(WA GOP) Wrongly Tries to Prevent >140 King Co. Residents from Voting

[Newsjock]

http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Content?oid=24932

Steven Lacey is a regular voter whose plan for Election Day next Tuesday was to walk a few blocks from his Belltown apartment building and cast his vote, as usual, at his local precinct. At least, that was his plan until he received a letter last night informing him that his right to vote had been challenged by a woman from the east side named Lori D. Sotelo.

The letter reported that Sotelo had declared to King County election officials, “under penalty of perjury,” that Lacey’s voter registration was not valid because he couldn’t possibly be living at the address he was claiming. “Which is insane,” Lacey said. The 35-year-old insurance company account manager lives at the Watermark, a 60-unit downtown apartment building built in 1908. However, Sotelo appeared to believe the Watermark was a storage unit, a P.O. box, or some other location that Lacey could not legally be using as an address of record.

Furious, Lacey did a quick web search and realized that Sotelo was a leader in the King County Republican Party. He couldn’t understand how she came to think he was illegally registered, since the Watermark, Lacey said, “couldn’t more clearly be a physical residence.” He left Sotelo a phone message telling her as much, but he never heard back.

Then he asked around, and found that many people in his building had received the same letter, informing them that their votes would not be counted until they proved, at a hearing or through a signed affidavit, that they were legally registered.

It turns out that Lacey and his neighbors were just a few among at least 140 King County voters who were wrongly challenged by Sotelo, who chairs the King County Republican Party’s “Voter Registration Integrity Project.” Sotelo could not be reached for comment on Friday morning, when The Stranger first reported the mistakes on our blog, but Chris Vance, chairman of the state Republican Party later confirmed for The Stranger that a serious mistake had been made.

more

[daleo]

1. Sounds like dirty tricks.

More Republican contempt for democracy. Par for the course.

[glitch]

5. "mistakes" is just another euphemism for "dirty tricks"

This couldn't be dirtier. Well, knowing repukes, of course it could be.
Interfering with another's voting rights is a federal crime, isn't it?
I hope these people pursue that angle. This sure looks like fraud to me.

[ShockediSay]

10. These should be made Federal Election Law Felonies

Put some teeth in the fair voting act.

[Canuckistanian]

2. King County, King County, it's always King County

Was your county targetted by the GOP or what?

[Matariki]

13. they hate us for our freedom ;-)

(we're a *very* democratic county)

[Howardx]

31. its the big kahuna in WA.

n/t

[antonialee839]

3. Yeah, the mistake is their operative got caught.

Freaking bastards.

[bluestateguy]

4. If some goon ever challenges my right to vote...

:grr:

:grr:

[struggle4progress]

6. Kinda makes ya wanna knock some Repug kneecaps with a baseball bat

[merwin]

7. I'm filling out my King County Absentee ballot tomorrow :-)

And sending a nasty letter to Sotelo.

[SeattleGirl]

37. Excellent idea, merwin!

Sending the letter, that is. And maybe a letter to Chris Vance. Remind them of the ruckus they raised in 2004, screaming voter fraud because their little a-hole didn't win. This kind of stuff just pisses me off!!!

(I vote absentee also.)

[dmr]

8. Sneaky and deliberate.

If this happened to me, I'd be so livid I wouldn't be able to see straight - and I'm one of the most calmest people you'd ever meet. Damn, this is terrible, and am wondering how often this is being done across the country.

[depakid]

9. Not until these people are prosecuted

given prison terms, will this sort of voter suppression stop.

[ozymandius]

20. "under penalty of perjury"

I want to see how time in the pokey will shake up this Republican party official.

[Toots]

27. Oh perjury isn't really a crime......

:sarcasm:

[Dogmudgeon]

11. This is a Democratic opportunity

Every year, right before Voting Day, many of the local Republican organizations post flyers in minority and poor neighborhoods telling people they have to be current in their rent and not have any outstanding tickets or bench warrants before they will be allowed to vote. It keeps a lot of folks home.

It may be too late to do it this year, but why not compose some flyers for minority and poor people that tells them to call and VERIFY their voting status, because of Republican dirty tricks? And, that if they're turned away at the voting booth, they can and should call a judge about it.

Next Fall in Pennsylvania, we'll probably be mired deep in the dirtiest Senatorial election in decades as Rick Santorum defends his ass ... I mean, his seat ... from either Bob Casey, Jr., or Chuck Pennachio (probably Casey, though Pennachio is more progressive, and has a bright future ahead of him). Something like this should be used to keep the pressure on the local GOP.

