Story Published:
Nov 28, 2005 at 6:00 PM PDT
Story Updated:
Aug 31, 2006 at 2:08 AM PDT
SEATTLE - King County ruled Monday on a first round of
voter registration challenges, accepting about 30 percent and
rejecting the rest.
It's only the beginning.
The King County Canvassing Board held hearings last week on this
first batch of 199 challenges - 192 of them from Lori Sotelo,
senior vice president of the King County Republican Party, and
seven others. The board affirmed 58 challenges and rejected 141,
finding those challenges did not meet the "high burden of proof
required by state law," said a news release from county Elections
Director Dean Logan.
The challenges were filed shortly before the Nov. 8 election,
mostly questioning addresses listed by voters. At issue were
nonresidential addresses such as post office boxes.
Sotelo filed 1,944 challenges on Oct. 26, later rescinding more
than 100 of them. Logan's office followed up with letters to the
voters. Some voters went to county offices before the election to
clear things up. Others simply cast "challenged" ballots.
In cases where doubt remains about the validity of challenged
registrations, Logan's office will be contacting voters. When that
does not resolve things, the cases will be forwarded to the office
of King County Prosecutor Norm Maleng for a decision on whether
further action is required. Maleng scheduled a Tuesday news
conference to outline that procedure.
Logan said his office would further review evidence from the
hearings "in an effort to build a partnership in addressing
concern for the accuracy and integrity of the voter rolls without
bias or political motives."
As for the decisions Monday, he said, "the law clearly protects
the voter."
It's up to the challenger to provide the voter's actual address,
Logan said.
County Republicans said most of the board's calls were wrong.
"According to the laws of the State of Washington, those who
register to vote must list a complete residential address where
they are currently residing," said Michael Young, county chairman
for the GOP.
Democrats accused the Republicans of bullying the poor.
"Sotelo's challenges often targeted the downtrodden, those who
for an unknown reason do not have a stable address and must use a
post office box," said a statement from the state Democratic
Party.
"The law requires the challenger to have personal knowledge
that the voter is not legally registered," the release said. "Ms.
Sotelo had no personal knowledge."
"Many of these challenges were the result of innocent mistakes
by well-intentioned voters or misunderstandings about what they
should have listed as their registered address," said state
Democratic Party Chairman Paul Berendt. "The Republicans chose to
disenfranchise these people instead of helping the voter or King
County Elections correct their mistake."
