Seattle Voter Suppression Update
Dirty tricks, still in style in 2005

First, from the Seattle P-I:

Arguing that the Republicans failed to comply with state law, the Democrats are challenging the Republican challenges to voters' registrations that the GOP lodged shortly before the Nov. 8 election.

The registrations of 1,944 King County voters were challenged in late October by Lori Sotelo, vice chairwoman of the King County GOP, on the grounds that the voters had not listed valid residential addresses on their original registration forms. Those voters provided addresses for private mailboxes or public storage units, the Republicans said.

But Democratic lawyer David McDonald said Monday state law requires the challenger to supply the actual address at which the challenged voter resides -- something Sotelo did not do.

"The law is pretty clear," he said, adding that the challenges should be dismissed out of hand.

And this from The Stranger's blog, The Slog:

Well, the same law that allowed Sotelo to issue all those challenges at the last minute now requires her to prove that she was correct when she signed a huge stack of affidavits, "under penalty of perjury," attesting to the supposedly illegal registrations of almost 1,900 of voters. (At least 140 of whose registrations now appear to be perfectly legal.)

Should make for an interesting afternoon on Thursday when the accused illegal voters get to confront their accuser at a four-hour public hearing:

Temporary Elections Annex
9010 E. Marginal Way S.
4:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.

I hope my neighbor makes an appearance (see previous post).