Sloppy work taints GOP voter challenge

The King County Elections Office ought to be held accountable — by people who know what they are doing.

The King County Republican Party's challenge of nearly 2,000 voters was tainted by embarrassingly sloppy research. The GOP stunt inconvenienced scores of legitimate voters. State law allows for a challenge of a voter's registration based on legitimacy of a residential address. It should not be a dart game conducted by partisans who don't understand geographical designations of target areas.

Consider Jeffrey Weber and Lisa Christoffersen, who are registered to vote in West Seattle. They live at 2311 45th Ave. S.W. A UPS Store, the kind of business Republicans are focusing on, is located at 2311 N. 45th St., in Wallingford. Oops, sorry, just kidding.

This mistake was repeated too many times, including outrageous cross-referencing of voters living at 320 Cedar St., in Seattle's Belltown. Apparently, researchers mismatched that with a storage complex at a similar address in Forks, Clallam County, many miles away.

Republicans withdrew this challenge but it reflects the reckless nature of their exercise.

Most Republican challenges seem legitimate. State law says a voter has to provide an accurate residential address, and generally that would not include a mailbox-business address.

During the 2004 governor's election, Republicans bristled when King County elections officials announced their vote tallying was 99-percent accurate. Not good enough, they said. Republican research by contrast is estimated to be less than 90-percent accurate.

Using the GOP's own standard, its work is unacceptable. The threshold for revoking someone's cherished right to vote ought to be high, not low.

Some voters haggled a long time at the polls or spent time on the phone clearing their name and address. Others threw their hands in the air in disgust and did not bother voting.

Challenging voter registration is fair game. But launching willy-nilly challenges without checking and double-checking facts undermines voter confidence and makes Republicans look like chumps.