King County, Washington, has threatened to close pools and parks to help overcome budget shortfalls. Included in the list of possible closures is the Weyerhaeuser King County Aquatic Center. The Aquatic Center has hosted three USMS National Championship meets.
Please visit King County Executive Page to vote in the on line poll for the one recreational facility that you use most. Wednesday morning only 2% of those responding were pool advocates!! The off leash dog proponents who are very well organized had a huge lead in 71% of respondents. Since then swimming pool advocates have given pools a significant lead. Let our voice be heard, visit the site today! The poll will change at noon Friday morning, so please vote now.
As you may have heard, due to budget shortfalls in King County, there is movement by King County to close pools and parks. This is a threat to our sport and to the quality of life we all enjoy in the metropolitan King County area. Public forums on this issue sponsored by the Metropolitan Parks Task Force were held May 13th at Redmond High School Little Theater and on May 15th at the Lake Wilderness Community Center. On the King County site mentioned above there is a link to view these forums.
King County Executive Page
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Former Member
Properly mobilized, I would think that the swimmers in King County would be able to swing the vote all by themselves. But if it becomes evident to local officials that the outcome of the poll has been inflated by outside ballot stuffing they might choose to ignore the poll results entirely. Which, of course, would be a REAL shame if the local swimming people had, in fact, marshalled enough local votes to win the poll on their own.
I'm sure that if this were an official election, no one here would advocate voter fraud as a strategy to win the election (and I would assume such sensibility would stem from a sense of fairness as opposed to simply fear of going to jail). If we think (or hope) that this poll is actually going to affect local policy, and we are aware that the intent is to get input from local people, then I don't perceive a big difference between voter fraud and running up this poll with outside votes.
Of course, if they had included a tag in there somewhere that said something like "We want EVERYONE's input, local or not." Then I'd be all over my 100+ swimmers plus everyone else on my 800+ distribution list to vote. But, clearly (to me, at least) they did not intend to get my opinion, nor that of anybody else in Texas.
Properly mobilized, I would think that the swimmers in King County would be able to swing the vote all by themselves. But if it becomes evident to local officials that the outcome of the poll has been inflated by outside ballot stuffing they might choose to ignore the poll results entirely. Which, of course, would be a REAL shame if the local swimming people had, in fact, marshalled enough local votes to win the poll on their own.
I'm sure that if this were an official election, no one here would advocate voter fraud as a strategy to win the election (and I would assume such sensibility would stem from a sense of fairness as opposed to simply fear of going to jail). If we think (or hope) that this poll is actually going to affect local policy, and we are aware that the intent is to get input from local people, then I don't perceive a big difference between voter fraud and running up this poll with outside votes.
Of course, if they had included a tag in there somewhere that said something like "We want EVERYONE's input, local or not." Then I'd be all over my 100+ swimmers plus everyone else on my 800+ distribution list to vote. But, clearly (to me, at least) they did not intend to get my opinion, nor that of anybody else in Texas.
