Revote Rally outside the legislature starting at 10:30. Details and bus/carpool info at the state GOP website
I'll be speaking around 11:15. See you there!
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2002147549_recount11m.html
Posted by: Dan on January 11, 2005 07:29 AM-- We Sued To Stop Counting Legal Votes! --
-- "Concede," said Dino --
-- New Elections Until Dino Wins! --
No votes for the dead!
One ballot per voter!
A voter for every ballot!
Count every vote: even the troops!
Count every LEGAL vote!
Posted by: Bostonian on January 11, 2005 07:39 AMCan you imagine this guy governing? How often would he change his mind when those stubborn facts get in the way...
PS...plenty of stories of most of the dead people supporting Rossi as well as the multiple voters...and also plenty of stories of people overseas getting late ballots but taking "voter responsibility" to ensure they were returned and got counted before certification. Didn't Rossi et. al. claim "voter responsibility" when he was busy suing to stop legal votes from being counted?
Posted by: jim on January 11, 2005 07:51 AMSave your campaigning for the revote campaign.
Posted by: Bostonian on January 11, 2005 07:57 AMTuesday, January 11, 2005 12:00 A.M.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2002147549_recount11m.html
New error found in vote tally
By Keith Ervin
Oops — never mind.
Three days after King County election officials explained most of a controversial discrepancy between the number of ballots cast and voters known to have voted, the gap has grown again.
After whittling the discrepancy from 3,539 votes to 1,217 last week, officials yesterday said they had made a mistake.
The number of votes now unaccounted for is "somewhere around 1,800," county Elections Superintendent Bill Huennekens said yesterday.
It's impossible to come up with a precise number, Huennekens said, because workers are adding and deleting names of registered voters as they update the list in preparation for a Feb. 8 special election.
Huennekens said the numbers released Friday were wrong because the names of 1,003 voters appeared twice on the voter list. Not all of them voted in the November election. Computer experts are trying to figure out why some names were on the list twice.
The state Democratic Party alerted county election officials to the goof shortly after the county gave a "reconciled" list of voters to the political parties and news media Friday, but the county didn't publicly acknowledge the problem until yesterday.
Huennekens said county staffers worked over the weekend to produce an accurate voter list.
The flawed list was an embarrassment the county didn't need at a time when the state Republican Party was already pointing to procedural errors and accounting problems in King County as grounds for holding a new election for governor.
Republicans asked Chelan County Superior Court on Friday to set aside the election results, saying the number of "mystery votes" in King County was larger than Democrat Christine Gregoire's 129-vote lead statewide over Republican Dino Rossi in the manual recount.
Rossi won the initial machine count by 261 votes and a machine recount by 42 votes.
Huennekens said the larger number of unaccounted-for votes should not shake people's confidence in the outcome of an election that he said was still "99.9x" percent accurate.
"When we're talking about as many million pieces of paper as we have to go through in administering an election, that's still pretty good," he said. "Certainly we're aware that we've got to do things better and move forward, and we're committed to doing that."
Huennekens' boss, county Elections Director Dean Logan, said Friday many of the unexplained ballots probably were cast by registered voters who failed to sign in when they went to polling places.
In addition to the approximately 1,800 votes county officials can't account for, Logan said up to 348 voters improperly put provisional ballots into counting machines at polling places before their signatures or eligibility had been verified.
Provisional ballots, which are identical to regular poll ballots, can't be separated from poll ballots after they are inserted into a tabulator. Provisional ballots are used when a voter goes to the wrong polling place or there is a question about his or her eligibility.
State Republican Party Chairman Chris Vance yesterday called the unexplained votes and improperly cast provisional ballots "unconscionable. ... When the election is decided by 129 votes and in King County you've got 2,000 more votes than voters, this election is invalid on its face."
Democratic Party spokeswoman Lisa Cohen said the results of the hand recount were valid and should stand, despite King County's difficulty in accounting for all votes.
"It's been the most closely observed election in our lifetimes, I think. What's very important to realize and keep in context is that King County and the other counties say that their accuracy rate is more than 99.9 percent," Cohen said.
