Speaking of Ron Sims
King County News
by Stefan Sharkansky, 09:58 AM
King County has now settled my public records lawsuit
for $225,000, one of the largest settlements for public records
violations in state history.
The lawsuit stemmed from my December 2004 request for a
list of all voters who voted in the November 2004 election. The county
did not satisfy my request in full until January 2007.
The documents that they eventually provided to me
revealed that county election officials unlawfully counted hundreds of ineligible ballots in
the 2004 election: a multiple of Christine Gregoire's 133-vote "margin
of victory" over Dino Rossi in the contested gubernatorial race.
Documentation of these illegal votes was withheld from discovery in the
election contest trial and not released to me until months after the
trial. Consequently, the trial was conducted in ignorance of these
potentially outcome-changing illegal votes.
Additional documents that were released last month in
discovery for my case confirmed that county officials both knew more
about the illegal vote counting than they had previously acknowledged,
and also knowingly withheld responsive documents from me during 2005
and 2006.
The exceptionally large (for records cases) settlement,
which King County offered before trial, clearly recognizes the county's
culpability in this matter.
King County Executive Ron Sims, who is ultimately
responsible for any records violations under his administration,
appears to be on track for confirmation as Deputy
Secretary of HUD. Sims is also well known for the Yousoufian public records scandal.