Denny Andrew’s March 22 letter accusing the Obama administration of “promulgating” voting by illegal aliens simply cannot be allowed to pass without comment. Mr. Andrews asks us to remember our own Washington 2004 gubernatorial election as an example of this supposed fraud.

We do remember that election. It was one of the most throughly examined elections in history. I do not remember news of one single illegal alien voting in that election. And it would have been news if it had happened.

I do remember news that a King County councilman’s vote had been disallowed because of a signature irregularity. I do remember news about a man in one of the counties north of here who had been faithfully voting for many years, and whose votes had never been counted because of questions about his identity. The county had never contacted him in all those years to get it straightened out. I do remember a story about a well-known conservative activist who passed away shortly before the 2004 election, and whose widower voted her ballot because “he knew what she would have wanted done.”

Also, I remember that Obama was not even president in 2004, George W. Bush was. The news then was that his attorney general, Alberto Gonzales, put tremendous pressure on Federal officials here in Washington state to stop the recounts and suppress every questioned ballot, all in hopes of creating a win for Dino Rossi and the Republican Party.

Finally, I challenge Mr. Andrews to provide one single rational reason why an illegal alien, a person who came here in secret to work under the table, why would a person like that call attention to themselves, risk a felony charge of voter fraud plus immediate and irrevocable deportation, just to vote in on of our elections.

Paul Nicholson, Bellevue