2005 PRESS RELEASES

August 03, 2005

Seattle named one of top 5 election fraud “hot spots”

Seattle yesterday was named one of the top five “hot spots” for election fraud by the non-partisan American Center for Voting Rights (ACVR). In a report entitled, “Vote Fraud, Intimidation & Suppression in the 2004 Presidential Election,” Seattle was joined on the list by Philadelphia, Milwaukee, Cleveland and St. Louis/East St. Louis.

In Dallas, where he is speaking to the election reform task force of the American Legislative Exchange Council, Evergreen Freedom Foundation President Bob Williams said, “this puts Seattle and King County into some pretty dubious company. Maybe now our elected officials will begin to take election reform seriously so that we don’t have the kinds of chaos we had in 2004.”

The ACVR report calls for a zero-tolerance policy for election fraud by state and national political parties.

“These cities were identified based on the findings of this report and the cities’ documented history of fraud and intimidation,” ACVR said.

Williams said it should be obvious that the recommendations of the Sims Committee on reforming the King County elections office released last week are inadequate.

“Six months ago, King County officials were saying the elections had an accuracy rate that would be the envy of any bank,” Williams said. “But today, they find themselves on this list of shame.”

Williams said most of the problems with the 2004 election haven’t been fixed and pointed out the state’s primary is less than seven weeks away. As an example, he pointed to King County elections officials allowing a convicted felon whose voting rights have not been restored to file as a candidate for Mayor of Seattle.

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