Election's bad taste lingers for many

By Jerry Cornfield
Everett Herald columnist   06 March 2005

Dave Schmidt calls them the "129 blades of grass on a baseball diamond."

They are the margin of difference in the Nov. 2 governor's race and the cause of the election reform madness gripping Olympia.

Schmidt, a practical Republican state senator from Mill Creek, is worried that his colleagues might be overreacting with all of the reform measures they're trying to pass this year.

He said they need to focus on the purpose of the legislative surgery already under way. That is to draft clear rules, impose consistent enforcement and achieve confidence so that in future elections all voters are legal, all votes are valid and the correct person is declared the winner.

That may not be enough for the 250 people who packed the Snohomish County PUD auditorium in Everett on Wednesday. For most of them, the correct person did not win in November, and it is fueling their calls for change.

They came to hear Bob Williams, leader of the Evergreen Freedom Foundation, who has done his own investigation of the election.

Williams called for scrubbing every name from the voter rolls and forcing everyone to register again. He said it's the only way to erase the names of felons, dead people and illegal immigrants. The crowd erupted in cheers.

When he talked of seeking a federal grand jury probe of the election, they applauded.

When he told how some counties want elections with only mail-in ballots, audience members shook their heads. Absentee voting, he said, is open to tampering, coercion and fraud, earning him more applause.

These voters were angry and frustrated. They are not alone. Around Washington, many have been unable to rinse out the bad taste of the sullied gubernatorial election.

Secretary of State Sam Reed, the target of much of the scorn in Everett that night, knows this and is trying to respond.

"It's imperative that we act decisively," he said last week.

To the demand for everyone to re-register, he points out that federal law doesn't allow it. However, in January 2006, when the first statewide voter database is done, he will send it to the Department of Homeland Security so the names can be checked and illegal residents expunged.

And on March 15, he's bringing Oregon Secretary of State Bill Bradbury to Seattle to explain how and why Oregon has been able to hold mail ballot elections for 20 years without any outbreak of fraud.

Legislators also are trying to let voters know they hear the call for change.

On Friday, the state Senate passed bills to give military voters more information on voting, require auditors to draw up procedure manuals and allow county leaders the option of holding mail ballot elections.

This week, the Senate will debate holding the primary at an earlier date, making provisional ballots distinctive and requiring voters to show identification at the polls.

"We can improve things from 99.8 percent to 99.9 percent," Reed said. "We're never going to have an absolutely perfect system."