Any ideas?

--p!

[countryjake]

22. We did something of this sort last year.

After last year's election, I found that lots up here were upset about the results, but had not voted because they mistakenly believed they were required to go to court if they had any felony convictions, in order to restore their voting rights.

In wa, if a felon has fulfilled all obligations, fines and time, AND ten years has passed since their conviction, they do not need to set any court date or ask any judge for the right to vote...all they have to do is register. It IS necessary to go to court if one wants to vote before that ten years has passed, but most that I talked with and helped to get registered had been convicted years ago and just either couldn't afford to go back to court or couldn't be bothered with voting (tho they were very vocal about our local politicians).

Now I'm not sure if we're being "set up" by some very crooked auditors and clerks, but our current first-time all mail-in vote is gonna also be the first time voting for several folks up here and they are ready as can be to be "challenged", cause they've got their court papers (and voting rights) in hand! I'm looking forward to the local reps trying to go up against this crowd, too. It could get nasty, ha!

[demigoddess]

35. i've been getting calls, lots of calls trying to find out if I am voting

democrat. I think they are rounding up names for challenges. I hang up

[Carolab]

12. Here in Minnesota my boyfriend went to vote in our primary

for the mayoral and school board race. He has ALWAYS voted and has lived at the same address with me for the past five years. He voted against Bush in the last election. When he went to vote in the primary he was told he was NOT registered and had to re-register. They had me listed (same address) but not him even though he is listed as the property owner on the address.

[DoYouEverWonder]

21. Makes you wonder

if this is one of the Repugs little tricks that they've been pulling all over the country. It's really sad when you already know that the only way you can win an election is to cheat.

[struggle4progress]

30. Does Minnesota allow "provisional" ballots?

[Carolab]

39. No

http://www.moveleft.com/moveleft_essay_2005_02_15_voting_rights_provisional_ballot_rules_differ_from_state_to_state.asp

No, generally--because of same day registration.

However, newly registered voters are not allowed to vote without ID. And they have addressed how this affects college students.

http://www.fairvote.org/?page=219&articlemode=showspecific&showarticle=634

[goodboy]

14. Andy would've been all over this... (nt)

[The Roux Comes First]

15. "Mistake" = "getting caught." A written apology will suffice. n/t

[banana republican]

16. I live in King County

Time to go Elephant Hunting.......

[TheWatcher]

17. Until we start prosecuting and jailing these inhuman thugs

This is what we can expect from here on out.

People need to wake up to the fact that this is deliberate, and fully intended with malice and predjudice.

This stupid bitch knew EXACTLY what she was doing, and now that she got caught, she wants to "apologize."

My response, as a Resident of King County.

FUCK YOU, YOU WORTHLES LYING PIECE OF UNADULTERATED DISHONEST SHIT.

FUCK ALL OF YOU.

You have made it absolutely clear you want to wage a social, spiritual, moral, and civil war on ANYONE who is not like you. You don't make mistakes. You do things with malice and full intent.

Fuck the lot of you cowardly little snivelling twits.

I don't want your apology.

I want you shamed.

I want you humilated.

I want you accountable.

I want you in JAIL.

You want a WAR, you small, insiginificant NOTHING?

Be careful what you wish for.

Be VERY careful.

[ninkasi]

18. Ok, just another Republican dirty trick....

Partyurns out that Lacey and his neighbors were just a few among at least 140 King County voters who were wrongly challenged by Sotelo, who chairs the King County Republican Party’s “Voter Registration Integrity Project.” Sotelo could not be reached for comment on Friday morning, when The Stranger first reported the mistakes on our blog, but Chris Vance, chairman of the state Republican Party later confirmed for The Stranger that a serious mistake had been made."

They call this "Voter Registration Integrity Project." That's the first clue. They always do the opposite of what they say. "Voter Registration Integrity Project" means let's play dirty tricks and stop Democratic votes. These criminals have no shame. Until they start serving serious prison time, they will not stop. They do NOT want fair elections, or a democracy.

[Vinca]

19. Here we go again. A case for another "memory" defense.

"Sorry, Mr. Special Prosecutor, I forgot it was an apartment building 140 times. Oops . . . my bad."

[0007]

23. Totally outrageous.......Democracy huh? This is all those assholes

talk about. It's time to knock FAUX News, Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity, Ann Coulter and George W. Bush on they're kinky ass, and show them a real Democracy worth fighting for.

This kind of shit is happening all over the United States of America and we better wake up before it's to late!

I'll give em an apology, and I don't mean with meaningless words.

