The State Supreme Court is hearing oral arguments this afternoon at 1:30 in the Democrats' suit to change the rules for manual recounts. The Olympian reports that the oral arguments will be covered live via TVW, Channel 23, and by C-SPAN 2.
--
Rossi supporters (and others interested in the integrity of our election system) will be holding a "Don't Change the Rule Rally" today starting at 11:30am, outside the Supreme Court building in Olympia, 415 12th Ave SW.
--
Christine Gregoire continues to insult the intelligence of Washington's voters:
"I've said all along, 42 votes out of 2.9 million is literally a tie," Gregoire told The Associated Press on Friday.No, 42 votes is a victory as is 261 votes. What would Gregoire say in the unlikely event that she manages to change the rules and squeak out a, say, 2 vote lead in the second recount? That we had two ties and one overwhelming victory?
--
King County Council chairman Larry Phillips discovered that he is one of the voters whose ballot had been rejected for signature irregularities.
After making the discovery yesterday, Phillips called King County Elections Director Dean Logan and demanded an explanation.A reader emails:"I was under the absolute impression [that] not only I voted, but followed the instructions correctly," said Phillips, a Democrat. "If it can happen to the King County Council chairman, it can happen to anyone else."
Logan said it appears Phillips' absentee ballot was rejected because his signature isn't on file with the county elections office.
Whose job was it to make sure his signature was on file? Reading and re-reading the story, I feel I was left with the impression that it was the Elections Department that screwed up. Yet my gut tells me if his signature wasn't on file, he must not have followed all the steps somehow. And if he didn't have his signature on file then, why should his ballot be counted now? Could this end up being the start of King County's latest version of finding several thousand more previously unknown and uncounted ballots?Probably. And you also have to wonder. If, in fact, it turns out that Councilmember Phillips failed in some way to do the necessary due diligence and follow up to make sure that his own ballot was counted, should we be reassured that he is the best and the brightest candidate to succeed Ron Sims as County Executive?
--
Sandeep Kaushik has an excellent post-mortem in this week's The Stranger on Gregoire's failure to meet the Democrats' expectations. "BLACK OUT: Tepid African-American Vote Haunts Gregoire Now". One reason: Dino Rossi worked hard to court the African American voters that Gregoire only took for granted. It didn't help that Gregoire had been the president of a segregated sorority in college and continued to defend that regrettable mistake of her youth. And Sandeep cites Sound Politics' analysis showing that Kerry won 82% of the vote in Seattle, while Gregoire won only 75%.
--
Spotted yesterday on a car in the Whole Foods parking garage. Three bumperstickers side by side: "Patty Murray for Senate", "Howard Dean for America", "Dino Rossi for Governor". Seriously. Dino Rossi won the support of a lot of Democrats this year. The longer that Gregoire and Berendt continue to insult the intelligence of the voters, take their constituents for granted and trash the integrity of the process by trying to overturn the election in court, the more Democratic support that Rossi will continue to pick up.
Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at December 13, 2004 10:52 AM | Email ThisMore likely, I think KC Elections lost is signature.
But thinking it through even further, wasn't Phillips notified of the problem before certification to give him an opportunity to correct the signature issue?
Very strange.
Posted by: BB on December 13, 2004 11:35 AMMore likely, I think KC Elections lost is signature.
But thinking it through even further, wasn't Phillips notified of the problem before certification to give him an opportunity to correct the signature issue?
Very strange.
Posted by: BB on December 13, 2004 11:35 AMOne could register or change one's name or address by mail. The 1st vote after that cannot be cast by absentee in TN, but must be cast in person.
As one might imagine if one registers by mail and then votes by mail and never has any witnesses or verification of signature its leaves the system open to fraud. Perhaps Mr. Philips moved or updated his address by mail for some reason. I am familar with Washington election law.
Posted by: Ralph on December 13, 2004 11:45 AMIf we do as Judge Lum did and grant the Democrats the provisional ballots that have signatures that don't match, but were at least on file, that is very generous indeed. To now imply that provisionals that do not have even have signatures on file should be counted is utter nonsense.
Anyone who walked in off the street and filed a completely fictitious provisional would be counted by these more liberal standards. There would be no checking whatsover to prevent these ballots from being fraudulent.
Even the most agressive Democrats should have the objectivity and honest to realize and admit that this is pure folly and would surely disenfranchise the voters who took the time to get the process right. Only in a banana republic would this kind of totally unauthenticated voting be tolerated.
Posted by: Jeff B. on December 13, 2004 12:21 PMAs Stefan notes, if Gregoire wins by two votes, what then? Is it still a tie? Or what if Rossi wins by two votes? Is it still a tie? Since there would be no more counts, Gregoire is implying that Rossi's win will be illegitimate if he does indeed win. A real sore loser.
This woman has no grace or humility. She is not fit to lead. She reminds me more and more of Hillary Clinton each day.
Posted by: Jeff B. on December 13, 2004 12:30 PMThe judges will posture for the public, they will chatise the Dem's from the bench, but then they'll go to their chambers and have a hearty eggnog toast for gov-elect Gregoire. When the court officially rules to include rejected ballots, Dino should do the right thing and concede the election.
When the election comes around again in 2008, WA won't make the Gregoire / Democrat mistake again, and Rossi will be our Governor.
Better to live to fight another day, then to insult voters by calling this a tie, sue your way into office, etc.
If Gregoire wins, she won't be very effective as a leader and that's because Americans don't like whiners who hide behind the courts to get what they want.