Friday, February 04, 2005

Seattle University Econ Grad Sues Over Not So Scarce Votes

Unfortunately for Governor-select Christine Gregoire, the Republicans had a cost-benefit analyst observing the counting of votes in her stronghold of King County. Yesterday, he had his day in court:

Timothy Borders may already be Washington's most famous election observer. His minimum-wage job watching ballots be counted has led to having the Republican lawsuit over the governor's election named after him.

.... attorneys and academics will be arguing about "Borders" for years to come.

.... the case is known by the name of the 29-year-old who was chosen by Republicans as their lead plaintiff. He's a conservative living in Seattle's University District, looking for a job that would use his new economics degree. He's a quiet man to have lent his name to such a contentious issue.

....Borders said he did not witness anything that made him suspect election workers of wrongdoing. But he says the system has enough holes that it is far too easy for individual voters to commit fraud; for example, to vote twice or for a felon to vote.

He said his time on the King County mobile voter-registration drive convinced him the county spends too much time and money trying to register new voters and not enough checking to see if those already registered did so legally.

No comments: