trying to privatize the entire process.

While Andy ran as a Democrat, the campaign felt no particular allegiance to a party that shunned us at every turn, and showed, at times, open hostility towards our “fear mongering” tactics. Paul Berendt had already chosen the Democrat's candidate for the office long before any of you went to the Democratic Primary, and that candidate was Laura Rudderman. So the Stephenson Campaign was left out in the cold, with no money, and only the truth on our side.

The campaign was run on the blood, sweat and tears of a grass root budget that rarely had more than a few hundred dollars at any given time. But we persisted, spending our own money on the essentials, and gathering a few core volunteers along the way. We took the message to the streets and we sold Bev Harris' book “Blackbox Voting, Ballot Tampering in the 21st Century” for gas money along the way.

So why am I writing this? What's the point? Well there are several points about the current fiasco that need to be made.

First off, neither side of this controversy has a right to claim the moral high ground. While the Democrats chant, “Count Every Vote” and the Republican's chant, “don't change the rules”. Neither party is willing to face the numbers. This race is statistically tied. The machine count has a margin of error, and when the victory is awarded based on a difference that is smaller than that margin, there is no clear winner. Counting every vote does not matter. Changing the rules does not matter. The race is tied.

It seems funny to me the turnaround that the Democratic party is trying to get away with. Or maybe ironic is the word? As the manager of a campaign trying to win the Democratic nomination based on the idea that every vote should count, the Stephenson Campaign broke the news about King County's Felons, Sam Reed's seemingly illegal certification of software for Voting Machines, and Bob Terrwilliger's (Snohomish County Auditor) obvious incompetence. And at every turn we encountered Democrat's who worked to undermine our efforts. Dean Logan of King County originally denied that felons ever worked on King County's Voter Tabulation software, which was proven true, Christine Gregoire's office of the Attorney General got Andy Stephenson's lawsuit against Sam Reed dismissed on technicalities, and the entire Democratic Party seemed to rally around Bob Terrwilliger, one of two County Auditor's in Washington who have installed touch screen voting machines that have no legitimate way to be recounted in the hand recount, the infamous “Blackbox Voting Machine” we all know so well. The message here, I guess, is that as long as its the Democrats selling out the integrity of Washington State's voting process to private corporate interests, that's just fine with the Democratic Party.

Just for fun Google “Bob Terrwilliger” and cross reference it with “Sideshow Bob” of the Simpon's.

But I digress...

Practically anyone with their head above ground knows by now that the Diebold and ES&S are heavily tied to the Republican party. And if you aren't suspicious of their tactics, well you're probably not reading this article anyway. However, I'd like to point out that the Democrat's are at least following the rules at this point in the Governor's race.

Washington State's election rules allow any candidate to contest the race and demand a recount, as long as he or she finds a way to pay for it. The Dems ponied up the cash, and the recount is moving forward. All very legal, and all very necessary, in my opinion. But not because I care if Christine or Dino are Washington's next governor. Rather, it's nice to see the train wreck finally hit the front page news. It's nice to say I told you so, and it's nice to see both the parties in turmoil due to a system that is broken.

But what is still troubling me, is that the media is doing such a whitewash of the issue. Too dumb, or too corrupted to tell the truth, the talking heads go on and on about the hand recount, without mentioning some key facts. The vote is tied, the hand recount is exposing major flaws in the system, and two counties Snohomish and Yakima are putting on a smoke and mirrors display that is costing lots of money, to simply go through the “motions” of a hand recount, without the actual substance of a hand recount.

And perhaps most egregious of the media's failings is their utter incompetence in explaining the legal challenges, and Washington Supreme Court's recent legal decision. So, while I'm no lawyer, I'll take a stab at it just to get the ball rolling.

The Gregoire team brought a lawsuit that sought to include thousands of previously disqualified votes into the hand recount. The Supreme Court ruled on the law, and basically said they have no authority to include votes that had previously been legally disqualified. So to break it down in terms of a single voter, say Joe Schmoe votes absentee, signs his ballot, and mails it back on time. It gets into the hands of the an election official on time, and that official checks the records and Joe Schmoe's signature appears not to match. This ballot has been “legally” disqualified by the elected official. The county then sends out a letter to Joe Schmoe that says basically, “hey your ballot is not going to count unless you come in and personally verify your own signature, by the way you only have until Nov. 17th to do this, or even if it is your signature, your vote is disqualified.” Ok, so Joe Schmoe doesn't act in time, his ballot has now been legally disqualified. Regardless of whether or not it was actually Joe Schmoe's signature, the election officials acted legally, and Joe's vote doesn't count. A process that caught both King County Council Chariman, Larry Phillips, and Andy Stephenson in the fray.

Now there's obviously something wrong with a system that routinely disqualifies thousands of votes, and one which seems to assume voter fraud due to signature's that don't match, but the Supreme Court doesn't have the power to correct that situation. That's the job of Washington's Congress, which regardless of the outcome in the Governor's race is controlled by Democrats.

So Gregoire brought a lawsuit to include legally disqualified votes and lost on a ruling that was pretty clearly going to happen even before she brought the case. However, if you turn that ruling on its head, the flip side is this, votes that were previously excluded due to election official's errors, miscounts, or any newly discovered votes that were never previously “legally” disqualified must now be counted under this ruling. Votes that were never counted, or illegally disqualified due to human error, machine error, or any other reason that is not a legal way to disenfranchise the voter, these votes must now be counted. The media will not explain this to you, the party will not explain this to you, and unless you explain it to yourself, it seems like nothing here makes any sense.

But just as assuredly as the Republican's will argue that changing the rules in the middle of the election isn't legal, they will now go to court and ask just that in trying to exclude King county's newly discovered votes. And just as assuredly as Democrat's argued to include legally excluded votes, they will now seize this Supreme Court ruling and argue that these new votes in King County must be counted.

So what it all comes down to is an election in turnaround. Neither party wants to address the real problem... the election is tied, the system is faulty, and no matter who wins the integrity of the system by which we carry out the most fundamental of our rights is the real loser. Politics used to be called the art of the compromise, but in today's reality it is a war in which the party's victory is the only goal regardless of the cost to our society, our history, or the very integrity of the system each side seeks to control. In doing so, each side turns around and around seeking only the argument that wins the battle, but not the argument that would end the war by fixing the system.

So in conclusion, I submit a few predictions. The first is that King County's newly discovered votes will stand up to any court challenge. And regardless of who gets into office, neither side will do anything fix the problem. Unless you count installing more touch screen voting machines, which will make this hand recount problem go away, but only by making it impossible to question the validity of a system that has been completely bought and sold by corporate interests. Flying low under the radar, Snohomish county is conducting the recount of the future, and it's a total sham.

A Reader Responds

2005-11-01T11:16:00.000-08:00

From my email this morning:

"If Iron wins, your run will be responsible for anightmarish period for KC -- plus long-lastingenvironmental damange and harm to real people who willsuffer from bad social policies. Irons is an abuserand you are facilitating his possible win. Please,you've demonstrated you can get votes. Great. Nowplease do the responsible thing and urge support for Sims."

--Name withheld

And here's my response:

How much do you know about Ron Sims, and his corruption of our election system? Really, I'm just asking. Because if selling out Democracy isn't enough for you, I don't know what is.

In addition, David Irons has drawn far more Democrats than I have. Ron lost 30% in the primaries, David captured 15% of those Dems, I have captured 10% of those Dems, the fact is I get far more David Irons supporters supporting me instead of David. I get very few Ron supporters that had not jumped ship before they even knew about me. So frankly the idea that I'm taking votes from Ron is just not supported by the facts.

Finally, I am not a Democrat. If you would like to stand up and fight for your beliefs, by all means do so. If you want to go doorbelling for Ron, or would like to espouse why it is you support Ron, fine. But my job is not to protect Ron Sims. My number one issue is Democracy, selling out Democracy is simply not acceptable. There are both Democrats and Republicans I support, Ron Sims is not one of them.

Ron could take all my supporters away in one fell swoop. Come out strongly for open-sourced pulbicy owned software, against Diebold, and for real voting reform. Until then he is not just part of the problem, he is the problem.

Regards,Gentry Lange

PS: Here's some reading from Congress to look into if you are interested.

GAO Issues a Report on Electronic Voting

The General Accounting Office (Congress) has issued a rather detailed report regarding the use of Electronic Voting Machines. The report does a pretty good job highlighting the key concerns that activists have been complaining about for years:

Democrats Reform House

There is also another report our by a group called the National Election Data Archive, or NEDA:

Elections Archive for 2004

So while local election officials say everything is fine, Congress has issued a report supporting many of the criticisms activists have raised.
_____________________________________________________

This whole conversation has shifter to Washblog:
Washblog
Anyone that wants to comment should check it out.

Who Funds the Election Center?

2005-10-23T16:09:00.000-07:00

The head of the Election Center, the group I have been criticising for taking money from voting machine vendors, is apparently not feeling too comfortable with the latest GAO report. I have posted an extended quote from Blackbox below. Pay close attention to the responses on BBV, as John Giddeon adds that the Election Center has apparently put a number on the amount of the center's corporate funding, and apparently a pretty good sized 10% of the funding of the Election Center is coming from the corporate vendors.

From the Blackboxvoting.org website:

Oct. 7, Black Box Voting was invited to attend a groundbreaking Washington D.C. event titled “Threats to Voting Systems,” sponsored by the National Institute of Standards & Technology (NIST). For the first time, election officials, scientists, and election reform advocates discussed the realities of voting machine risks in earnest, without rancor or defensiveness. (NIST's Website.) The outcome of the meeting was an agreement to catalogue risks, and develop mitigation strategies. Not all participants were entirely comfortable with the proceedings.

“I feel like hanging myself,” said R. Doug Lewis Lewis is the enigmatic director of The Election Center (a private entity which has derided critics of voting machine security). Lewis looked pale and uncomfortable, but he was in the minority.

BBV Forums

Televised Debates

2005-10-18T18:54:00.000-07:00

Great news! They invited me to the televised debates this Thursday. KCTS, channel 9, at 8pm.
Looks like when you start affecting the outcome of the race they actually start to pay attention.

