December 22, 2004
Ten Votes
That's the current statewide margin for Chris Gregoire. Here's the entire news alert from Komo 4.
King County reported +59 votes for Gregoire, giving Gregoire the overall lead in the statewide manual recount by 10 votes. This does not count the 725 ballots the Supreme Court said can be counted.
I have two questions about these results: First, did the Gregoire gain come entirely from the canvassing board? I have been hearing reports that Rossi had actually gained votes early in the re-recount. If those are true, the Gregoire gain may have come entirely from the decisions of the canvassing board. Second, how many votes were decided by 2-1 votes of the board?
And now I'll open this for comments.
Posted by Jim Miller at December 22, 2004
04:22 PM | Email This
1. Not surprised.
Does anybody know how I can find out if my sons (he's in the Army in Korea) absentee ballot was counted or not?
2. What kind of bullsh*t is this?
3. All of em.....................How else would they get the votes.
Boy I am glad I don't live in Ukraine County.
I can hold my head up high in Clark Co.
TonyZ
4. If at first you don't succeed, count , count again. The new dimmocratic party slogan!
Makes me sick to my stomach.
5. Where, oh where, have all the neo-cons gone??? Sound Politics seems to be a little empty of late.
6. Interesting manual recount results. First of all, they counted 898,633 ballots -- which is an increase of 59 ballots over the 898,574 counted in the machine recount. No explanation as to where these extra 59 ballots came from -- a number which is (coincidentally?) exactly equal to Gregoire's relative improvement in this manual recount.
Remember also -- there was no explanation as to where the extra 336 ballots came from in the machine recount either -- an increase from 898,238 ballots to 898,574 ballots.
Also, Gregoire gained 47 votes and Rossi lost 12 votes. If a manual recount is fair, how can you possibly lose votes on a manual recount? If the machine can read the oval for Rossi, why shouldn't the canvassing board be able to do so as well?
There was also an increase in overvotes -- from 46 in the machine recount to 86 in the manual recount. It would seem most probable that the Democrat canvassing board counted just about any Rossi ballot with a stray mark as an overvote, while the same thing was not done with Gregoire ballots. That is the most likely and logical explanation.
The one thing that made sense was that undervotes fell by 45 votes -- from 21,307 to 21,262. Presumably, the manual recount was able to find votes from these, which were missed by the machines and missed by the enhancement process in the machine recount. But I would doubt that this process was fair to Rossi, especially on those ballots that were referred to the canvassing board.
I would like to see how the precinct-by-precinct ballots counted totals from the manual recount compare with those from the machine recount and the original count. It would also be nice to see exactly how many names of people are recorded as casting valid votes, compared with the number of ballots actually being reported as counted in each precinct.
7. A 10 vote lead for CG = a tie in CG's owns words. Something tells me that she'll be singing a new song this time around.
Let the lawsuits begin.
8. This is going to really hurt the King County Democrats in the next election cycle IMO..
9. Richard - Fascinating numbers. Can you give us a link?
10. It is only fair now that kingco double check all the accepted absentees. Mistakes go both ways.
11. What are Rossi's legal options once this theft, er, I mean re-count is over?
12. A well placed pencil mark can cause an over-vote. Have these ballots been secure for three weeks? Well obviousily some have been in machine warehouses and others in misc mail tubs.
A person could reach see a Rossi vote on top of a pile and mark it with a pencil for Gregore and cancel the rossi vote out.
I cannot see how this election can be settled until every county tries to determine whether they have any missing ballots. Every election commission office and warehouse needs to be searched. In addition we might as well search the post offices and mail trucks looking for ballots. Every one should be counted.
13. They are right off of the King County Elections website:
http://www.metrokc.gov/elections/2004recount/results2.htm
14. Rossi lost 12 net votes. How does this happen? I understand how they can interpret new votes for Gregoire - but how did they take the extra step to strip votes from Rossi? That is the difference in this election.
15. I can't even express how sick this makes me...
16. Pulling plays right out of Mayor Daley's book... Even my friends in New Jersey are impressed by this display of corruption in state politics. Backlash in 06 or 08? Unlikely... unless Dino is on the ballot.
17. Things are not really so bad. The Democrats did buy the election. But, at least they paid for it in advance. And they didn't use taxpayer's money. It largely came in great gobs from out of state. We must realize that Maggie and Scoop are gone and the rump of the Democrat Party is now following old and honored Democratic traditions and customs. Old Joe Kennedy bought elections for his sons whenever it was necessary. The Daly machine that helped put JFK in office with vote fraud is still in operation. Texas Democrats have a long tradition of vote fraud that goes back to LBJ's early days in politics.
