Washington State

Oh, it’s Election Time Again…….

Endorsements

Sen. Derek Stanford, 1st LD, Rep. Davina Duerr, 1st LD, Rep. Shelley Kloba, 1st LD, King County Executive Dow Constantine, King County Councilmember Claudia Balducci, Snohomish County Executive Dave Somers, Snohomish County Councilmember Megan Dunn, Snohomish County Councilmember Jared Mead, Bothell Mayor Mason Thompson, Bothell Deputy Mayor Rami Al-Kabra, Bothell Councilmember Jenne Alderks, Bothell Councilmember Amanda Dodd

“I’m plugged into various volunteer communities around Bothell beside Planning Commission”

“Elected 3rd Vice Chair of the 1st Legislative District Democrats, and previously served on the King County Democratic Central Committee.”
“A Democratic Precinct Committee Officer in every place I’ve lived in Bothell, helping people get in touch with their legislators and register to vote.”
“A 2020 US Census Enumerator throughout Bothell to help accurately describe our neighborhoods and get federal dollars for infrastructure.”

There is little doubt what this person will bring to the table if elected to the Bothell City Council. Carston is listed in the Progressive Voters Guide and is guaranteed to live up to his reputation. He is another democrat plant in their goal to forever change Washington State into a Kalifornia north. He will encourage a woke agenda to the council and expansion of “inclusion” “equity” and all of the other buzz words of this generation. All you need to do is read his statement in the voter’s pamphlet.

Let’s keep far left agendas out of our Snohomish county cities. Vote no on Carston Curd.

Washington Politics and Elections

Washington State moved to all mail in or Dropbox ballots many years ago. I have met some who remember when Washington voted like most states at the time by in person voting. I don’t know what the statistics are but I imagine most of the voting takes place in most of the states now with mail in or what it is supposed to be, absentee ballots. Even when we lived in Kalifornia, my wife and I started voting absentee. It started once we were actually going to be absent and then it just became more convenient. Oregon is another state that has has mail in ballots for many years. This goes back even to the mid nineties. My father who lived in a rural area was all for it because they would have to travel to vote. Even then it bothered him that there was nobody there to check your ID.

Voting, at least how you vote has just become a political issue for both parties. What’s missing is the purpose of voting, the duty of voting and the consequences of voting, or not. Our country was established based on the rights of the people. This is clearly set in the constitution and the Bill of Rights. The writers of those documents did their best to protect the majority which I mean as citizens from the politicians. Every article of the constitution is limiting the government. The problem is that “the government” has grown into a bunch of people and is overrun with non elected officials given powers that are opposed to the constitution. Look at the current ruling by the Supreme Court with regards to the EPA. They rectified and limited the powers of an agency that has run amok. Personal note, the EPA was formed during Nixion’s presidency and for many, including myself the absolute worst decision he ever made. CAL EPA is even worse that the federal. This was one of the departments that was weaponized by the Obama administration. Waters of the US was a tool they used to push regulation, even to the point of claiming some cattle ponds were governed by this decree. The IRS was also used by him, yes Obama personally to target people who opposed his amoral governing. He should be in jail for many causes.

But I didn’t start this with the intention of taking on all the ills of our government and it’s passed participants. I wanted to discuss specifically elections in Washington, though my thoughts may be relevant in other states as well. The state of Washington went to all vote by mail in 2005. This was law passed by the legislature. All ballots are intended to be submitted by drop box or by mail. You can however vote in person or drop off your ballot at certain government offices, such as the county auditors office for Snohomish County in Everett. Are the drop boxes monitored, nope. Should they be? Yes, in my opinion.

I have worked several elections in my county. The outline that you can find on the Washington state site is accurate as to the path that the ballots are supposed to take from vote to election. I have worked in several of the sections during the elections, including opening ballots and scanning them. I can say that I found little area in most of the activities for the ability to engage in election fraud. There are two areas on the floor (which I refer to as the area where vote counting takes place). In Washington this is performed by each county. If you go back a few steps you need to start with where does the voter register to vote. Here it is mostly handled by the DMV or department of licensing. When you apply for a drivers license, you are asked if you want to register to vote. That seems safe enough however, Washington grants real driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants. There is NO indication or mark on them showing their immigration status. It will only say Federal Limits Apply whis is on every license that is not enhanced. In other words, no different than most. A question you might ask is who insurers them? This one of the first areas I would identify as something that has a potential for fraud. Wishing the election work area are groups handling various tasks. You can refer to the chart provided by the state for the general flow of the ballots. What the flow chart doesn’t mention is adjudication, which is a specific area within the voting center. Like the scanner area, it is a secure area which is behind a fence from the rest of the space. Workers in pairs review ballots that were deemed by either the people who opened the ballots or the scanners to be illegible as to the voters intention. There is a whole article on judging these and I won’t go into what constitutes a ballot needing adjudication. However, this is an area where some dubious activity could be possible but it would take both members of the team to effectively commit a fraud here. Since Washington does not use voting machines, we’re really left with one big area where the vote could be manipulated. That is after the votes have been scanned into the servers on site. The Washington voting website says that the servers are not hooked up to the internet or any other network. That is really hard to verify because while the servers are behind the same fence the scanners and the adjudication personnel are, there is at least one laptop that is out of the cage. I can only speak of Snohomish County. I know that it is possible to delete batches of ballots there. If a fraudulent ballot batch could be introduced, it could be manipulated. Let me say this though. From the time the ballots come in to the work area, they are tracked with a batch number and sequence. The votes are not counted until they are scanned. It is at that point that candidate A or B votes are counted. They may not be tabulated but the scanning software has recorded the vote for each ballot.

