Public Periscope
This isn’t Florida or Chicago - fortunately
Scrutinizing ballots and debating pregnant chads may be exciting in Florida, but it’s pretty routine in Washington state. Or so the Spokane County canvassing board proved last week when it spent the morning dealing with the last ballots from the Nov. 7 election … Still, the morning-long session wasn’t without its high points, such as when the board had to determine the fate of some 39 absentee ballots that had been returned with envelopes noting that the voter had died. County Commissioner Phil Harris, a member of the canvassing board, decided to deal with it: “I move to reject ballots voted by the deceased.” That generated several jokes about Chicago politics, prompting Harris to amend his motion to reject ballots that were returned in envelopes marked deceased and get away from any suggestion of ballots cast from beyond the grave.
Although the handling of military ballots is contentious in Florida, it was handled with relaxed bipartisanship in Spokane. Almost any ballot from an out-of-town service member was counted; the board had no choice on the ones that it rejected … One military member deserved points for honesty or stupidity, writing Nov. 7 - Election Day - next to his signature on his security envelope, but enclosing a note that said he was casting his ballot on Nov. 9 because he received it after the election. The board rejected the ballot.
Roskelley didn’t propose Radio Free Idaho
We goofed last week in attributing a proposal for “Radio Free Idaho” made earlier this month at an Environmental Protection Agency hearing in Spokane. It was environmental activist Bart Haggin, not County Commissioner John Roskelley, who made the comment during testimony to EPA Ombudsman Robert Martin regarding the cleanup of mining waste in the Coeur d’Alene Basin … In his prepared remarks, Haggin said, “Mining corporations have long dominated the political climate of not just North Idaho but even of the statewide political structure. With the almost total dominance of the one political party and the formidable power of the natural resource corporations, many of us in Washington have thought about funding a Radio Free Idaho radio station that would broadcast heretical thoughts across the state line” … The mistake in last week’s Periscope was a result of the reporter at the hearing misreading her notes several days later. We hope our error doesn’t cause any problems for Roskelley, or any efforts for cooperation between elected officials on either side of the border.
A historical oddity
Morton Alexander, a longtime political activist who now works at the state Department of Social and Health Services, related an unusual conversation he had on Election Day. Alexander grew up in Brooklyn and graduated from Samuel J. Tilden High School. Tilden is a former governor of New York who is probably best known this year for winning the popular vote for president, but losing in an Electoral College dispute to Rutherford B. Hayes … Alexander just happened to be chatting about the election with work-study employee Molly Hayes - who is, in fact, the great-great-greatgranddaughter of the 19th president.
Getting involved
The Spokane Regional Transportation Council is looking for volunteers to serve on its Citizens Advisory Committee on Transportation. Committee members get a chance to review work the council is considering, and also projects being developed by the Washington State Department of Transportation, the council explained in a recent press release which is laced with acronyms … But if you’d like to join the CACT to offer thoughts on the SRTC and the WSDOT, call 343-6370 for an application. Or go online to www.srtc.org. Applications are due by Dec. 22.