Though, the voter's pamphlet no doubt helped a lot too. It's amazing to me that as a registered candidate, it wasn't until last week that I was officially listed, even though I registered back in August.

In addition I will be on KVI 570AM on Oct. 25th. Early morning show I believe.

Candidate Exclusion

2005-10-14T11:49:00.000-07:00

So the PI just told me they were not interested in interviewing me during their endorsement interviews. Mark Trahant said "It's time to move on" and that the editorial board decided that I wasn't worth their time. Funny stuff. "We don't usually interview third party candidates".

It's becoming increasingly clear to me that it's not just about money, and campaign finance reform. Equal access to the media is just not a reality. From the day I entered the race I have been largely excluded from many many conversations, candidate forums, polls, and even the primaries. Today was the first day I've found anything about the general election even posted on the King County Elections home page. So from the county elections department, to the media, to the forums, I've been almost entirely excluded from a race I'm legally registered for, and then people turn around and say my candidacy is not viable.

Funny stuff. But not funny ha ha.

Polls

2005-10-13T11:49:00.000-07:00

I just got off the phone with another event organizer, seems they haven't heard about my campaign. They say they don't want to put me on at the last minute. Another said, earlier today, well we are only having the top two from the primaries. Well funny, I wasn't in the primaries. So how is that logical?

But the problem is not that I'm not polling well. I get up to 7 or 8% in some polls, the polls that are mentioned to you in passing by other campaigns. And 8% is a big enough percentage to seriously affect this race. But the bigger problem is that the polls don't even mention my name.

Pollster:"Hi I'm calling conducting a poll of likely King County Voters? Are you going to vote for Ron Sims, David Irons, or other?"

Voter: "Um, ... Um, only two candidates huh?"

Pollster:"Ron Sims, David Irons or other?"

Voter: "Um, Ron Sims, he's the Democrat right?"

Voter: "Um, David Irons, he's the Republican right?"

Now imagine this, even when you as the polled "likely King County voter" if you respond Gentry Lange, Green Candidate, they won't record Gentry Lange, they will record me as "other."

You are not even allowed to vote for me in the polls. And they say I don't poll well.

Here's one blogger that broke down the King 5 poll honestly:
http://themoderatewashingtonian.blogspot.com/

Primaries, What Primaries?

2005-09-19T01:25:00.000-07:00

Moving towards the election rapidly now. The process this year was a joke. The whole battle between the Democrats and the Republicans over the primaries resulted in a third party nightmare scenario. Supporters continue to ask me why I'm not in the primaries? It's a logical question when David Irons is unopposed?

I've enjoyed meeting the many committed activists who continue to stuggle for social justice through their actions both great and small.

Other Election Reform Groups

2005-07-25T00:58:00.000-07:00

For the last post of the evening:
http://truevotemd.org/content/view/251/2/

It's the best organized state and activists that I've seen nationally, and Linda Schade is an inspiration.

Colorado group is probably running second:
http://www.cfvi.org/

And Vermont still seems active:
http://www.geocities.com/vtvoting/links.html

While Washington's Online group here seems inactive:
http://www.votingintegrity.us/wa/who.html

VoteTrustUSA
http://votetrustusa.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=17&Itemid=31

Background on The Election Center

2005-07-25T00:51:00.000-07:00

Here's the conference call analysis I'm always referencing to people. http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0308/S00175.htm

And also the wikipedia site on voting
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_U.S._presidential_election_controversy,_voting_machines

Why Was The Election Center Hired?

2005-07-25T00:47:00.000-07:00

Here's an interesting article by Keith Irving, giving some background on the choice of "The Election Center". Highlight from this article:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2002277537_election17m.html

"Staff of the County Council and the county auditor's office are evaluating audit proposals from four potential contractors: MGT of America, The Election Center, Deloitte Consulting and Forefront Election Solutions."

King County's Optical Scan Voting Machines

2005-07-25T00:35:00.000-07:00

In King County we use precinct-based optical scan ballots. "The CalTech/MIT Voting Technology Project found them to be the most accurate at recording the voter's intent and not significantly more expensive per vote than touch-screen machines. " from --http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=6113597

I propose that we continue using the same machines, but we run precinct level hand-audits and post the results at the precinct. I believe it should be physically possible to reflash the firmware on the machines to use publicly owned open source software, that the county could hire written on contract, and then publish the code. Who knows... maybe there is some goofy restriction on reflashing the firmware, like maybe Diebold wrote into the contract that the county can't "alter" the firmware without breaking the contract. I really don't know.

Though the Sec of State would restrict it, unless it was used in another election somewhere, though as I recall the SOS has ignored that law before.

[Note 9-19... Turns out I'm right, and Diebold does claim in their contracts that you can't put "non-Diebold" software on their voting machines. So a county is not allowed to change their own voting systems to, for example, a publicly owned and open sourced software system.]

Paper Trail or Voter Verified Paper Ballots?

