MLSD construction bond vote problems

Moses Lake citizens should be concerned about the alleged malfeasance of certain local officials, regarding the recent 2017 school construction bond election. Because of the very close results of this vote, a group of about 25 citizens met and decided to request a ballot recount to verify the accuracy. However, while discussing this matter, other suspicious information was uncovered. It appears the vote may have been tainted by the Grant County Election Office and MLSD Officials. Below are two serious problems that were revealed, regarding this matter:

1) Approximately 80 ballots were “challenged” by election officials for improper or missing signatures on the ballots; this is not uncommon. They are supposed to notify those voters by mail and by phone, and explain how they can validate their ballot. However, election personnel neglected to make the required phone calls, which is a violation of Washington state election rules.

2) Moses Lake School Officials obtained the list of 80 challenged voters (which is legal) and proceeded to call those people, encouraging “yes” voters to fix their signatures so they could be validated (which is not legal). This is prohibited by the Federal Election Commission Rule, which states, “... it’s a misuse of public resources to influence an election if the violation is committed by those working for, or appointed to positions with the government.”

Our voting laws were written to protect the sanctity of the election process by preventing fraudulent and illegal behavior. These weren’t innocent mistakes made by our county and school officials. Furthermore, their misbehavior compromised this election and they should be held accountable for the consequences. As a result of these illicit actions, the entire bond vote should be invalidated or, at least the challenged “ballots” should be nullified and rejected, rendering the final vote result “no.”

MLSD needs more school buildings and the people opposed to this bond are not anti-schools, kids, or teachers. In fact, most of the “40 percenters” actually pay the majority of the taxes that finance these bonds (that’s why it takes a 60 percent vote to pass them). What they are opposed to, are the exorbitant costs and inefficient proposals from the MLSD. Major cost savings proposals have been dismissed by MLSD officials as “unpopular.” Perhaps they should seriously reconsider these ideas again.

Gary Ash

Moses Lake