Yesterday was the second time in two days that King County elections officials corrected a factual error. They changed the county's election Web site Sunday to correct the date when absentee ballots were sent to 3,055 military and overseas voters. The county initially reported the ballots were mailed Oct. 10, two days after a deadline negotiated with the federal government.
The online fact sheet now says ballots were mailed Oct. 7.
Logan said Sunday that he discovered the date on the fact sheet originally posted by King County was in error. He said numbers on the report, which he produced himself, were inadvertently changed when converted to code for the Web site.
Your Florida Supporter.
Posted by: niceville on January 11, 2005 08:05 AMThanks Darcy for being with us in spirit and for writing more letters.
Orange Crush!!
How is this for a sign - DeMOCKracy!!
Is it legal to count votes from dead people?
Posted by: Bostonian on January 11, 2005 08:27 AM"Here are some signs you can hold:
-- We Sued To Stop Counting Legal Votes! --
-- "Concede," said Dino --
-- New Elections Until Dino Wins! --"
You post your sarcasm, mockery, and scoffing comments continually on this bolg, and then whine and cry about being called names. Then you retreat and complain that you only want to have dialog and discussion of the issues.
You're behavior is truly pathetic, and you have earned all of the negative comments by posters at this site.
Keep up the good work - it reminds me why I left the party of a**es.
Posted by: Shaun on January 11, 2005 08:27 AM
Shaun, good point. I apologize. I acted inappropriately and will strive hard not to repeat it.
Orange Robyn: I meant those who have sued...and those in the leglisature (I listened to the Senate procedure and the Rs were saying "Nobody is claiming fraud"...)
Posted by: jim on January 11, 2005 08:50 AMThere have been reports of 8 cases of dead people voting (touching, deathbed wishes mainly). If we were to cancel elections when any single election irregularity like this occurred, we'd never have any elections at all. If 100% perfection is the standard...let's throw out voting altogether. Certainly, Florida 2000 would never stand -- nor would any of the 2004 races.
Posted by: jim on January 11, 2005 08:58 AMThe article says that Dean Logan produced the numbers for the report himself. Somehow I am not reassured by that information.
Posted by: JG on January 11, 2005 08:59 AM
I didn't ask about the number of violations, but to address that, let's move on to the provisional ballots that were fed directly into the counting machines without being verified first by law. KC had about 50,000 provo ballots and claims only to have checked 94% of them (do the math).
1) Is that legal?
2) How many violations of the law does that represent? Is that greater than or less than the margin of victory (of either opponent)?
I continue to be amused by your mendacity.
Posted by: Not a Yank on January 11, 2005 09:03 AMNo one is claiming fraud as of yet. Since fraud is not necessary to overturn an election the WSRP and Rossi do not need to claim fraud. If fact it is too early to make such a claim. I believe once we get through the discovery and testimony there will be evidence of fraud on the part of some in KC. But, if there is not there is still enough evidence that will overturn the election.
Posted by: Doug on January 11, 2005 09:09 AMDead Protest Fraud Allegations
"We are very upset at the allegations of fraud and malfeasance directed at us by Republicans in Washington State," said Elzoah Greybones, representative of Ghouls for Democrats. "It's bad enough that we are constantly under attack by Hollywood, what with their 'horror' movies and all, damaging our reputations. But now the Republicans want to take away our right to vote as well."
More at the link.
Good Luck
Pluto's Dad
Eyes On The Ball News
OK, thanks. And any sarcasm that comes from me will not be directed at you.
See ya,
Shaun
It would appear so. Would it not?
Posted by: Jim in Clark County on January 11, 2005 10:29 AMIMO, this is a deliberate misunderstanding to try to make the challenge more difficult. The people who come here and blather about "no fraud is proved" are just trying to suck up bandwidth and waste people's time.
Posted by: Bostonian on January 11, 2005 10:34 AMKC had about 50,000 provo ballots and claims only to have checked 94% of them (do the math).
1) Is that legal?
2) How many violations of the law does that represent? Is that greater than or less than the margin of victory (of either opponent)?