2005-07-25T00:31:00.000-07:00

Here's the voting legislation for "paper records".

http://www.leg.wa.gov/wsladm/billinfo1/dspBillSummary.cfm?billnumber=5395&year=2005

I haven't read the whole thing, but this sounds fishy, Voter Verified Paper Ballots are not just "paper records". This language seems supsipicious.

I will read this more thoroughly as I have time.

Verified Voting has a legislation list going for every state, checkout:
http://www.verifiedvoting.org/article.php?list=type&type=13

The Open Voting Consortium

2005-07-25T00:20:00.000-07:00

For everyone who asks me what are the options to the corporate controlled machines counting our votes:
http://openvotingconsortium.org/

The John Conyer's Report

2005-07-25T00:09:00.000-07:00

The John Coyer's Report, or at least the summary:
http://www.truthout.org/docs_05/010605Y.shtml

The Election Center Fights Against Real Reform

2005-07-24T23:57:00.000-07:00

Excerpt from
http://www.why-war.com/news/2003/09/23/anopenin.html
regarding The Election Center:

How are they fighting it?
For one thing they had a meeting on Aug. 22 — the voting machine manufacturers and the Election Center [a nonprofit management division of the National Association of State Election Directors, which handles part of the voting-machine certification process] and a lobbyist. The whole purpose of this meeting was to try to get the public to figure out how to accept machines without a paper trail.

How did you find out about this meeting?
Actually, this is kind of funny. My publisher found out about this. It was a teleconference and he just called in under his own name and nobody asked him where he was from, and he sat in on the whole meeting. [Harris' publisher, David Allen, posted notes on the meeting on his Web site.]
The meeting had quite a few things of concern in it. They were being told that as an industry they had to come up with $200,000 in seven days in order to come up with a P.R. campaign to whitewash their P.R. problem, as they put it.

So apparently they feel they have a problem?
Yeah, they do. And in this particular meeting, one of the things they discuss is, they say, "Now we need to make sure the press never finds out this because we don't want them to know we have a problem." [According to David Allen, Harris Miller, the president of the Information Technology Association of America, said, "We just didn't want a document floating around saying the election industry is in trouble, so they decided to put together a lobbying campaign."]

Was there anything discussed about addressing the problem?
Absolutely, what they want to do is not fix the problem, but they agreed to fix the perception of the problem.

Did they indicate what they thought would be a problem with printing paper ballots?
No. It was a foregone conclusion that we don't want paper.

But they say that they would try to convince the public that having no paper is fine?
Right.

It's rather confusing why they're fighting this ...
Yes, actually I find it a little bit suspicious frankly.

How to Rig Elections 101

2005-07-24T23:53:00.000-07:00

Here's an excerpt that is a must-read for King County Voters, from this site:
http://www.why-war.com/news/2003/09/23/anopenin.html

I got a call from one of our more brilliant computer programmers — he's got quite a few advanced degrees — and he called me on a weekend and he said, "I want you to go to your computer." And he walked me through it just like a support tech does — open this panel, click this, do this, do that. And as I'm doing this it was appalling how easy it was. Once you know the steps, a 10-year-old can rig an election. In fact it's so easy that one of our activists, Jim March in California, put together a "rig-a-vote" CD. He's been going around showing it to elections officials, and now this CD has been making its way to Congress members.
It's shocking. All you do is double-click the icon. You go backwards through the Internet to that county computer, and if you have Microsoft Access on your machine you can walk right into that election database while it's open. It's configured for multiple access at the same time. You can be in there changing things and you can change anything you want.
There's nothing — no security in this?
No, in fact in the memo, [Ken Clark, an engineer at Diebold] says specifically that they decided not to put a password on it because it was proving useful. They were using the back door to do end runs around the voting program. And he named two places where they were doing this, Gaston County, N.C., and King County, Wash

Reading for Election Reformers

2005-07-24T23:28:00.000-07:00

Required reading:
http://www.ejfi.org/Voting/Voting-18.htm

Larry Phillips and The Election Center

2005-07-24T22:58:00.000-07:00

Larry Phillips, King County Councilman, states that one of his key reforms is hiring "The Election Center". Apparently the council would rather hire "experts" than actually propose real reform.

From the Seattle Times commentary:
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/230260_phillips28.html
"Key among our reforms is the hiring of The Election Center, a non-profit considered the premier organization for professional electoral training, to conduct a top-to-bottom management audit of the elections division. "

Here's the difference between me and the competition, if you are paying attention... My key reform is kicking the corporations out of the system. King County Council though considers hiring a group, roundly criticised for taking money from Diebold and other corporate sponsors, as a "key reform". Once, just once, I'd like to hear a councilman or woman call for Publicly Owned Open Source Software instead of another audit, or a new building.

This is absurd.

Read up on http://www.blackboxvoting.org, and particularly do some searching on R. Doug Lewis, who heads "The Election Center" for more information... here's some links to start with:

And here, from the Seattle Medium, "Selection of The Election Center team is the result of legislation sponsored by Councilmembers Julia Patterson and Bob Ferguson and approved by the Council last month. "
http://seattlemedium.com/News/article/article.asp?NewsID=57535&sID=4

Bob, what's up? Why is it that the Open Voting Consotium, or any of the ideas proposed by citizen activists the nation over aren't on the top of the list for voting reforms we need here in King County?

