Your apartment building does not exist *update*

[IndieSnob]

Before I explain what I'm about to post about, please don't turn this into a petty flamewar. Also note I am not calling out all republicans, whether they be in the presidential administration, conservative posters on this board, etc.. This only has to deal with the King County Republican Party.

My girlfriend received a registered letter in the mail informing her that that Lori Sotelo (Sr. Vice Chairman) of the King County Republican Party has challenged her as a legal voter. The letter stipulates that the physical address of her apartment building does not exists. So, when she votes, not only will her vote not count, but she has to go to a hearing, on a work day no less. Every neighbor asked so far has received the same notice.

Ok, so you say no big deal? Well it's pretty damn easy for this woman to google the apartment address and see a phone number listed, and call the building. She could also drive from her home and see there is an actual building. Also, why has King County allowed this to happen without just simply verifying the address.

Now yes I know we just had the big to do over the governers election in 2004, and we should be safe. But to simply not do two minutes of legwork and possibly nullify sixty votes is an absolute sham.


Folks, we need to be careful. If we allow these kinds of things to become common, we lose our voices.

When I get a chance I will scan the letter.


Update:

Here is the story from the PI, with a shot of people that live in the apartment building.

PI

 

[Perknose]

That same Republican operative just told me that YOU don't exist. :shocked:

Seriously, though, this is a dead nuts abuse of power.

 

[EatSpam]

Let me guess... she voted for the "wrong" party.

 

[IndieSnob]

She's registered as independent and votes democrat most of the time. AFAIK everyone in the building is registered as a democrat, but I won't claim to speak for those that I don't know. I also won't speculate that if there is a registered republican in the building that they didn't get one.

 

[YoshiSato]

Wow I'ts like that Family Guy episode.

I would just break away from the city and longer pay city tax because the building does not exist.


"Leaving King County, Now Entering the Sato Empire"

 

[DaveSimmons]

Republican party officials in WA have been making wild claims of intentional fraud by election officials, as opposed to simple incompetence, ever since the last recount gave the governorship to a Deomcrat.

There was a trial, during which they continued to make wild claims in press conferences, while not actually bothering to back them up with evidence or make the claims in court.

Their new strategy to win offices and sway public opinion seems to be to challenge voters and expose incompetence, but only in districts that are majority Democrat. Voter fraud is OK in Republican-dominant locations.

Some of the "fraud" they've exposed really wasn't: they turned in a list of women who registered at a new location under their maiden name after divorce or separation, even though there is no evidence any of these women voted twice.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2002557702_elections13m.html

 

[charrison]

Originally posted by: IndieSnob
Before I explain what I'm about to post about, please don't turn this into a petty flamewar. Also note I am not calling out all republicans, whether they be in the presidential administration, conservative posters on this board, etc.. This only has to deal with the King County Republican Party.

My girlfriend received a registered letter in the mail informing her that that Lori Sotelo (Sr. Vice Chairman) of the King County Republican Party has challenged her as a legal voter. The letter stipulates that the physical address of her apartment building does not exists. So, when she votes, not only will her vote not count, but she has to go to a hearing, on a work day no less. Every neighbor asked so far has received the same notice.

Ok, so you say no big deal? Well it's pretty damn easy for this woman to google the apartment address and see a phone number listed, and call the building. She could also drive from her home and see there is an actual building. Also, why has King County allowed this to happen without just simply verifying the address.

Now yes I know we just had the big to do over the governers election in 2004, and we should be safe. But to simply not do two minutes of legwork and possibly nullify sixty votes is an absolute sham.


Folks, we need to be careful. If we allow these kinds of things to become common, we lose our voices.

When I get a chance I will scan the letter.

Sounds like this will be a pretty easy problem to correct.

 

[IndieSnob]

Originally posted by: charrison

Originally posted by: IndieSnob
Before I explain what I'm about to post about, please don't turn this into a petty flamewar. Also note I am not calling out all republicans, whether they be in the presidential administration, conservative posters on this board, etc.. This only has to deal with the King County Republican Party.

