Please let me pass on some important information about Bill McCrory, the person who conducted the careful examination of the Absentee Ballot envelopes from the last Coeur d’Alene election and recently filed a court Affidavit about his findings. 

Bill is retired from a long career in the US Secret Service, Technical Security Division. He is detailed and meticulous.  And he is the most honest person I think I’ve ever known. Integrity is Bill’s calling card. He has no political party affiliations but, instead, puts his efforts toward trying to insure honest, responsible, good government.

Idaho law (50-447) says all absentee ballot envelopes shall have certain items, such as the date and time the ballot was received, a correct signature of the voter, etc.  “Shall” is the word in our law, not “may”, “ought to” or “most of the time”.  The law is clear that these items are mandatory on every voted ballot envelope.  Bill's research revealed that over 40% of the envelopes had anomalies.

A voting system that is loose and disorganized allows for many mistakes.  It also offers improper or illegal voters the chance to have their votes counted, which nullifies the votes of lawful voters.  At worst, this kind of sloppy system can be taken advantage of, in a predatory fashion, by those who want to illegally alter the outcome of the election.

In our free society, there is no right more important than our right to vote.  Nothing else matters if we cannot have confidence legitimate votes are accurately registered and counted.  Bill McCrory is doing us all a great service by volunteering his time, energy and extensive, specialized background to examine and report on these essential documents from the last election.  Thank you Bill! 

MARY SOUZA

Coeur d’Alene