Also from the article, "“Our election process is too important to be held hostage by politics,” said Councilmember Ferguson. “The Election Center will provide us with a detailed, independent review of our Elections office and a road map for reform. Because they are independent, no one can argue with the results.”

Well, that all depends on if the Election Center is truly independent? Independt of whom? King County? The charges laid out in Bev's Harri's Book is that the Election Center, and R. Doug Lewis, these people are taking money from the same companies that are making millions off our voting equipment.

Here's what VotersUnite.org says of the independence of The Election Center:
http://www.votersunite.org/takeaction/alert061905.htm

Here's Soundpolitics pointing out the backscratching The Election Center provides our election officials:
http://www.soundpolitics.com/archives/004789.html

And as I'm getting tired, here's a good site for a whole mess of information:
http://www.scoop.co.nz/features/usacoup.html

A Little Info on PSI Group

2005-07-24T20:45:00.000-07:00

Here's the most pertinent section on King County's problems, from Chapter 14 of Blackbox Voting, by Bev Harris, from Renton, available free online here:
http://www.blackboxvoting.org

We’ve had a cocaine trafficker printing our ballots, an embezzler
programming our voting system and our absentee ballots being funneled
through a company that hires people straight out of prison.
And when we try to find out what software is actually authorized,
we get the buffalo shuffle. I don’t believe there is a certification program
in existence that can protect us from inside access. We need criminal
background checks, full financial disclosure for all state elections
officials, and robust, fraud-deterring audits.

A New Election Building, $22.8 million

2005-07-24T20:32:00.000-07:00

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2002297354_election03m.html
"King County officials have a tentative agreement to buy a Rainier Valley building and turn it into a modern, $22.8 million election center intended to help avoid a repeat of the problems that plagued the November election."

How is a new building going to avoid a repeat of the problems from Novemeber?
Why can no one in government come up with a plan of action?
How about a system we can trust?

Here's my short-list plan of action:
1. Publicly Posted Precinct Level Reporting
2. Publicly-Owned Open Source Software
3. Voter Verified Paper Ballots
4. Citizen Involvement
5. A Citizen Approved Director of Elections

Questions Concerning The Election Center

2005-07-24T20:25:00.000-07:00

What's the background to this "Election Center" that's conducting King County's Audits?

Why do we need another audit?

What's the history of King County's Election audits?

How long must this go on?

Who on the council is going to speak out on this issue?

Did any of the council ask themselves this question before they hired the Election Center 9 to 0?

Read this article to understand why I might ask these questions:
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0308/S00072.htm

Private Companies Sorting Mail Ballots

2005-07-03T20:42:00.000-07:00

What is the difference between private corporations collecting and sorting votes while maintaining proprietary software, and counting the votes entirely behind closed doors?

The answer... not much.

Traditional vote fraud, has used suppression tactics, targeting specific areas through voting patterns, and physically suppressing turnout. Fire hoses, poll taxes, various tools of vote suppression. But the traditional forms of vote suppression are largely eclipsed by the larger problem of electronic machines. Touchscreens, and totals transmitted to central tabulating computers, once again controlled by proprietary firmware machines.... this is all insane. It is unacceptable. It is fundamentally the death of any real democracy this country will ever see.

Counting,or sorting, it's all the same, it's controlling the system which is the most important part of the game. It is something only the people of King County, Washington, and the rest of the US should own. It's not a process that should be bought as a "computer solution" to "all of our voting needs".

This is preposterous, it is so foul a notion that it should be a joke. But it isn't.

Anyone who allows corporations to take over my voting system, these are politicians who must be shown the door. In essence it's why I'm running, it's why I ran the last campaign for Andy, and it's why I will continue to expose the corporate influence on the system, from this campaign and on to the next.

First Poll

2005-06-30T17:43:00.000-07:00

http://www.kingcountyjournal.com/sited/story/html/210970

From the King County Journal, and a poll conducted by David Irons, "The poll shows that if the vote was held today, Sims of Seattle would get 42 percent, Irons 40 percent and Green Party candidate Gentry Lange 5 percent, with the rest undecided."

So just two days into the race I'm polling at 5 percent... with 13 percent undecided.

Election Reform Websites

2005-06-28T15:56:00.000-07:00

There's a lot of site's out there about election reform, and I'll add links occasionally as I find them here in the blog. Eventually I will create a links page for my campaign site. But until then, here's just a few to start with:

http://www.countthevote.org/
http://www.lionsgrip.com/voting2004whoswho.html
http://www.solarbus.org/election/archives.shtml
http://www.votefraud.org/relevance_o'halloran_pandora's_box.htm
http://www.hightowerlowdown.org/articles/oct03_v5_n10/oct03_v5_n10_1.cfm
http://www.nov2truth.org/

More on The Election Center

2005-06-28T15:54:00.000-07:00

http://www.sourcewatch.org/wiki.phtml/Election_Center

This is a great source of information about the Election Center. Read up!

