War of Wits

The right of Americans to choose their representatives through free elections is guaranteed. It has been secured by pen, it has been secured by sword. It has been earned through torrents of blood spilled on the battlefield by American patriots for centuries. But despite the supposed sanctity of that right, it is coming under increasing attack by the current generation of political leadership - whether it be a local elections department or the trifecta of the three branches of the US government.

Every now and then, patriotic Americans who are fed up with incompetent, lazy or heavy-handed public servants speak out or engage in acts of civil disobedience in order to expose flaws in the laws that govern us or the manner in which they are enforced. When these brave citizen soldiers do indeed expose waste, fraud or ineptitude, they ought to be celebrated, not punished. Which calls to mind the case of one such patriot, Jane Balogh from Federal Way, WA.

Ms. Balogh got fed up with what she believes was a broken elections system lacking enough safeguards in place to prevent fraudulent voter registrations. She perceived the system to be so lax, that she believed she could even register her dog to vote. So that’s precisely what she set out to do… And she did… No questions asked. Duncan the dog successfully registered to vote via absentee ballot in early 2006. Duncan submitted ballots marked “void” for local elections in September and November of 2006, as well as May of 2007.

An (ahem) “alert” election worker noticed something fishy on November 9th, 2006. She called Ms. Balogh and told her “You can’t sign with a paw print.”, to which Balogh responded “You can if you’re a dog.” After clarifying that Duncan was indeed a canine, Ms. Balogh was told she would be hearing from a supervisor. That never happened and Duncan submitted another voided ballot in May of 2007. Last week, Balogh heard from the King County Prosecutor who notified her she was being charged with making a false statement to a public official, a misdemeanor. She was further told that if she pleads not guilty, the charge could be upped to a felony. She is expected to plead guilty.

Balogh’s reasoning for this act of defiance: ” I don’t know, I just guess maybe I care too much about my country.”

It is painfully obvious in this case that her intent was not to commit a crime, but rather to expose incompetence. The ballots were marked “void”. But this 66 year old grandmother and US Army veteran is having the screws put to her by a smug King County prosecutor who threatens her with felony charges that are likely unsupportable, pressuring her into forfeiting her right to presumption of innocence by pleading not guilty.

Child rapists, cold-blooded murderers and other sundry thugs plead not guilty as a matter of course nearly every day in courtrooms across this country and no one bats an eye. But when granny registers the dog to vote, she gets roughed up by -who else- a lawyer. I long for a return to the good ol’ days when I could invite this lawyer to step into the ring with a pair of gloves… Just one round for him picking on this woman… And it would take the entire three minutes. That’s justice.

If King County is going to treat this obvious act of civil disobedience as a crime and possible felony, then it is incumbent upon them to also treat every single illegal alien, felon or other ineligible who registers to vote, falsifies a job application or commits identity theft within their jursidiction the same. Further, every time the streets of Seattle are choked with miscreants protesting against George Bush, the war, the World Bank or the WTO and the movements of the average citizen just trying to get home from work are impeded, said miscreants will also have to be treated the same.

Anything else is a violation of the constitution’s Equal Protection clause and an abuse of power by the King County prosecutor bringing the charges. He should be demanding that Sherill Huff, King County Elections Department Director Designee repeat under oath her assertion that the current system is adequate and then prosecute her for perjury and egregious violations of the public trust for allowing this to happen. In response to the charges against Balogh, Huff declared: “This situation confirms that our safeguards are in place to detect voter fraud.” Perhaps… But painfully obvious in this case is the fact that there are no safeguards in place to detect voter registration fraud.

All of the champions of federal law mentioned above would persecute this woman because she is sick of her God-given rights being prostituted by aliens or government officials, yet they look the other way when it comes to an entire class of lawbreakers; millions of illegal aliens, who, besides violating federal law just by being here, steal our identities and dilute our rights whenever they register to vote. But no one cares about that…

Update: July 1, 2007 - I heard personally from Jane Balogh who told me that she decided not to roll over and that she wanted to do her part to fix a broken system. Unfortunately that means she’s in for a long fight. She told me that they have tried to intimidate her by having her appear in felony court with murderers and in restraints to unregister her dog Duncan. King County Prosecutors are out of control…