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Today’s Coeur d’Alene Press has a follow-up article which confirms Mary Souza’s Newsletter report on October 29 that the Kootenai County Clerk, Tote-a-Vote Dan English , intends to open absentee ballot envelopes starting Monday, a day before the Tuesday election, in clear violation of Idaho election laws. So, why are the ballot envelopes being opened early? More importantly, why is this a problem? Read on.
According to the Press article, the absentee ballot envelopes are being opened early for no other reason than Tote-a-Vote Dan hopes to have the final election counts finished on Tuesday night. So Tote-a-Vote Dan and his cronies at the Secretary of State’s office are going to compromise the integrity of the absentee ballots for speed. No other reason … according to the Press.
As Mary Souza pointed out in her newsletter, opening the absentee ballot envelopes before the polls are open on election day is forbidden by Idaho Code 34-1008. It is also forbidden by Idaho Code 35-1005, which reads
34-1005.Return of absentee ballot. The return envelope shall be mailed or delivered to the officer who issued the same; provided, that an absentee ballot must be received by the issuing officer by 8:00 p.m. on the day of election before such ballot may be counted.
Upon receipt of an absent elector’s ballot the county clerk of the county wherein such elector resides shall verify the authenticity of the affidavit and shall write or stamp upon the envelope containing the same, the date and hour such envelope was received in his office. He shall safely keep and preserve all absent electors’ ballots unopened until the time prescribed for delivery to the judges in accordance with this act.
But as we learned in the election contest lawsuit, Tote-a-Vote Dan doesn’t believe failing to obey state law is a problem. Apparently neither does Secretary of State Ben Ysursa. So, what is the problem?
If the ballots are opened early, then the people “preparing” the ballots to be run through the machines see the votes before the polls even open. They see how absent electors voted before the polls open. Does anyone else not see a problem with this?
If the people handling the ballots are dishonest, they can add marks where no marks were made before. For example, suppose Voter #1 doesn’t care to vote for either Candidate A or Candidate B or Candidate Write-in, so Voter #1 does not make a mark for anyone in that particular race. But the dishonest election office ballot handler has been co-opted to support Candidate A, so that ballot handler surreptitiously marks Voter #1’s ballot for Candidate A as the ballot is being backfolded. Suddenly an honest 20-vote victory for Candidate B becomes instead a 5-vote victory for Candidate A. Making a mark where none was before can occur anytime, but early opening of the absentee ballot envelopes exposes the already marked (or unmarked) ballots for a longer period. The longer the exposure, the greater the chances of “security” breaking down and allowing even a few minutes of unauthorized, unescorted access to open ballots.
As ballot envelopes are opened and the ballots themselves handled and backfolded, election workers can get a sense of how the voting for a particular candidate or issue is going. The polls aren’t open yet, so after concluding that Candidate A and Candidate B are uncomfortably close (from the perspective of a crooked election worker), that election worker can “leak” information to the right people to get more voters for the favored candidate to show up and vote in person. Day-of-election voter registration and the ease of counterfeiting authenticating documents makes voter fraud and elector impersonation a real possibility. Given the commercial availability of covert digital imaging and recording technology contained in a variety of host concealments, an exact image of every early-opened ballot can be surreptitiously obtained. Since absentee ballot envelope opening starts Monday in Kootenai County, there would be plenty of time to process the digitally recorded information and adjust election day voters (and if necessary, votes) accordingly.
The Idaho legislature passed election laws to protect the integrity of the vote. The Secretary of State and his ever-compliant, always unquestioning county clerks are perfectly willing to undermine the integrity of the vote for … speed. Laziness and incompetence trumps integrity in Idaho — again.
Danny likes to be in the paper. getting done ‘early’ trumps doing the right thing. Old news for “Tote a Vote” Danny. His record of misfeasance and dereliction is decades long.
Comment by justinian — October 31, 2010 @ 1:00 pm
Anarchy (from Greek: ἀναρχίᾱ anarchíā, “without ruler”) may refer to any of the following:
• “No rulership or enforced authority.”[1]
• “A social state in which there is no governing person or group of people, but each individual has absolute liberty (without the implication of disorder).”[2]
• “Absence of government; a state of lawlessness due to the absence or inefficiency of the supreme power; political disorder.”[3]
• “Absence or non-recognition of authority and order in any given sphere.”[4]
• “Acting without waiting for instructions or official permission… The root of anarchism is the single impulse to do it yourself: everything else follows from this.” [5]
Lets see, # 1, 2, and 3 certainly apply.
Comment by Happy Trails — October 31, 2010 @ 6:11 pm
Happy Trails,
It seems to me that 4 applies, since Ysursa and English refuse to recognize either the authority of the people or of the laws enacted by the Legislative Department.
And 5 certainly applies. Ysursa unilaterally decided that regardless of what the Legislative Department (Legislature) says, the Executive Department (Secretary of State) is the final authority for deciding what the law is. Darn that pesky Idaho Constitution, Article II, Section 1.
Anarchy. Good word. The “honorable” Senior Judge Charles Hosack used that word to describe the behavior of the people who supported Jim Brannon’s election contest.
Comment by Bill — October 31, 2010 @ 6:40 pm
Tipping towards Timocracy or thugocracy.
imho
Comment by Pariah — October 31, 2010 @ 8:10 pm