Compare and Contrast

2005-06-28T15:48:00.000-07:00

Compare this:
Ballot Inegrity Org

To this:
Seattle PI Opinion Piece

And to this:
Online Journal piece on Harris
Scoop News

Supreme Courts VS Property Rights

2005-06-26T12:57:00.000-07:00

So the Supreme Court's recent ruling on taking property for private development is just plain wrong. This ruling should be of particular concern to those of King County as the Critical Areas Ordinance is nothing compared to this decision.

I am not a person who believes much in the illusion of left/right categorizations of politics, as I tend to believe more in the corporate/anti-corporate division... this ruling is basically one of the worst decisions I have ever seen from this Court. Thankfully it's a 5-4 court, and is likely to swing the other way over time. But there's danger in that backlash as well.

Bush supporters, as I know a lot of perplexed Republicans out there, should take notice, not just of the so-called "liberal judges" of the court, but in Bush's silence on this decision. It would also be wise to actually acknowledge that this issue is not a left and right issue, and to come talk to those of us whom you may consider "lefties" and realize that there are allies in the anti-Corporate side of the isle on this issue.

Democrats might take note of the damage the so called "left-wing" of the court just did to society here, as a lot of good Democrats out there hold dear some rather anti-Corporate beliefs.

I fear that the backlash to this decision may bring about a gutting of environmental protection laws, which won't fix the problem, which is unchecked Corporate influence and power, rather this backlash will exacerbate the situation by playing one side off the other while continuing to further the corporate power grab and goals.

The Streetcar, Brightwater, Rails and Trails, oh My!

2005-06-26T12:18:00.000-07:00

This is a great article on the streetcar debates in Seattle:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2002343905_yeaworth22.html

More information on the streetcar, Pioneer Square, and SAM:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2002342645_trolley21m.html

Here's an article on the Brightwater project:
http://dnr.metrokc.gov/dnrp/press/2005/0621brightwater.htm

Rails and trails issue:
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/229474_trail22.html

Here's my favorite article so far on the rail to trails issue:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2002339793_vesely19.html

Finally for this post, here's a must read for every Democrat that thinks Sims and Dean Logan are getting a bad rap:
http://www.kingcountyjournal.com/sited/story/html/210002

Seattle Gay Pride

2005-06-26T00:02:00.000-07:00

Today I attended Pride and met many good people. It seems to me that there are a lot of people realy interested in the issues I bring up.

Really enjoyed the whole day. Someone had a petition about saving Pride weekend. If you know what this is about... please write me or post a link.

Oh, and the King County Journal just picked up the announcement.

Announcing the Campaign

2005-06-23T12:11:00.000-07:00

Well both the PI and the Times picked up the announcement. Soundpolitics, the blog also mentioned it.

Electoral Standards

2005-06-22T13:29:00.000-07:00

http://www.washingtonfreepress.org/74/electoralStandards.htm
A good article on electoral standards

Unauthorized Recounts?

2005-06-21T17:49:00.000-07:00

This is interesting:

http://www.therandirhodesshow.com/randirhodes/messageboards/lofiversion/index.php/t52896.html

Some states prohibit elections officials from checking on optical scan tallies by examining the paper ballots. In Washington, according to former supervisor of elections Julie Anne Kempf, Secretary of State Sam Reed [Sic*] declared such spontaneous checkups to be "unauthorized recounts." New Florida regulations will forbid counting paper ballots, even in recounts, except in highly unusual circumstances. Without paper ballot hand-counts, the hacks demonstrated below show that optical-scan elections can be destroyed in seconds.

[*SIC... actually this was determined during the Monroe Administration]

Traffic Suggestions

2005-06-21T13:49:00.000-07:00

Hey anyone with good traffic suggestions, or problem areas I should film, send those suggestions my way. I drive a lot, yet there's always places I don't know a lot about.

Also give a shout if you are from outside of Seattle. There's a lot of cities in King County, the King County Executive should know each of them. I plan on visiting every city in this county before this election is over. So stay tuned, I'll be visiting your city before too long.

Ideas on Traffic

2005-06-15T14:37:00.000-07:00

Traffic ideas from a mayor in Canada
http://www.canada.com/edmonton/edmontonjournal/news/cityplus/story.html?id=21dd98d8-deaa-4872-b569-08af3bb9c118

A tonue and check driving article
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/viewpoints/articles/0612macdonald0612.html

Agressive Driving Addressed
http://safety.transportation.org/htmlguides/AggDrvr/types_of_probs.htm

Interesting Technology for Traffic Congestion
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/04/25/001241&from=rss

Pennsylvania Targets Tailgating as low cost improvement
http://ops.fhwa.dot.gov/publications/low_cost_traf/chap_5.htm

[Public Education In Colorado targets Driving Problems]

The educational aspect of the campaign involved a multi-faceted approach in both print and electronic media, and educational efforts were undertaken that addressed the goals of the campaign both inside the Aurora Police Department and the City of Aurora as well. Uniformed officers of the Patrol Bureau were given briefings pertaining to the importance of their continuing attention to traffic-related matters during their patrol activities. Additionally, employees of the City of Aurora were informed as to the importance of the traffic campaign’s public safety goals through employee newsletters as well as Aurora’s award winning cable television station, KACT-TV, Channel 8. The entire media effort involved thorough explanations emphasizing the importance of the campaign, as well as the personal responsibility of each citizen to drive safely and respect the rights of other motorists.

