The Smearing of Jason Osgood

SOS Candidate, Jason Osgood

“Following decisions to make donations to Christine Gregoire, Jim McIntire, Peter Goldmark and John Ladenberg, I stood and introduced a motion to contribute to Democratic Secretary of State candidate Jason Osgood.  I expected little or no opposition, as Osgood enjoys the strong support of a large number of 34th LD activists. However, to my surprise, King County Council Member Dow Constantine stood to speak in opposition.  Constantine was clearly upset with Osgood, and proceeded to trash him before the group.  His anger was focused on public statements he claimed Osgood has recently been making to the effect that King County uses bar-codes on ballots which allow votes to be tracked back to voters.  King County uses no such system - and therefore Constantine was upset that County officials have allegedly been forced to deal with confused, angry and misinformed citizens. Following his talk the motion to contribute to Osgood (who was endorsed by the 34th last month) was easily defeated.”

“It has was recently brought to my attention that misinformation has been shared at local public meetings as well as editorial boards regarding how timing marks on ballots are used in King County. Unfortunately, a candidate running for office publicly misstated that King County ballots can be traced back to the voter using a bar code on the ballot

 

This accusation is false and has the potential for generating unwarranted concern for voters.  King County has never and does not currently place bar codes or any other identifying marks on ballots. In addition, King County has never endorsed any technology that can directly link a ballot back to the voter. Quite the opposite, the Elections Division, the County Executive and County Council collectively have publicly testified against using such technology.  Exhibit 4 in the division's ballot accountability business case specifically recommends against using such technology (see your.kingcounty.gov/...) and in July 2007 the Council passed an ordinance against using such technology (see www.metrokc.gov/council/news...)...”

“The first thing I asked Huff was to confirm that the "candidate for public office" she referenced in her email was indeed Jason Osgood.  She told me it was.  I then asked if she could refer me to the particular occasions at which Osgood had said the things she states in her email.  It turned out that she couldn't.  In fact, she wasn't personally familiar with his exact comments or where exactly he had made them.  However - to my astonishment - she assured me she had been told about Osgood's alleged crazy-talk by a very reliable source: Nick Handy, Director of Elections for the State of Washington and top deputy to incumbent Secretary of State Sam Reed.  Handy, she told me, was a very respected individual and was the sole source for the allegations in her email.”

“So... I called Nick Handy.  To my continued disbelief, Handy confirmed that he had indeed told Sherril Huff about Jason Osgood's alleged statements regarding timing-marks on ballots and about Osgood's supposed contention that King County ballots included voter-tracking bar-codes.  Great, I thought, now I can get to the bottom of this.  But no.  Believe it or not, Handy wasn't exactly sure when or where Osgood had made these statements either.  He had simply been told about them, he said, by Attorney General Rob McKenna and by Eastside State Representative Fred Jarret. They had in turn been told about them by unnamed citizens.  Allegedly that is.”