*** That's what the courts will decide. The Rs are within their rights to determine the legality or illegality of the election process here. And the Ds are well within their rights to defend the process. My saying one thing and you saying another has no impact on the legality or illegality...only our beliefs. I believe the process was completed, per the law and constitution, and the claims above do not rise to the level of proof or consequence to void an election.
Interestingly, as I watched the Senate debate, I heard a republican say a revote that uses the same process wouldn't be right. I wonder, if the Rs win the revote effort, how long will it take for a new system to be put in place to elminate these conditions existing?
Not a Yank: You have accused me of mendacity. To be correct, I would knowingly say things that I beleive are false. That is not the case. Your attack is without merit.
Marc/Jim: To your point: "Are Democrats only for following the legal process until their guy is ahead, and then shutting down the rest of the legal avenues?" -- I believe the opposite is true. Listening to the speeches on the Senate floor yesterday, the Democrats said "Let the courts rule - we'll follow their ruling" and Christine has supported the Rs rights for moving ahead. A number of Rs stood up and applauded that view.
I would point out it was the Rs who sued to stop counting legal votes midway through the process. The Ds took the legal process through its conclusion. The Rs sued to continue it...well within their rights but the exact opposite of the case you suggest above.
Shaun: thank you.
Posted by: jim on January 11, 2005 10:42 AMYou wrote:
"PS...plenty of stories of most of the dead people supporting Rossi as well as the multiple voters...and also plenty of stories of people overseas getting late ballots but taking "voter responsibility" to ensure they were returned and got counted before certification. Didn't Rossi et. al. claim "voter responsibility" when he was busy suing to stop legal votes from being counted?"
"There have been reports of 8 cases of dead people voting (touching, deathbed wishes mainly)."
Concerning this Governor's race, I read one report of a husband submitting his deceased wife's ballot for Rossi to honor her deathbed wishes. It's the only story I read indicating how the dead voted. I haven't read anything about how multiple voters voted. What are your sources?
In the aftermath of the Florida 2000 vote, it was found that 75% of felons voting illegally were Democrats. Voters registered in both Florida and New York (some of whom voted twice) were overwhelmingly Democratic. Illegal aliens also vote overwhelmingly Democrat. Chicago is famous for dead Democrat voters.
I've read articles quoting election officials saying that there is no law that requires voters to fill out their ballots correctly. This was given as a justification for divining voter intent on mismarked ballots. If we can ignore "voter responsibility" for voters who have no hardships in voting, why shouldn't it be done for military who get their ballots late? And how can Republicans allow Decmocrats to bend over backwards for their voters, but not support their own voters just as hard?
Posted by: Kathy on January 11, 2005 11:45 AMChristine and Dino both know the election process in King County is flawed and is open to manipulation without accountability for at least 0.01% of the vote. Dino did ask Christine to concede and went to court to stop the unraveling of voter confidence. They both knew where this would lead. But, for the sake of the voters, the legal course really had to happen.
Dino and Chris chose to act differently than Slade Gordon. Dino is going to see it through. King County doesn't like it, because it reveals what they are and how poorly they operate - partisian, a shade below fraud and with a 0.01 margin of accuracy. That's not a standard to be proud of.
In the end, a revote is the only realistic course of action. It's amazing when the Dem. legislature jump on the party bandwagon and don't do the "right thing" when they need to. Suddenly, they are now strictly following the law. That wasn't the position when the Dem's filed the first lawsuit.
Posted by: Mike J on January 11, 2005 12:05 PMBut, get a bunch of people that REALLY care about the quality of democracy in our state forming a rally, and none of the media around here covers it.
I'd like to know how long this rally is planned to go, because I would drive down there and join it, but don't want to risk the time if I might get their too late.
Posted by: Iguana on January 11, 2005 12:28 PMThe Democrats snubbed the will of the people of Washington State and chose to circle the wagons around their party......
The Democrats - especially Lisa Brown..(she really needs some advice in proper attire by the way...) have thumbed their noses at the people of Washington state...and the people will remember this before this fiasco is over.....
Maybe we should look into some other *close* races while we are at it?
I say - Let's open this can of worms completely!
Posted by: Deborah on January 11, 2005 02:37 PM