One of the unique aspects of the campaign was demonstrated by the fact that the public was notified by the media in advance of the locations of targeted traffic enforcement activities. This approach was again proof positive of the behavior modification goal of the campaign. It also totally defused any public perception of the "cops hiding in the bushes to write tickets" criticism - often expressed particularly by many drivers while holding a traffic citation in hand.
http://www.usmayors.org/chhs/traffic/best_traffic_initiative_aurora.htm

Media coverage of the report effectively focused on
three core messages: there is hope for curing gridlock,
fixing traffic bottlenecks is a critical starting point to
any regional congestion relief plan and Congress needs
to pass a new six-year highway bill that dedicates
significant funding to improving bottlenecks.
http://tinyurl.com/cylek

Tailgating

2005-06-15T14:18:00.000-07:00

Tailgating irritates motorists more than any other driving behaviour, according to a survey.
Car insurance provider Budget Direct said 51 per cent of motorists surveyed nationally nominated tailgating as the most aggravating road habit.

http://seven.com.au/news/nationalnews/84528

Marketing 101

2005-06-15T13:33:00.000-07:00

I said I would recommend activities. Here's one, which we can try now if there's time or you can try later: write a message of 2-3 sentences for your campaign to use on the phone to a Washington Post reporter. Now write one to use with the editor of a small ethnic paper in your neighborhood. Make both about the same campaign, but do not make them the same.
http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/viewArticle.asp?articleID=513

Nickels on Global Warming

2005-06-15T13:00:00.000-07:00

[Nickels Supports Specific Actions]

"I've always been a believer in local action," Nickels said. "We can show that there are specific actions we can take to meet or exceed the goals of the Kyoto Accords that will show the federal government that this can be done without huge economic disruption."
http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/news/11805174.htm

Traffic: Congestion Pricing

2005-06-15T12:53:00.000-07:00

[More from the Congestion Tax Article]

Livingstone, who was elected London mayor in 2000 and reelected last year, introduced the fee in February 2003 to relieve his city's traffic-choked streets. Revenue is reinvested in public transportation.

Despite protests, Livingstone imposed the fee on drivers entering an eight-square-mile area of central London that includes its financial and entertainment districts between 7 a.m. and 6:30 p.m.

Drivers who enter central London must buy daily, weekly or yearly passes and register their license plate numbers. A network of 800 cameras photographs license plates within the zone, and motorists who have not paid are fined.

A recent government study found that congestion inside the zone has fallen 30 percent.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/04/AR2005060401388.html

Traffic Visions

2005-06-15T12:48:00.000-07:00

Alternative visions
Five Bay Area conservationists are thinking globally – but outside the mainstream consensus – about sustainability
http://www.sfbg.com/39/35/news_environment.html

[Congestion Tax Article]

SAN FRANCISCO -- The mayor of London told dozens of world mayors that they could unclog city streets and fight global warming by charging hefty fees for driving in congested areas of their communities.

Mayor Ken Livingstone said making drivers pay a "congestion charge" to drive in central London has improved traffic flow and reduced the emission of "greenhouse gases" blamed for raising temperatures and changing weather patterns. The $9 fee has forced people out of their cars and filled city buses, subways and sidewalks, he told mayors assembled here Friday for the U.N. World Environment Day Conference.

"We are the only city in the Western world where there's a notable shift from car use to public transport," he said at San Francisco's Cable Car Museum. "This is the only thing I've done in my political life that turned out better than I hoped."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/04/AR2005060401388.html

A Note on Process from me... The Blogger

2005-06-15T12:39:00.000-07:00

So, I'm tracking down all these artlicles in a hope to come up with a bulleted list of programs, projects, and initiatives, that are actually in place around the world and working. Hence the quoted sections from the news articles from around the web regarding the mayor's conference.

As I can I will compile what I find into that bulleted list.

Regards,
Gentry

Green Cities Conference Highlights

2005-06-15T12:32:00.000-07:00

More from the San Francisco Conference, article highlights followed by link to original source:

"The emphasis on cities is necessary because the vast majority of the world's people will be living in urban areas over the next century, said Jared Blumenfeld, the director of San Francisco's Environment Department, which was created in 1998 through a ballot initiative that centralized the city's environmental policy. "

"It's easy for a head of state to stand up and say he will take action, but it's another thing to implement it," said Blumenfeld, who was involved in the Rio summit. "Part of the problem with these international agreements is you can't hold people accountable.

There is more accountability, Blumenfeld said, when municipalities are involved. "If the mayor of a city promises to put solar panels up," he said, "you know whose door to knock on when he doesn't."

The Green Cities conference will highlight San Francisco's recycling program, mass transportation, solar arrays and the restoration of the Crissy Field tidal wetlands. Problems related to urban sprawl around the Bay Area and the need for sustainable development and corporate responsibility also will be addressed.