My girlfriend received a registered letter in the mail informing her that that Lori Sotelo (Sr. Vice Chairman) of the King County Republican Party has challenged her as a legal voter. The letter stipulates that the physical address of her apartment building does not exists. So, when she votes, not only will her vote not count, but she has to go to a hearing, on a work day no less. Every neighbor asked so far has received the same notice.

Ok, so you say no big deal? Well it's pretty damn easy for this woman to google the apartment address and see a phone number listed, and call the building. She could also drive from her home and see there is an actual building. Also, why has King County allowed this to happen without just simply verifying the address.

Now yes I know we just had the big to do over the governers election in 2004, and we should be safe. But to simply not do two minutes of legwork and possibly nullify sixty votes is an absolute sham.


Folks, we need to be careful. If we allow these kinds of things to become common, we lose our voices.

When I get a chance I will scan the letter.

Sounds like this will be a pretty easy problem to correct.

Easy problem or not, do you not agree that they could have spent an extra minute or two to check on the address?

It's not about the time it takes to go to a hearing, it's about them being overzealous and not taking an extra minute to check the facts.

 

[bamacre]

My girlfriend received a registered letter in the mail informing her that that Lori Sotelo (Sr. Vice Chairman) of the King County Republican Party has challenged her as a legal voter. The letter stipulates that the physical address of her apartment building does not exists.

If her address does not exist, why did they bother sending a letter to it?

If I were her, I'd write back and tell them that she received the letter, and that, in and of itself, is proof that the address exists.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Originally posted by: IndieSnob
She's registered as independent and votes democrat most of the time. AFAIK everyone in the building is registered as a democrat, but I won't claim to speak for those that I don't know. I also won't speculate that if there is a registered republican in the building that they didn't get one.

Is there office space on the ground floor? I read in the paper they were being lazy and targeting all condo / apartment dwellers living in buildings that also had a business with mail boxes.

That way they could inflate their numbers for the latest pre-election "fraudzor!!!" press conference without bothering with the pesky due dillegence to separate mailboxes from apartments.

This while accusing election officials of sloppiness. Politics at its finest.

 

[3chordcharlie]

Originally posted by: bamacre

My girlfriend received a registered letter in the mail informing her that that Lori Sotelo (Sr. Vice Chairman) of the King County Republican Party has challenged her as a legal voter. The letter stipulates that the physical address of her apartment building does not exists.

If her address does not exist, why did they bother sending a letter to it?

If I were her, I'd write back and tell them that she received the letter, and that, in and of itself, is proof that the address exists.

*rimshot*

 

[IndieSnob]

Originally posted by: DaveSimmons

Originally posted by: IndieSnob
She's registered as independent and votes democrat most of the time. AFAIK everyone in the building is registered as a democrat, but I won't claim to speak for those that I don't know. I also won't speculate that if there is a registered republican in the building that they didn't get one.

Is there office space on the ground floor? I read in the paper they were being lazy and targeting all condo / apartment dwellers living in buildings that also had a business with mail boxes.

That way they could inflate their numbers for the latest pre-election "fraudzor!!!" press conference without bothering with the pesky due dillegence to separate mailboxes from apartments.

This while accusing election officials of sloppiness. Politics at its finest.

Nope, no office spaces, and nor is it a condo. It's a three floor apartment building with 60 unity. It's in Belltown, which is just two blocks away from Seattle Center (Space Needle) and in technically downtown.

 

[IndieSnob]

Originally posted by: bamacre

My girlfriend received a registered letter in the mail informing her that that Lori Sotelo (Sr. Vice Chairman) of the King County Republican Party has challenged her as a legal voter. The letter stipulates that the physical address of her apartment building does not exists.

If her address does not exist, why did they bother sending a letter to it?

