Today's Spokesman-Review catches our state's ranking Democrats and top elections officials in a psychotic state of denial
"Based on the information that we've seen and results certified to us by the counties, we are comfortable with the results," said Nick Handy, director of elections for Secretary of State Sam Reed. "We're not aware of any activity that would rise to the level of fraud or serious discrepancies."and
"I think the election went really well," said Corky Mattingly, Yakima County auditor and president of the state's association of county auditors. "We all stand with our count."and
"In the end, you follow the process and the one with the most votes wins," said Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown, D-Spokane. "... I don't believe that anybody seriously thinks that there's some kind of conspiracy or fraud out there."and
Gregoire said "there is absolutely no evidence – none whatsoever – to support" Republicans' suggestions of major election errors or fraud.and
"I think it's safe to say that we will see some administrative errors at the polling places," said [King County spokeswoman] Bobbie Egan. "This is a human process. But that doesn't mean there's any evidence of fraud at all."Anne M. Witte, the two Dustin S. Ocoilains and the 71 missing voters from precinct 1823 could not be reached for comment. Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at January 05, 2005 01:14 PM | Email This
http://www.cnn.com/2005/ALLPOLITICS/01/05/washington.governor.ap/index.html
Posted by: CR ACTIVIST on January 5, 2005 01:26 PMRe-vote!
Posted by: MES on January 5, 2005 01:27 PMHowever, more sensiable groups have stopped reporting on this so-called voter fraud in Washington State.
Even Blogs for Bush has stopped reporting and following this non-news event.
Face it,
The Republicans Lost
The Democrats won
Get over it
Move on.
Posted by: Magnum Serpentine on January 5, 2005 01:31 PMI find it very hypocritical of Gregoire in her recent statement accusing Republicans of dividing the state with their accusations. "I think we ought to put it behind us and move on," she said. "This is not good for the state of Washington." Of course she thinks she should move on...move on and out of the state, as far as I'm concerned...
Mini-Hillary didn't have this opinion after the first count...she didn't have this opinion after the second count. Only after she "appears" to have taken the lead does she formulate her most recent, and continually changing opinion. Can't she see in herself what hypocrasy this is? Now THIS is really someone I'd like to see fill the governor's office...just chock full of integrity...
As another example of my perspective, I can understand King Countly finding "lost" ballots under some empty mail container ONCE...I can understand King Countly finding "lost" ballots TWICE...I daresay that I could even understand King Countly finding "lost" ballots THREE times...albeit with a raised eyebrow...but King Countly found "lost" ballots NINE TIMES...count'em...NINE! Incredulous! Unbelievable! What ineptitude! What cheating!
On top of that Gregoire won't even mildly concede that King Countly had any problems at all! She would be well served to at least admit that "maybe there was a bit of a problem here and there".
I believe in integrity, honesty, fairness, responsibility and ACCOUNTABILITY...not only in our public officials but in all people!
I have to admit I sometimes find myself wanting to throw my arms up in the air and walk away...but, that's exactly what the democratic party wants me to do...
Instead, I'm agitated to the point that I highly recommend that the Republican Party, and those of us wanting an honest outcome, whatever that outcome will be, should PERSEVERE! We must have a REVOTE! (please take a minute and sign the revote petition at www.revotewa.com)! ! !
To me, honestly, it's not about WHO won the election...it's about KNOWING who won the election. The issues at hand are about the integrity of the democratic process. Corrupt the democratic process and you've corrupted the very HEART of America, not to mention Washington State!
I find it appropriately ironic that the Republican Party mascot is an elephant...it is said that elephants "never forget". I, for one, will never forget this election. In my mind, it will forever smear the integrity of the democratic party (intentionally lower case).
I also find it appropriately ironic that the democratic party mascot is...what...a jackass, isn't it? Need I say more?
Most sincerely,
Dan (born in Seattle and a registered voter of Snohomish County)
I wrote to Her Competency on 12/28 and she hasn't bothered to respond to this voter whose taxes pay her wages.
Am I micturating up a rope here, or merely into the wind?
Posted by: Armand on January 5, 2005 01:43 PMI disagree. It isn't a legitimate win. I think your obvious partisanship shows in your ill-informed comment.
Would you be so quick to call the election if it were Republicans trying to win through fraud and incompetence?
All I want is for the rules to be followed (and how about established as rules in the first place) consistently and equitably.
Posted by: Megs on January 5, 2005 01:48 PM"Dead Voters for Gregoire"
Posted by: Vince Callaway on January 5, 2005 01:56 PMeric
Posted by: Eric from Atlanta on January 5, 2005 01:56 PMThe republicans have already won using fraud and incompetence in ohio and florida. In florida, where in the counties, Democrats had 77% registeration, yet the registered republicans suddenly swelled to 152% of those allowed to vote. Sure sounds like fraud to me.