[lakeguy]

24. why not make it so that if you challange someone's right to vote,

and you are wrong, you can't vote. seems fair to me if the challenged voter has to go through all this trouble of "proving" the right to vote.

[mod mom]

25. Challenging 101 straight from the Blackwell playbook. Someone should

get this to John Conyers office (House Judiciary Dem Staff) since they are one of a few Dems willing to fight for voters rights.

[Raster]

26. rethuglicans in WA state are pulling out all stops to interfere with

legal, lawful, FAIR elections. sotelo is a rethuglican bitch, plain and simple. she doesn't want every vote counted, just those that count rethuglican. It is no secret that the thugs have added WA to the wish list. Yep, elephant hunting... bring a big nug. A very big nug.

Dog is my co-pilot.

[SeattleGirl]

38. I'll join in the hunt!

In 2004, I voted absentee for the first time. My polling place is less than a mile from my house, and because I work from home, I took a break every hour to drive pasyt the polling place to see if everything looked okay. Where I live in Seattle, there is a large black population, and at one of the caucus meetings, a black couple brought up the fact that our voting place has locked doors (it's in a low-income housing apartment building, with mostly elderly people living there). This couple said they felt their right to vote was stymied because they always had to wait for someone to open the door.

Well, one of the voting place workers is my neighbor, and I would trust this man with my life, as well as my vote. I mentioned it to him, and he made sure there was someone at the door to let people in all day. He is also fighting to get the polling place changed so the library a few block away, so the locked door thing is no problem.

Anyway, I'm happy to report that my "drive-by's" last year did not show any problems, but I do try to keep my eye out for anything suspicious. I will DEFINITELY be out Elephant hunting, starting with Ms. Sotelo and Mr. Vance.

[Evergreen Emerald]

28. and like ants

for every vote we see they attempted to thwart there are 100 others we do not see.

[IndyOp]

29. My email to the author - Thanks & Encouraging him to write more!

Dear Eli Sanders -

I read your article, "Partisan Pruning: State Republican Party Wrongly Tries to Prevent at Least 140 King County Residents from Voting" online.

Please consider extending your report about King County to note similar actions from the GOP in previous elections. For example, in the run up to last year's Presidential Election, the Ohio GOP used a similar strategy in Summit County to try and permit 976 people from voting.

Even though these challenges may be thrown out well before the election, many people who receive legal notices in the mail will simply not have the time or go to the effort to verify their registration - especially if they think they will have to take the time to appear in court.

Courts Stall Ohio Voter Registration Challenges
<http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4133515>

October 29, 2004 · Republican efforts to challenge thousands of voter registrations in Ohio were stopped by a federal judge this week, and on Friday, a federal appeals court let that ruling stand. State GOP officials had challenged thousands of registrations as fraudulent, basing their suspicions about some on the fact that party mailings sent to voters were returned to sender. In a contentious hearing in Akron on Thursday, Summit County election officials dismissed all 976 challenges brought forth by the state Republican Party. NPR's Pam Fessler reports. More:
<http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4133515>

Best wishes!
(IndyOp)

[brentspeak]

32. Republican activists are actually encouraged to

find creative ways to stifle voting.

[Rainscents]

33. Oh, here we go again with GOP bullshit!

Do they ever fucking STOP??? Looks like they been caught with their pants down!

[Missy Vixen]

34. I'm another one of the challenged voters

I received multiple letters in the mail yesterday on this subject; the letters state that I am legally allowed to vote in Washington. I will be looking forward to Monday morning. It seems a phone call to an attorney will be in my future.

I have been legally registered to vote in Washington State since age 18.

I will also be asking the King County Elections board why my voting registration is any of Lori Sotelo's business in the first place.

Julie

[sam sarrha]

36. I am just curious what this Dick Weeds authority is to stop voters

[BJW]

42. Contact Info for Sotelo

Vice Chairman
Lori Sotelo
845 106th Ave NE Ste 110
Bellevue, WA 98004
[phone]

[Missy Vixen]

44. If you all want additional information on this matter

please go to www.horsesass.org. David has done a great job unearthing the story on the voting registration challenges (guess who's involved? Evidently, he's not in enough hot water with Patrick Fitzgerald, he's looking for other sandboxes to play in...) and he also has some pretty explosive comments about David Irons.

Julie

[Ravy]

47. I am not a lawyer, but...

I believe that if Lori Sotelo swore, under the penalty of perjury, that I was illegally registered and her claim was a lie, I would make it my life's work to see that the penalty was enacted.