If I were her, I'd write back and tell them that she received the letter, and that, in and of itself, is proof that the address exists.

Heh, she just addressed (no pun intended) to me as well. Seems mighty odd.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Yikes, so the Republican Party is lazy and incompetent in their challenges?

If election officials did that, Repub Chris Vance would be howling "criminal conspiracy" again.

If I received one of these I'd be seeing what I could do to get the party fined / censured for abuse of the challenge process.

 

[Moonbeam]

Originally posted by: bamacre

My girlfriend received a registered letter in the mail informing her that that Lori Sotelo (Sr. Vice Chairman) of the King County Republican Party has challenged her as a legal voter. The letter stipulates that the physical address of her apartment building does not exists.

If her address does not exist, why did they bother sending a letter to it?

If I were her, I'd write back and tell them that she received the letter, and that, in and of itself, is proof that the address exists.

I would write back and tell them I didn't get the letter because the address does not exist.

 

[sandorski]

Sounds like a good reason to not have Parties involved in the Registration process. It doesn't even make sense as bamacre eloquently pointed out.

 

[daniel49]

if it makes you feel better the moron running the elections up there are also sending out lots of double ballots to voters. One women called up to try and straighten it out that they had sent her a ballot for her maiden name and a ballot for her married name.

They straigtened it out by sending her a third ballot.
So if the other side seems a lil jumpy you may understand why..none the less I find it hard to believe its not something that could be settled with a phone call/ and or documentation.

And if its not then your question about King County Govt. is certainly pertinant....many feel Sims has been at best incompetant.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Originally posted by: daniel49
And if its not then your question about King County Govt. is certainly pertinant....many feel Sims has been at best incompetant.

Agreed on that. King County keeps making mistakes year after year and election after election. Sims' great plan to fix things was to bring in outside help because the election managers are apparently too dim to solve their own problems, but for some reason can't be fired.

I just get annoyed at the state Republican party for trying to paint it as a sinister conspiracy to rig the elections, and for making several fraud claims that contained far more errors (percentage-wise) than were in the balloting process they spent tens of thousands of dollars to nit-pick apart.

If the Republicans can't be more accurate spending that much time and money to scrutinize voters, it seems hypocritical to claim proportionally smaller errors by volunteer workers and election officials "must be" an evil vote-rigging plot.

I'd like to see Chris Vance apologize for all of his partisan lies, as well as see Sims and the KC election management given pink slips for their failures.

 

[IndieSnob]

Bump for update.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Seattle Times version: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2002605462_challenges05m.html

"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."

Perjury hm?
I'd be thinking about payback if I lived in a house or apartment that had no post office / mail drop business on the ground floor. Looks like Sotelo was lying in those statements and only had "uh, a pretty good hunch, kinda."

 

[CaptnKirk]

And so the Republican got caught . . . again, "I guess we erred - no harm, no foul"

BS - this is like Katherine Harris' "Welcome to Florida Voting, Class of 2000" just the people got wind of it earlier -
instead of after their votes were discarded.

 

[techs]

Don't you get it? This is not about winning elections fairly anymore.
It's about winning at any cost.
Lying, cheating and stealing are perfectly alright when you are trying to save your City, State, Country from Democrats who want to let Osama rape your daughters.
The Republican Minister for Propagands, Herr Rove, has dictated the terms. You must abide by them.

 

[musicc]

wow, just wow.

 

[techs]

I just had a thought.
google earth?

 

[DaveSimmons]

Originally posted by: techs
I just had a thought.
google earth?

That would have avoided the perjury in challenging single-family homes, but the state Republican party was attempting to target anyone using a mail box, and some apartment complexes do have ground-level businesses.

These challenges were done without meeting the level of "personal knowledge" attested to by the Republicans though, since they didn't bother to double-check which buildings had a mailbox business, or take the time to distinguish between mailbox owners and people living in all of the actual apartments.