And in ohio, not enought voting machines in the Democratic sectors and too many in the republican sectors sure sounds fishy to me.
face it,
the Democrats won the Governors race in Washington a BLUE STATE,
The republicans lost
Get over it
Move On
Posted by: Magnum Serpentine on January 5, 2005 01:56 PMBut not this time.
Posted by: FedUpWithThis on January 5, 2005 02:05 PMYou are very misguided, my friend. Florida wasn't stolen...get over that, please. Al Gore never won any vote, even those done independently. The Supreme Court rules appropriately that the rules had to be applied evenly across the entire state. Which is exactly what should have been done in our state.
Instead, King County was allowed to follow different standards and change the rules (several times, I might add) in midstream.
I realize that my response will have no effect on your "Republicans stole the election" theme, but in reality it is the Democratic party in this State that is trying to pull one over on the voters.
Yes, I realize this is a blue state (thanks in large part to the population of King County) even though most of the counties are red. It must make you wonder why so many Democrats voted for Dino.
I actually was a phone caller for the GOP for the election, trying to determine who was voting for Bush. I had many callers tell me that while they weren't voting Bush, they were voting Dino. And this was in liberal blue Thurston County.
So, moderate and clear thinking Democrats obviously saw something in CG that they didn't like and wanted Dino as gov. Too bad the party machine and incompetence worked in CG's favor...at least for now.
Posted by: megs on January 5, 2005 02:12 PMThank you! I did not have that information to point out in my response. :-) Just adds more weight as far as I'm concerned.
Posted by: megs on January 5, 2005 02:14 PMThese guys really couldn't care less about rule of law or the votes of people they disagree with.
Posted by: Bostonian on January 5, 2005 02:14 PMFor the second time, take the time to research historical voting trends in those counties.
This is the 2nd time you have repeated this factless charge. Those heavily democratic counties always heavily vote Republican. They even voted for Dole over Clinton.
Bush won Ohio by over 100,000 votes, good luck on that loony goose chase. What about Pennsylvania where more votes were cast, the margin of victory was less, & the fraud apparant? Philadelphia likely stole the election in Pennsylvania for Kerry.
Posted by: Kingdome on January 5, 2005 02:28 PM"Proud parent of a registered voter at Sunset Elementary."
"My dog voted for Gregoire."
Posted by: South County on January 5, 2005 02:29 PMMy real reason for being leary of the re-vote petition is that it shifts the focus from the farcical and corrupt election to a political battle over whether or not to re-vote for the governor's office. Win or lose that battle, the "war" needs to remain our principal focus if we care about not only this but future elections in this state. That "war's" goal is obtaining a degree of confidence that elections can be fairly and honestly conducted.
As stated in a previous post, we the voters of Washington State have a grievance because we're been defrauded of our rights as voters. Some of the legally astute people who have posted on this have made a convincing case that laws and precedents exist that make this a reasonable alternative to a re-vote. The proper place to take this grievance is the courts. Doing so will set in motion needed reforms for future elections as well. We need to be aware of the potential for a mis-step into political wrangling that loses the focus on the long-range issues.
Posted by: RLG on January 5, 2005 02:36 PMIn Clark County, provisional votes are tallied in the precinct where they were cast. If King County follows the same practice, it would be impossible to declare the 71 voters were missing from precinct 1823, at least based on the data in your linked post. In that case, the 45 provisional voters in your table would represent voters registered in 1823. It's likely that many of those voters voted elsewhere. Similarly, the 111 provisional ballots would likely be from voters registered in other precincts. The two tallies simply aren't comparable.
Posted by: scottd on January 5, 2005 02:38 PMI understand your concerns and I agree to some extent that it is too bad that such an action needs to be taken, as it does set a precedent.
However, I think there is a great issue here. If Christine "wins" then the process will never get fixed. If Rossi is victorious (as I have very little doubt he will) then this process will be examined and hopefully fixed.
There's the battle and the war...in this case, if we lose the battle, we can still fight the war but it will be much more difficult. If we win the battle, the war still needs to be fought, but we will have more of an advantage.
Posted by: megs on January 5, 2005 02:39 PMOn Sunday, her (Gregoire's) youngest daughter bought a dress for the Jan. 12 inaugural ball.
Is this meant to add sympathy to her cause????
Forget it!!! Any thinking person with morals knows that this election recount is a joke. Dino Rossi is our rightful leader. If the dems can't admit this, then the only recourse is to have a revote. (I can see them shaking in their boots, knowing that it will be such a blow out. They have dug their own grave.)
Keep turning over stones. Keep up the good fight.
