Florida had the Oilers on the ropes. They took the first three games in the best of seven and looked like they might win the Cup on Oiler's home ice, but it was not to be.
The Oilers forced a game 6 in the Stanley Cup Finals on June 18 (after beating Florida 8-1 in game 4). Heroism on display. Connor McDavid (McJesus), the best player in the NHL, who is closing in on or surpassing some of Wayne Gretzky's playoff records, has shown true leadership.
A true champion, showing outstanding leadership. It's a pleasure to watch, but instead of talking about that I am going to talk about the fatuous antics of a certain local political candidate....
Monday, audits of the elections were carried out here in Yamhill County and throughout Oregon. The essence of the process is that random batches of ballots in two randomly selected races are run through the machines and hand counted to check for discrepancies.
Apparently, in Oregon, you can sit in a room and watch this happen. In Yamhill County, there were 11 people who chose to participate in the festivities. This group of 11 consisted of 9 civically minded citizens, as well as David "Bubba" King and Kit Johnston.
King advertised his attendance on his campaign's Facebook page with the following:
Today I attended the administrative recount of random ballot batches, as required by the Secretary of State after the election certification. The importance of election integrity cannot be overstated, especially given the complexities and critical nature of the County Clerk’s job. This was evident when previous Yamhill County voters who had not cast a ballot in this election received text notifications that their ballot had been accepted by Ballottrax. This event caused great worry and confusion. We still do not have a published root cause analysis for this a-typical error. The administrative recount is a meticulous and important step to verify the accuracy of the election outcome. I was encouraged to witness the dedication and hard work of the Clerk's team, and the process highlighted a need for increased communication and transparent procedures to all campaign teams. I believe open communication and a commitment to transparency from elected officials is key to upholding public trust, and I will continue to champion these values as my campaign moves forward. More to come!
He holds himself out as a man with an American as Apple Pie committment to open communication, transparency, and appreciation for the work of the election team. As one who came within fewer than 100 votes of elected office, he ought to exemplify the values he champions.
And, as promised, there was "more to come."
In this case, the "more" was a report that King had refused to sign an election observer agreement. After some semantic wrangling, the sequence of events appears to be as follows:
King comes to observe;
He refuses to sign the observer agreement;
He persists in this refusal for approximately 90 minutes;
Kit Johnson arrives and signs the agreement;
King signs the agreement.
This issue was raised directly underneath his Facebook posting. The query and response are reproduced below:
Let's talk about that putative committment to "open communication" and "transparency."
Based on the King campaign's response, would you have known that he refused to sign the agreement for approximately 90 minutes? (The campaign has never rebutted or challenged this assertion). No. Why would you? The answer is written to conceal that to the casual reader. That's neither transparency nor open communication.
The answer given does suggest some kind of legal concern about the agreement. King's campaign has not elaborated on his specific objections on its own motion, and has not offered any elaboration when asked (over 48 hours ago with a follow-up this morning) to explain his concerns. It appears these types of observer agreements (or policies) are in place in various counties (see Multnomah, Clackamas, Lane, and Marion). Again, this failure to explain his concerns is neither transparent nor open communication.
Further eroding the putative explanation is that King reversed himself after 90 minutes and has not explained why. Did he receive some further information or analysis that addressed his concerns? That's unlikely, given that he says "I have some concerns," and not "I had some concerns that turned out to be unfounded."
It is more likely that Commissioner Kit Johnson signing the agreement was the impetus for King to sign, and that the alleged legal concerns are a feint. This is especially so, given that the agreement is substantially similar to those in other counties and consists of what is a number of unobjectionable and common sense behavioral requirements.
It's been a long time since I have seen a pile up of unforced errors like this:
Boorish and antisocial refusal to sign a common sense (and commonly used) agreement to govern behavior where ballots are being counted.
No believable or cogent reason is advanced for this refusal.
An unexplained reversal of that refusal, but only after Kit Johnson signs.
Misleading answers and non-answers to questions about this.
For a man who built his candidacy on a persona of bonhomie, transparency, and open communication, it's difficult to imagine a more complete failure to live up to any of his supposed ideals.
It is extremely unfortunate.
Comments