Seattle blogger receives settlement in open records dispute

A Seattle blogger will receive a $250,000 settlement after suing King County for taking years to disclose election records from the state’s 2004 governor’s race, the Associated Press reports.

In 2004, blogger Stefan Sharkansky sought a list of county voters who had participated in that year’s gubernatorial election, the AP said. It took the county more than two years to respond.  Once Sharkansky obtained the records, he discovered "hundreds of ineligible" ballots that could have been key in a tight race decided by 133 votes.

Sharkansky alleges that county officials were aware of illegal vote counting and purposely withheld records from him, the AP said.