In reference to the guest editorial in the Jan. 8, 2005, issue of the Whidbey News-Times, my primary question is, “Who is Edward Drum?” Why was this individual given such serious status in declaring his obviously bias and disjointed opinions on the validity of the gubernatorial election in the state of Washington?

Mr. Drum seems be almost spitting bile as he writes, attacking the Supreme Court, the attorney general, the elections board of King County and the personnel who counted the votes in that county.

He then moves on to the military vote. This is, of course, an emotional and political ploy of the lowest level, using the the issue of young men and women in Iraq, or other places in the world, being denied their vote. What is the basis of his information that these individuals did not receive their absentee ballots in time to return them for counting? It is very possible the military voters delayed too long in returning their vote to be counted. The responsibility for that vote counting in the election was up to the voter, not the people counting votes.

The commentary on corruption in selecting specific votes as legitimate was useless information. The election workers work under specific guidelines, not their rules, to count votes. Republicans and Democrats were part of all such groups of workers counting votes. The system needs changes, but this election operated under existing rules and regulations.

As Edward Drum continued, he cited all the examples of alleged voter manipulation that he could: transient voters, deceased voters, voters who were convicted felons. He mentioned reported cases of college students voting twice. Included with this information was the fact that there are 3,500 more votes in King County than registered voters. That is a lot of data. Amazing that none of this was noted when then Governor-elect Rossi was ahead by 10 votes. I have yet to see any substantiation of any of these figures and statements. In the end, Governor-elect Gregoire had 129 more votes than Rossi. I sense a clear case of “we’ll do whatever it takes to make Rossi governor of Washington State.”

“I see a huge conflict of interest here. Those who don’t must be blind or part of the problem,” wrote Edward Drum, in reference to Christine Gregoir’s role in monitoring the election. I believe the election and its processes are the job of Secretary of State Sam Reed. He is the expert.

The current campaign to require a re-vote is already showing signs of the overtly negative national election. This is of far more concern to me than the commentary of one man. In the event of a revote, the campaign will undoubtedly focus on personal issues and have little or nothing to do with the issues and problems of Washington state.

Lee Walmsley

Oak Harbor