Posted by: Mike on January 5, 2005 02:52 PMMark Steyn just mentioned our state in the context of boondoggle (sp?) elections on Hugh Hewitt's show. Great...now we're international.
Posted by: megs on January 5, 2005 03:14 PMFrom what I understand...the only way a governor can be recalled is if as part of their role as governor they do something illegal. In other words, even if considered illegitimate, she couldn't be recalled because of the voting issues. Only if she did something wrong as governor.
Posted by: megs on January 5, 2005 03:31 PMWow! No wonder C.G. looked so uptight and nervous yesterday. I hope her daughter kept the tags on her dress ( a requirement to return a formal) and still has the receipt.
Robyn
Posted by: Orange Robyn on January 5, 2005 03:33 PMUnlike California, you normally don't get to vote on the successor if you're successful. Washington just follows normal succession procedures. If the governor were recalled, the Lt. Gov. would take over for the remainder of the term.
Posted by: scottd on January 5, 2005 03:37 PMI challenge all you "hand-wringer" types to snap out of it and volunteer to help...especially in some of the more remote county's.
The Dems will continue to deny, deny & deny some more. Gregoire's own words about how this was a fair election will drown her chances in a revote.
She is a "go along, get along" typical Lefty. This is EXACTLY why Rossi needs to get in there and clean house.
Can you imagine Independent voters in a revote saying "I think I'll vote for Gregoire because she did a good job of minimizing gross incompetence!"
The apologist for voter fraud has spoken...
I don't know if the "best out of three" phrase was Reed's or Locke's. But what has happened is that the of the worst of the three counts is the one that they say is correct... the hand count. Notoriously error filled.
And of course Locke ended is message with the infamous phrase "every vote counts".
Posted by: Diane in Bremerton on January 5, 2005 03:59 PMStefan's devoted a lot of space to examining detailed counts on a precinct-by-precinct basis. And he's made some pretty strong statements (71 more ballots than voters in precinct 1823!).
Doesn't it matter if he's misinterpreting the data? On the other hand, maybe he's already checked on it. What's the harm in asking for clarification?
By the way, that's the second time you've accused me of apologizing for voter fraud. My posts have clearly stated that I'm dead set against it, and I think all occurences should be investigated, followed by vigorous prosecution whenever possible. What part of that do you not understand?
Posted by: scottd on January 5, 2005 04:12 PMEven if, for some reason, provisional ballots are accepted at precincts other than the location the voter is registered (e.g. because registration cards were mis-printed) I would still see no legitimate reason to count them at anyplace other than the registered precinct. Counting them anyplace else is a clear recipe for fraud.
Posted by: supercat on January 5, 2005 05:31 PMNote that I didn't say you were for election fraud...what I pointed out was that if someone was, they would sound exactly like you...
Posted by: South County on January 5, 2005 05:36 PMAs for which precinct counts them -- your opinion and mine don't matter. I know how Clark County does it. If KingCo does it the same way, then Stefan's analysis of precinct results is meaningless. It's an important point that should be nailed down.
southie: I think I'm pretty much sticking to the facts, we just disagree. Feel free to address the substance of my argument any time. If you don't understand part of it, ask, and I'll be happy to explain.
Or you could just stick with the lame snarking if you're coming up empty.
Posted by: scottd on January 5, 2005 06:10 PMGregoire's "absolutely no evidence" statement shows how desparate she is to hide the truth about this unfair election.
What's more, she continues to declare "I won" even though most people in this state don't believe it.
Posted by: TADD on January 5, 2005 06:18 PMYep!.....And PANIC too! Heh..
She really DID look and sound like a woman losing her grip on the outcome of the elections...
She definitely had the whining ring of desperation in her voice today........It's over for her....She knows it!
The Revote campaign is just too huge to deny....and the vote irregularities found and reported to date are just too questionable to simply shrug off...
Goodbye Christine.
Posted by: Deborah on January 5, 2005 07:46 PMI guess this is what you're talking about:
In Clark County, provisional votes are tallied in the precinct where they were cast. If King County follows the same practice, it would be impossible to declare the 71 voters were missing from precinct 1823, at least based on the data in your linked post. In that case, the 45 provisional voters in your table would represent voters registered in 1823. It's likely that many of those voters voted elsewhere. Similarly, the 111 provisional ballots would likely be from voters registered in other precincts. The two tallies simply aren't comparable.
Maybe for those of us who didn't major in weaselwords, you could separate out that substance so I don't have to clean off the bottom of my shoes...
http://www.clark.wa.gov/elections/results/2004/GovernorRecount1.csv
There's a note at the bottom explaining this practice.
I've looked all over for specific information on KingCo's practice but came up blank. Why do you think it's different?
Posted by: scottd on January 6, 2005 08:46 AM