Press release from the Governor's office:
With so many disenfranchised military voters, how can this be a fair election?As for the cost of a revote: a Gregoire term would be a lot more expensive.Bellevue, WA – Today Dino Rossi stood with the family of a disenfranchised Marine from Snohomish County to again call for a revote in the governor’s race.
Tyler Farmer is a Marine serving in Iraq, who was recently wounded in Fallujah. He is registered to vote in Snohomish County, and went to extraordinary lengths to make sure he’d be able to vote, but he didn’t receive his ballot until after Election Day. His parents, Charles and Marty Farmer, and his brother, Dylan Farmer, today questioned the fairness of the election process.
“I’d like to ask Christine Gregoire how she can take office in good conscience when so many of our Armed Forces, including my son, weren’t allowed to vote,” said Charles. “The rules were changed for some people in King County, but not for everyone else. That’s wrong.”
Rossi said the election is such a mess that at this point the best solution is a revote. He said his office is receiving a steady stream of calls and e-mails from members of the military, or their loved ones, who never got their ballots or received them too late.
Rossi’s spokeswoman Mary Lane said Gregoire’s remark about the election not being “golf” and that there are “no do-overs” isn’t a sufficient answer to people like Tyler Farmer.
“Christine Gregoire is trying to sweep this election mess under the carpet because she doesn’t want to face up to all the wrongfully disenfranchised people across Washington,” said Lane. “But people like Tyler Farmer, and all the other servicemen and women who were denied their right to vote, aren’t going away. And the fact that this entire election process has been a complete mess isn’t going away, either.
“We need a revote because the people of Washington deserve to have a governor who actually wins an election fair and square.”
Posted by Brian Crouch at December 30, 2004
08:58 PM | Email This
Unfortunately the Seattle Times doesn't make the addresses available, but we can cross reference with the phone book & other resources to give some indication if these are really the same person.
Posted by: Peter Carlin on December 30, 2004 09:04 PMThis is a petition to send the word loud and clear to the legislature that we want a revote. If you agree, please go check it out right away.
My biggest fear is that not enough people will get out in public to support a re-vote. Republicans have always backed down way to easily and I'm so glad to see that Dino is holding firm on his position of what he believes to be right and wrong for our state. I think more of us need to get off our duff and actually do something other than just talk about what is wrong with this farce of an election. I'm tired of sitting home feeling victimized by the Democrats!
I do very much appreciate all the work Stefan has done in keeping us informed. I look to Sound Politics, Kirby Wilbur and John Carlson to find out what has "really" happened in this election.
Posted by: SandyS on December 31, 2004 12:03 AMPBS: More than three months after Democrat Al Gore conceded the hotly contested 2000 election, an independent hand recount of Florida's ballots released today says he would have lost anyway, even if officials would have allowed the hand count he requested.
In the first full study of Florida's ballots since the election ended, The Miami Herald and USA Today reported George W. Bush would have widened his 537-vote victory to a 1,665-vote margin if the recount ordered by the Florida Supreme Court would have been allowed to continue, using standards that would have allowed even faintly dimpled "undervotes" -- ballots the voter has noticeably indented but had not punched all the way through -- to be counted.
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/media/media_watch/jan-june01/recount_4-3.html
Posted by: Cheryl on December 31, 2004 12:31 AMI've heard that 2% of all votes "cast" never get recorded the way they were intended (or recorded at all).
If that's true, it would mean that all elections that are within 2% should be thrown out and redone.
Posted by: tom on December 31, 2004 07:43 AMSandy, I hope you are a fully informed citizen and look beyond 100% right-wing information. Perhaps you do...since you put the word really in quotes.
Statistics and facts can be used selectively to support many different conclusions -- our legal system is the prime example of this.
I hope you look to all sources of information and make your informed opinions. The same is true for anyone who looks to 100% left-wing information sources. Both are equally biased toward their ultimate objectives.
Trolling all sources and deciding independently is a great thing.
That said, Stefan does a wondrous service (along with Wilbur) in presenting the right-wing view and David does an equally good job with the left-wing view).
In my opinion, Stefan wants Rossi to be governor more than anything. David wants Gregorie to be governor more than anything. Both are using data to support reasonable arguments to suggest their desire be confirmed. That's good. But read all and decide.
I believe this will go to the courts. I believe whichever side loses at the state level will appeal to the US Supremes. I believe the US Supremes will invoke Bush v. Gore and ensure Rossi becomes Governor. Given that, I think it makes sense for Gregoire to accept Rossi's request for a new vote.
Posted by: tom on December 31, 2004 07:52 AMI think the comments of the attorney general show a lack respect for voters. As Rossi supporters, we are not golf cheaters trying to cover-up a miscue; rather, we just want fairness and justice. If Christine had won on election night, I would have accepted the results without question.
Now that we been subjected to 2 recounts to get the desired results for democrats, they want to declare victory and forget the previous results; this is just another insult to voter intelligence. How can we, the members of the GOP support our governor in earnest, with such a dark cloud of uncertainty hovering? Politicians must learn to choose their words more carefully.
Posted by: Homer on December 31, 2004 01:51 PMBut that’s not the point. The point is that no one knew the result of the media handcount before the Electoral College met, and the presidential race in that state was about as close as this year's race in Washington. And yet I would venture to guess that not one of you people whining about losing the WA governor’s race this year would have stood for a revote in Florida, even though the race there was a “total mess” – e.g. butterfly ballot, state troopers' suppressing the vote in a largely black county, panhandle (Republican) voters disenfranchised by Fox’ (and others) calling the state for Gore while they were waiting in line to vote, etc.
Enjoy the shoe now that it’s on the other foot. At least Gregoire won’t be conjuring up phony reasons to start a war.
So you ignored the actual content of Drudge's piece, that hand-counting every vote in the state would have lost the election for Bush, just like it lost the election for Rossi.
And you also ignored the point I made, that you losers whining for a revote never thought it was a good idea until your candidate was himself a certified loser. (Is Sam Reed part of the vast left-wing conspiracy?)
Suppose Gregoire wins the revote you are all pining and whining for -- by a few hundred votes. Then we do a machine recount of the revotes and her lead shrinks to, say, 42 votes. Then the R's coughs up money for a handcount and Rossi wins by under a hundred votes. But suppose the D's show fraud in Walla Walla county in the revote. (I know, I know: R's don’t' cheat. Humor me.) Then what should happen?
There IS going do be a revote in WA—in 2008. Wait for your turn and whip her then if you can.