Let’s go back to the ballot boxes. In the 2020 elections there was every indication that they were stuffed with multiple batches of ballots by individuals who had no legal rights to be handling other’s ballots. In many instances the boxes themselves were illegal according to their own state voting laws. Washington along with only a few states have no mention of vote harvesting or who can turn in votes for other voters. This is according to Ballot Pedia. Therefore, can Washington enforce any laws with regards to stuffing ballot boxes? It doesn’t look like it to me. Is there mass harvesting of ballots from facilities like rest homes or other care facilities. I believe so. Are ballots collected or stolen in the mail. Yes, I personally know of two cases of third party friends having it happen. Washington has a huge majority of liberals, many who would do anything to thwart conservatism in any form.

we should all be wary of voting fraud in our state. Should Washington return to voting in person? Absolutely. Should Washington have one day for the elections, absolutely. Should Washington get rid of mail in ballots, absolutely with the exception of specific conditions. Outside of an emergency, what stops a voter who knows they are not going to be available to vote on that designated day to vote in person early? By law voters are given the time to vote. Voters need to present their identification for multiple reasons and there is no reason why it cannot be presented to vote. The people of Washington must demand voter integrity. Washingtonians must demand fraud free elections.

Why I’m voting No on School Bonds and Measures

Teachers deserve good pay. For most I still believe it was a profession chosen because the person wanted to help children. However, the days of teachers being underpaid disappeared a long time ago. Nowadays most states have collective bargaining for all teachers and many for the entire staff. Washington belongs to that group. While every bond measure or ballot measure is sold on “helping the students or teachers” the sad part is that most of the moneys received are sucked into the administration. With few exceptions, school districts are op heavy with administrators, superintendents and other “specialists.”

Washington currently has a special election scheduled for most counties and for a majority of them, the election is about ballot measures and bonds related to further funding school districts. Many push the theory that seniors invariably vote against such measures because they have no kids in the system. From my research, this is false. Most like me believe our children deserve a good education and recognize that it takes support financially to do this. Though I looked at several of the measures from a couple of districts, I can only speak to the couple near me.

The measures talk about extending taxes from revenue received by the county in property taxes. This is a normal and common means of collection for school districts. These are based on a percentage of property taxes on buildings. There are several other methods that the districts receive funds and those are from fees collected during the development and permitting process. These are collected on a square foot bases or unit bases. Remember this is over and above the revenue received from property taxes. For instance, the North Shore School district receives close to $1,600 a unit for apartments built. They collect a little under $5,000 per home built. Other districts are similar. This information is never included in the explanatory area of ballot measures. This information is publicly available on the respective government sites.

Within your voter pamphlet each measure will have a pro and con with advocates or proponents speaking why you should vote to pass or defeat each measure. In school measures the advocates most always try to influence the reader by saying how the money is needed in the classrooms and teachers are underpaid. I’ve reviewed the pay and benefits for a few of the districts and in my opinion, these kind of statements are patently untrue. In North Shore for instance, the advocates wrote that the teachers pay amounted to $52,000 per year. This figure comes from the school district site itself. What the proponents of the measure don’t say is the benefit package that all employees receive along with their employment. A first year teacher in elementary grades will receive slightly less than $120,000 in pay and benefits while principals and vice principals receive $164,000-$187,000. District level superintendents receive in the neighborhood of $230,000 or more depending on the district. All districts that I reviewed were under collective bargaining.

Well I’ve established that while school teachers and other employees are not under paid, many deserve good wages. It is for our kids. So why am I against these measures? It goes beyond pay or intent, especially now. I think the voter needs to look beyond all of the hyperbole of why you should vote yes but how has the previous moneys been spent. It’s pretty easy to say that these schools need repairs if you’ve visited any site. Looking at rooms in Northshore and Shoreline, it’s easy to say they need upgrades, including painting. The districts are required by law to publish annual budgets. Have they adhered to them? Why does it appear that much of the maintenance has been deferred and in many instances ignored. Remember most of the public schools were closed for over a year in this so called “pandemic.” While most staff continued to receive their pay and benefits, the campuses remained empty. They incurred lower utility costs and also other maintenance costs at a minimum. What did the school districts do with the savings, moreover what have the districts done with the moneys they’ve received throughout their existence? These are things that should able to be asked in public meetings but budget and bond proposals do not get on the calendar, nor in the publics attention.

You, your neighbors or relatives have been affected by this pandemic narrative yet the school districts and most public agencies thrive. Isn’t it time for them to be accountable?

The Editor