pudge's Journal: Letter: Right to Vote

Tuesday, for the first time in my life, I voted absentee, because I was forced to, in the Fire District 18 vote.

No one told me this was happening. Indeed, I recently attended a meeting where County Auditor Bob Terwilliger and Election Manager Carolyn Diepenbrock talked to us about the upcoming election changes. They told us that mandatory absentee voting would begin with this year's primary. So when the absentee ballots came to my house, I very nearly threw them away, trusting the word of our elected official.

But to make sure, I first emailed Diepenbrock, who informed me that she had misinformed me. When I asked why no one had bothered to tell us we were forced to vote by absentee, she said the Fire District was going to do that. Well, I have the literature from the Fire District -- passed out at the annual pancake breakfast I attended, and when the firemen walked door-to-door -- and it says nothing about it.

I wonder how many poll voters were disenfranchised Tuesday due to this misinformation and lack of notice, and I wonder if the county will do its duty to investigate and hold Terwilliger responsible.

Update: Because of the misinformation, lack of notice, and incompetence of the County Auditor, my wife and I cannot vote.

We have no stamps, and my wife has an infant and four-year-old with her, and can't wait in line to get them. So, as the ballot envelope said we could, she went to drop off our ballots at the polling place. But the envelope was wrong: none of our local polling places have dropoff locations. My wife called the county auditor's offce, who said we could go to Lake Stevens or Stanwood to drop off the ballots, but they have no directions to either location.

Or, she can lug the kids down to the County Auditor's office, presumably, although they did not give this to her as an option. And it's too far for them to go anyway.

If anyone cares, we had marked our ballots to approve of the levy increase, not that it matters, since our votes won't be counted.

If I can get any help, I plan to sue to have the election thrown out.

At least its just a primary

[SiliconJesus]

If this were the 'real thing' I'd guess that there'd be grounds to contest the vote.

Re:At least its just a primary

[pudge]

No, you misunderstand. This was not the primary. We were told there would not be mandatory all-mail voting until the primary, but we are having it now anyway, without any notice at all. This was a real vote, to raise taxes (or not) to pay for the Fire District.

So let's say I am a poll voter. I get this absentee ballot in the mail. But I was told the week before by the County Auditor that we could still use the polls until the primary. So I throw it away, and oops, I don't get to vote.

Or perhaps I am a

Re:At least its just a primary

[SiliconJesus]

Is it expected to be a landslide one way or the other? I'm assuming not many are going to vote no to something as emotionally charged as "Giving Firefighters the Funding they Need." or whatever other sappy tagline has been assigned to it.

Re:At least its just a primary

[pudge]

I have no idea what it is expected to be, but since surely others, like me, will not have the opportunity to vote, the results cannot be trusted, whatever they are (unless, of course, you have more YES or NO votes than 50 percent of the registered voters in the district).

Just goes to show

[StalinsNotDead]

You can't trust anyone named Bob Terwilliger [wikipedia.org].

Sorry, I couldn't help it.

Re:Just goes to show

[pudge]

Yep. Except in this case, he's a hardcore Democrat. But, I imagine, if the "real" Sideshow Bob lived in Western Washington, where the Democrats have all the power, he'd be a Democrat too.

Pudge

[SimianOverlord]

No one took your right away to vote; you could still have voted, but you decided not to. Or at least that is how it sounds.

Over here in the UK, your case would most certainly be thrown out. It is no-ones responsibility but your own to ensure you have the correct information.

Re:Pudge

[pudge]

No one took your right away to vote; you could still have voted, but you decided not to. Or at least that is how it sounds.

Then you must not have understood what you read.

If I had thrown away my ballot when I received it, it would have been based on the incorrect information provided to me by the County Auditor himself, who said I would be able to vote at the polls until the primary in September. If I had done that, I would have lost my right to vote in this election, due to no fault of my own.

And what act

I understand the misinformation point

[SimianOverlord]

But over here, and over there as well, officials are given quite a lot of leeway in this regard. Unless you could prove deliberate foul play, deliberate misinformation, I still think you would lose your case, not least because you could have voted for the price of a stamp, or could have sent it off anyway, and made the gesture of demanding the money for the stamp back, on principle, which they would probably have given you just to walk away.

Re:I understand the misinformation point

[pudge]

But over here, and over there as well, officials are given quite a lot of leeway in this regard.

Not in regard to misinformation, no, they are not.

Unless you could prove deliberate foul play, deliberate misinformation, I still think you would lose your case

Nope. There's no reason it has to be deliberate. Indeed, the Fourteenth Amendment leaves it open-ended: if the right of people to vote for President/Vice President electors, or federal Representatives, or statewide Executive, Judicial, or Legislative off