King County Republicans taking ballots
King County Elections has posted an announcement on its home page about the GOP trying to collect ballots, and saying, basically, don’t give them your ballot. “We recommend that voters return ballots to an official King County Elections ballot drop-off location or through the US Postal Service,” the website advises. In other words, don’t trust the GOP.County elections spokeswoman Kim van Ekstrom explains they found out about the GOP trying to collect ballots after they received “a call to our phone bank, and we want voters to know we are aware of this activity.”
Republican organizers are promising to turn them in. However, King County Elections advises that ballots should be taken directly to drop boxes (list here: http://www.kingcounty.gov/elections/voting/ballotdropboxes/bdblocations.aspx) or taken to a post office and securely placed in the U.S. Mail.
My guess is that the Republicans intend to throw out all ballots from King County–they won’t mind disenfranchising a few of their own if they can statistically disenfranchise even more Democrats. Remember Lori Sotelo in 2005? She took out sworn affidavits that hundreds of people (she swore she knew them personally) had voted without being eligible. These were voters registered at mail box shops and various businesses. Some were homeless–one was outed and lost his job. Others lived on the premises of their businesses, a fact that Ms Richtwit could not conceive of. Some were even Republicans, but she didn’t care as long as most of the people she fingered were Democrats.