So, our local heros are doing what comes naturally. An added plus is the comedy factor. As I write I am listening to Queen Christine make her victory speech. She would put your average stand up comedian to shame. If she can maintain this high standard for the next four years, we'll all be rolling in the aisles with laughter.
18. It's a 'tie' at 42
It's a 'win' at 10
It's a mistake at $18MM
It's an error at $800K
Xtine must have been in a differnt math class than the rest of us. Or is this the new math for balancing the state budget?
19. And to think, if Skagit County hadn't disenfranchised me (http://www.withallmymind.com/#ab1b8c574-5512-4cd4-8f03-eab185d59823), Gregoire's "lead" would be down by 10%. And I'm sure there are at least 9 other people out there like me...
20. I want the King County Canvassing Board to review the Mariners' wins/losses. I am sure that if they recounted them, and looked for Mariners' intent, then the Mariners only lost 80 games this year, not 99.
This charade throws every King County election into suspicion.
21. jwp1127 - this was not free - because the original decision(s) was overturned the state reimburses them.
22. Perhaps we can simply feel good in knowing that thish case serves as proof that our soon to be ex-Attorney General can sometimes remember to get her appeal in on time in important cases.
23. How dare Gragliar get up there and say "all legitimate votes are allowed to be counted" and then the nerve to call for a 3 second moment for a prayer for the soldiers fighting for our country, the same soldiers who have been shut out of voting. If she really cares about our soldiers, lets her her call for those votes to be counted too. What a liar!
24. Texas Democrats have a long tradition of vote fraud that goes back to LBJ's early days in politics.
I suppose Karl Rove and Tom Delay have left no lessons unlearned.
25. Since the decision was over turned and CG "wins", John Kerry gets his $250,000 back and the dem's national organization gets its $200,000 back and we all pay for the recount. When CG said if the party can come up with the money she would go ahead and do the manual recount, she knew if everything went her way, we the people of the state would have to pay.
Makes me sick, but what can we do about the military who no fault of their own didn't get their vote counted. Call the sec'y of state?
26. Stefan, et al.,
I, too, am sick.
However, I do want to thank all the contributors to this most excellent and accurate Website for do the best job I've ever seen on election coverage.
Oregon can only dream of reaching the level of corruption that Washington State achieved years ago, but our state and Multnomah county officials are trying.
Boo hoo! Are we doomed to be mediocre and second to Seattle forever????
27. I say call him, and ask why he wants to certify the vote so quickly. Here are the numbers I have so far;
Front desk: 360 902-4100
I don't know if this is his office or what but its:
360 753-7121
and his email is:
sreed@secstate.wa.gov
A little noise might get his attention, if there is enough it might actually have an effect. It seems Washington State does what it wants no matter what the voters say.
Enough is enough, we need to put our foot down to this corruption. Another four years of an ineffective state is too long. If Gregliar is allowed to steal this election, you might as well give up. Will the next election be any different?
28. A thought: Every person in the employ of the King County elections office needs to lose his job. Today. With prejudice.
29. Jim - can you find out how many votes were decided by a 2-1 decision of the board? Are the ballots that were decided by the canvas board open for public inspection?????
30. A comment I made some weeks ago has even more application to the current circumstances of the canvassing board in King County. Where is the United State attorney on all this? Were there federal observers in the counting room? Slow motion vote fraud in a canvass is not new and it is not just a state crime but is also a federal crime. The federal Voting Rights Act of 1965 makes it a federal crime to "conspire to dilute the votes of legal voters."
All of you who were so proud of your honest elections in Washington now have seen how it can happen before your eyes just like Broward County and Miami Dade in Florida in 2000. The issues are exactly the same as in Bush v. Gore right down to the last hanging chad. If Rossi wants to win, its time to move the game to federal court since there are ample grounds to do so. Sorry, that's the view of one out of state person with experience in Cook County, Illinois elections. There is no "internal check" or self discipline when it comes to the pressures on the canvass board to bring in a Democratic governor if its within their power to do it.
31. FYI to all, below is my email to Max's request to know how to determine if his sons in the army in Korea vote was counted:
Max,
Saw your comment in your post at soundpolitics.com. It is public record if any person votes, what is not public record is how they voted. So, you should be able to call the county elections office or auditor in the county he is registered and ask if he voted in the general election.
I live in Snohomish County and was in the County office on other business and went to the Auditors counter and asked if my vote was counted because some times I get sloppy signing and get asked for ID with credit cards. They told me my vote was counted.
Hope this helps, I would be interested to know what you learn or how it goes or if you would like me to make the phone call.
Gordy
32. To all of those who thought GWB's election was one of the most important in our history, one can see that his was surpassed in importance by this one. This has been such a blatant exercise so far that one expects whoever is governor of your state to have four miserable, unproductive years. Is this what voters really want?
On second thought, an unproductive state government might be an improvement in Washington...