[Canadian Socialist]

50. This part caught my eye

"Although Sotelo’s name appeared on the challenge affidavits, Vance said, the list of voters to challenge was actually created by volunteers and interns cross-referencing storage unit addresses with voter registration rolls. Sotelo just signed on the dotted line, he said."

So, does this mean Sotelo never read the affidavits? If so, how could she swear what was in them was true?

[Missy Vixen]

53. Good question

I had a nice conversation with the King County Prosecutor's office this morning.

Julie

[Ravy]

40. Just more GOP perjury. Lock 'em up!

[BJW]

41. I hope these people make a huge stink!

And press the AG to bring perjury charges against this woman. In order to complete a declaration on a legal document you have to have sufficient personal knowledge of the truth of the matter. From my read, the situation isn't any sort of innocent mistake over inadvertent oversight.

This woman likely filled out a declaration stating something like this:

I declare under penalty of perjury under the laws of the State of Washington that the foregoing is true and correct to the best of my knowledge and belief.

MY KNOWLEDGE and BELIEF are the operative phrases here.

You have to have sufficient PERSONAL knowledge in order to have an informed belief that what you are saying is absolutely true, to the point that you are also attesting that you willing accept the penalties for making a false statement.

I'm not entirely certain on the case law in Washington, but I hope it's not a legitimate defense in this type of case to say, well, I was too lazy to personally check, and I accidentally relied on bad information from somebody else.

Voting is a fundamental, constituionally guaranteed right, and this woman, and the repugs, fully intended to take that right away from their fellow citizens.

I'm wondering what happens in the case of citizens who, for some reason or other, didn't get the letter, and don't know they're being challenged like this? If they sent it certified, and if it got returned, is it automatically assumed that the citizen's voting rights are then removed?

[Missy Vixen]

43. Letters are sent regular mail

>If they sent it certified, and if it got returned, is it automatically assumed that the citizen's voting rights are then removed?<

My letter was sent with the typical first-class postage. The reason it got opened so quickly was because my DH is running for mayor of our hometown; I wondered if King County Elections was sending me some information I had previously asked for. The election is this Tuesday, and the letters were dated November 3rd -- in other words, there wouldn't have been enough time to appeal if my registration had been disallowed.

I wonder how many of the "challenged" voters are Democrats. This is the first year everyone had to pick a party in Washington State. I'll be asking that question as well when I talk to King County Elections in the morning.

Julie

[BJW]

49. Per the Komo Report...

...<Each of those people received a certified letter, challenging their right to vote..."

I hope you've saved your envelope!

[Missy Vixen]

52. I have the envelopes and the letters

I should clarify that I didn't lose my voting privileges after a review from King County Election board, but I'm pretty pissed that others did.

Julie

[Reciprocity]

45. Humm

Shouldn't Sotelo have to prove this is not a valid address and not the other way around?

[progressivebydesign]

46. No, it was actually 1,900 voters kept from voting.

Only 140 have had their rights restored... here's a link to the correct information: http://www.komotv.com/stories/40106.htm

1,900 were challenged, and boy are they pissed! The Elections dept. has to staff a phone bank today, Saturday, to deal with the angry calls. The rethuglicans in Washington State are desperate and very, very, aggressive and ugly.

[Reciprocity]

48. More..

Voters Flood King County Elections Office With Calls

November 5, 2005

By April Zepeda

<snip>
Last month, Republicans walked into the election office saying they had iron-clad evidence that more than 1,900 people were illegally registered at post office boxes and storage sheds. Each of those people received a certified letter, challenging their right to vote.

<snip>
All 100 people living in one downtown Seattle apartment house were challenged. Republicans have since dropped 140 challenges, but they insist the vast majority of their challenges -- about 1,800 now -- are valid.

<snip>
State law presumes the address is correct on your voter registration information, it will be up to the Republicans to prove otherwise before the votes will be thrown out
http://www.komotv.com/stories/40106.htm


GOP admits it erred in challenging some voters' registration
By Eric Pryne
Seattle Times staff reporter

<snip>
In each letter, Logan also included a copy of the challenge itself, in which King County GOP Vice Chairwoman Lori Sotelo attests "under penalty of perjury" that she has "personal knowledge" that, contrary to state law, the voter doesn't reside at the address at which he or she is registered.

<snip>
A Seattle Times analysis shows 93 percent of the challenged voters are registered in precincts that voted for Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry last year. But King County voted for Kerry overwhelmingly; he took 88 percent of its precincts.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/politics/2002605462_challenges05m.html

[sepia_steel]

51. Same old shit.

someone needs to charge these filthy Pukes.