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June 2, 2008 8:39 AM

Dems field secretary of state candidate

Election reform advocate Jason Osgood says he’ll file today to run as a Democrat against Secretary of State Sam Reed. Osgood, known at washblog as zappini - he also has his own blog -- writes about election issues.

Osgood is 40 and lives in Seattle. He is a computer programmer with a medical records company.

I wrote about him last September when his work stopped the King County Council from spending $345,000 on ballot tracking technology. The company that would have gotten the contract appeared to be out of business at the time. As I wrote about Osgood,

He has quietly established himself as the No. 1 opponent of the county's plan for all-mail elections. He's done it from the left, in contrast to the opposition we have come to expect from the right and done much to make the movement a bipartisan success.

But his campaign against Reed will not be about mail-only elections.

If the voters of Washington want to use mail ballots I will be sure that their privacy is ensured as much as possible.
What I’m going to talk about is protecting voter privacy and ensuring a fair and accurate public vote count.

And that’s where he thinks Reed is vulnerable. Osgood says the Secretary of State is pushing for a ballot tracking system - using unique bar codes linked to a voter’s identification - that threatens the secrecy of the vote. He also says that the high-speed ballot tabulators used in King County make it impossible for the count to be monitored by election observers.

Osgood hadn’t planned on running for office. But he thought someone should challenge Reed and run a campaign focused on election integrity. He told that to state Democratic Party Chairman Dwight Pelz and raised the names of a few potential candidates.

At some point, though, someone suggested Osgood run himself. He says the state Democratic Party will support his campaign.

But he hopes to be able to appeal to Reed’s critics on the right, too. Osgood has common ground with Stefan Sharkansky, the No. 1 critic of the problematic 2004 governor’s election.

Says Osgood:

I think that the Republicans have legitimate grievances, as well as the Democrats. This is a non-partisan issue. King County elections had problems with their procedures in 2004. They misplaced boxes of ballots and Sam Reed gave them a pass.

Reed says he’s an advocate of ballot tracking. But he says he’s never supported a system that would connect a ballot to a voter.

“Secrecy of the ballot is in our Constitution,” he said. He said there should be a system like FedEx uses to track package, “So you can keep track of the where these things are. You don’t know what’s inside the package, but you know where it is.”

As for the public count, Reed said the high-speed machines are a needed improvement. Party observers can watch the machines, he said, but access is limited “to maintain good ballot security.” He also said the machines are routinely checked with “logic and accuracy tests.”

I also asked Reed if there is any lingering Republican discontent with him over the 2004 governor’s election. He just got back from the state Republican Convention and says, among some insiders, there are still some hard feelings.

I had some people walk up and growl at me. And we had a booth and we had some young guys and young women working there who had people say, “Sam Reed, he cost Dino Rossi the election.”
I would say that after 3 ½ years, people have cooled down and they appreciate what we have done in terms of our major election reform.

Both Rossi and State Republican Party Chairman Luke Esser have praised the changes Reed has pushed through. Reed said that has helped cool some of the anger over 2004.

Filing for this year’s elections opened this morning at 8 a.m. and runs through Friday.

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Posted by wfp

10:09 AM, Jun 02, 2008

For anyone who thinks Sam Reed gave King Co a pass over misplaced ballots or that he cost Rossi the election, you should read the law. As much as he may have wanted to correct some obvious flaws in the 2004 process his hands were tied. Had he done anything, like refused to certify the results from King Co, he would have been breaking the law. Fortunately some new laws have been passed since then that give him a bit more leeway in that area.

Posted by Josef

1:24 PM, Jun 02, 2008

Hey, I'm a Republican and I just might support Jason Osgood for the SecState position. Not just the Rossi debacle, but a firm belief Sam Reed isn't aggressive enough on many of these election issues over the past 4 years.

Hopefully Jonathan Betchle of EFF fame & fortune will run as well!

Posted by Daniel K

8:18 PM, Jun 02, 2008

Jason has my vote.

He's a smart guy who understands the technological hurdles. We need people like him protecting the accuracy and integrity of our voting systems.

Posted by evergreen_representative

9:20 PM, Jun 02, 2008

Corporate Mainstream News Media Watch:

The article conveniently neglected to mention that Mark Greene also filed for election, today. For strategic and financial reasons, the Party of Commons decided to field a statewide candidacy for Secretary of State rather than for the 8th Congressional district post in the U.S. House of Representatives.

It is disingenious if another candidate actually said that someone needed to challenge Sam Reed, because Mark Greene has been a challenger, and the only one, on the Public Disclosure Commission list for about a week.

Mark Greene is a supporter of Top 2, which is, among other good things, the voters' ability to vote for ANY candidate in the primaries. Mark is writing a report about the Secretary of State job, which is expected to be out in two weeks or so. The Party of Commons site will keep you updated.

www.PartyofCommons.com

Posted by Daniel K

10:32 PM, Jun 02, 2008

"For strategic and financial reasons, the Party of Commons decided to field a statewide candidacy for Secretary of State rather than for the 8th Congressional district post in the U.S. House of Representatives."

Now that's a good reason to run for Secretary of State - not.

I much prefer Jason Osgood's stated reasons:

"My election integrity platform is simple and familiar:

- Protect voter privacy
- Ensure the public vote count
- Open government"

Posted by hinton

11:55 PM, Jun 02, 2008

I will be supporting Osgood... an sending him a check.

Posted by lifehazard

9:21 AM, Jun 03, 2008

As a Democrat there is no way I can support Mr. Osgood. If you read his blogs and rants you will find he is very unstable and this would be a disaster for our state.

Posted by evergreen_representative

7:39 PM, Jun 03, 2008

Post-script (to evergreen_representative post):

grammatical/spelling correction: "disingenuous"

It's nice to see that one of Burner's supporters is taking an interest in the Secretary of State election. For those Burnerites that show a streak of independence, i.e., not under the thumb of Dwight Pelz (or even Ms. Burner herself), the Party of Commons would welcome their support in the Secretary of State election. The Party of Commons, which has some pull in the 8th District, would like a truce, and would CONSIDER backing Burner.

http://360.yahoo.com/poc_senator

Posted by Daniel K

8:50 PM, Jun 03, 2008

evergreen_representative, I mean C Mark Greene, you bet I'm interested in this race, as I've known Jason for 10 years and he one of the smartest, and reasonable guys I know.

Posted by evergreen_representative

10:31 PM, Jun 04, 2008

D.K., Don't go changing loyalties, now. Darcy can't afford to lose any sycophants, er, assistants.