Among the programs that will be introduced at the conference is a collaborative effort by the Bay Area Council, an alliance of major employers, to get commitments from 273 of the Bay Area's largest employers to reduce pollution and increase energy efficiency.

"More and more companies are waking up to the fact that business success cannot be sustained when there is substantial environmental degradation," said Power, whose organization will play a major role at the conference. "There is a recognition that what's good for the planet is good for business. But companies still have a long way to go, particularly U.S. companies that are being seriously outflanked by their European counterparts."

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/06/01/ACCORDS.TMP

San Francisco Mayors' Conference

2005-06-15T12:13:00.000-07:00

The following is a collection of quotes, and highlights from articles regarding the recent San Francisco conference of Mayors, links to articles included following highlights:
[official website of this conference--http://www.wed2005.org/]

"'Mayors are emerging as the most powerful and flexible agents of change. They are able to respond quickly to environmental issues and are uniquely accountable to their citizens. Their enormous purchasing power is shaping markets…their visionary solutions provide inspiration and serve as models to all sectors of society.'

It’s just like the bumper sticker says: Think globally, act locally."
http://www.montereycountyweekly.com/issues/Issue.06-09-2005/news/Article.news4

"Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels is encouraging mayors to fight climate change at the municipal level by cutting greenhouse-gas emissions from automobiles, power plants and factories. After the landmark Kyoto Protocol on global warming went into effect without the United States earlier this year, Nickels asked U.S. mayors to voluntarily comply with the international treaty's emissions standards. So far, 156 mayors have agreed to do so, he said. "

http://tinyurl.com/cclda

"CADMAN: When we did a 100 year plan we learned that we run out of water in 35 years, run out of oil in 40 years, run out of natural gas in 60 years so we can't plan tomorrow as if it's a continuum of today."

http://www.loe.org/shows/segments.htm?programID=05-P13-00023&segmentID=1

"Environmentally conscious Oakland A's fans needn't feel guilty about tossing their plastic cups into trash cans at the McAfee Coliseum. They're being composted along with half-eaten hot dogs, cardboard food trays and used napkins.

'Since 1990, we have kept out of landfills over 300 million tons of materials,' said Roni Java of the California Integrated Waste Management Board, which oversees waste diversion efforts. 'If you took trash trucks and filled them to the top and put them in a line bumper to bumper, that would make a line that would circle the Earth's equator more than six times.'

Still, the state fell short of its original 50 percent goal. According to the latest estimated figures from 2003, 48 percent of California's 78 million tons of waste is being recycled or reused. "
Too often, manufacturers package items in layers of cardboard, plastic and Styrofoam instead of simple containers. Restaurants and grocers send diners home with nonrecyclable polystyrene or polypropylene clamshell containers for their leftovers or meals instead of more environmentally friendly paper boxes.

'We're giving retailers and product manufacturers a free ride in regards to this packaging,' Murray said. "

In central Contra Costa County, a unique 'curbside reuse' program allows residents to put reusable out the day before semi-annual cleanups. The items, ranging from televisions and bikes to small furniture, linens, clothes and art materials, are distributed to nonprofits and St. Vincent de Paul, and some have been sent to Afghanistan and Bosnia, said Janet Schneider of the Centra Contra Costa Solid Waste Authority. "

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/05/31/MNG67D123C1.DTL

Green Cities Declaration

2005-06-15T10:13:00.000-07:00

Urban Environmental Accords – Green Cities Declaration
http://www.greencarcongress.com/2005/06/green_cities_de.html

This is very cool, mayors from all over get together to see how cities all over the world address common problems.

Council Races and David Irons

2005-06-13T01:23:00.000-07:00

Breakdown of Council Races from a few months back
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/213822_county28.html

David Irons sites of interest
http://www.metrokc.gov/mkcc/members/d12/
http://www.soundpolitics.com/archives/004371.html
http://www.davidirons.org/events.html

Reforming Voting Rights for the Previously Incarcerated

2005-06-13T00:21:00.000-07:00

Reed, Democrats such as Gregoire and Republicans such as Rep. Toby Nixon of Kirkland say the state's flawed system of keeping track of felons' rights is so confusing that it's better to have a simpler approach such as Oregon's -- which forbids voting by felons in custody, but allows voting once they serve their time.

http://159.54.227.3/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050612/NEWS/506120301

New election center for King County

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/editorialsopinion/2002314675_countyed06.html

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/227330_kingcoed.asp

A now I hear Dino Rossi is challenging Ron Sims
http://c17wife.redstate.org/story/2005/6/8/191136/4483

Rail or trail articles
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/politics/2002277561_railfollow17e.html

http://www.heraldnet.com/stories/05/05/18/100loc_trail001.cfm

$500,000 for King County Executive
http://www.ronsims.com/index.php?id=18

Politicians Podcasting

2005-06-13T00:04:00.000-07:00

Politicians into Pod Casting
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/may2005/tc20050524_5126_tc_211.htm

Nickels Pushes Kyoto

2005-06-12T23:59:00.000-07:00

Greg Nickels pushes for Kyoto resolution.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/politics/2002322069_kyoto10m.html