Audio minutes of last November/December's Canvassing Board meetings are now available for transcription (a big thank you to reader Jeff Boly for converting the tapes to MP3 and surgically enhancing the sound quality!). I can't post all the audio files for public download at this time due to the enormous volume of data, but we can still use some more volunteers to help with the transcription. E-mail me if you can commit to transcribing 30 min. of dialogue:
theshark .at. usefulwork .dot. com.
I was thinking of what a King County conclave might be like.
Black smoke from the elections office..
Processing ballots.
White smoke from the elections office..
Destroying evidence.
Green smoke from the elections office..
Gregoire is Queen.
It's amazing how many times we miss the obvious signs of what is to come. For Example:
1) Sign posted @ Evergreen College-
Support Group for Lying Party Chairmen
---Call Paul B
2) Ad in the Olympian--
HUGE YARD SALE THIS SATURDAY
LOCATION: GOVERNORS MANSION
Lots of new stuff...much still in original boxes.
3) Ad in Seattle TImes
WORK WANTED
Soon to be unemployed County Election Director seeking a career change. Loyal employee to a fault. Will consider anything from male stripper to Weird Al Yankovic Party-Guy to very bad accountant (wink-wink).
4) Ad in Seattle Weekly
GEEK SEEKING MAN---Pocket protector wearing soon to be former Asst. Elections Director seeks large black male to push me around and tell me what to do & say. I know I will miss my Alpha Ron.
That there is funny stuff. I don't care who ya are!
Posted by: Mr. Cynical on April 20, 2005 06:07 AMAnybody hear/read this ???
Posted by: chris on April 20, 2005 07:35 AMLikelihood is that they will be called to testify supporting this point of view. Equal likelihood that the dems will attempt to impeach their methodology.
We'll see...
Posted by: alphabet soup on April 20, 2005 08:00 AMToo many things have happened to be confident about anything except that KC Elections screwed the pooch, and their party faithful has done all it can to cover it up and MoveOn.
Let's hope the liberals don't get their wish. If Shark has his way, they won't.
Posted by: Amused by liberals on April 20, 2005 08:15 AMThe most votes for the former attorney general were likely added during the initial count. There are a few reasons for this.
1. Despite Dean Logan's denial, there were stacks of blank ballots in the counting area during the first count. I got this information from two family members that managed to get into the building on November 5th. These should have been shredded after election day.
2. Many democrat voters did not vote for governor. They did not want to support Rossi or Bennett and they simply didn't like Gregoire. She came across as mean despite the party's attempts to soften her image. The attempted morph from Christine to Chris just didn't work. Many of these voters voted for Kerry and Murray and simply didn't vote at all for governor. This provided a perfect opportunity for county elections workers to add votes for Gregiore during "ballot enhancement". A quick mark with a sharpie and the crime can't be traced. The only problem is that they underestimated how many votes they needed to add. But they did narrow Rossi's win to less than 2000, which triggered the recount and bought them more time. After that, they were under much more scrutiny and were only left with the option of "finding" more ballots.
In the same position, most people would argue: "We believe our guy won based on irrefutable evidence. Therefore, he should be placed in office." Indeed, the republicans have every right to argue this point, and they would be correct. But they are surrendering their position for a compromise.
Now, how can the democrats argue with this in the minds of the people? They have to prove that the evidence of the Rossi camp is not indisputable. They have to throw a shadow on what they have. But by doing so, they are really proving that the entire election was questionable, and that another election should be held. Hence, by trying to destroy Rossi's case, they will be arguing for Rossi's case.
What the democrats really have to do is prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that the election was Gregoire's. They can't do this now that Rossi is claiming that the evidence, testimony, and witnesses say that Rossi wins. They would have to take the exact same evidence and somehow contort it to mean that Gregoire won, which the evidence obviously doesn't point to.
Let's talk more about the compromise here. What Rossi is really saying is, "Hey, I won this thing. It's obvious. However, I don't want to be appointed governor. I only want the position if the people overwhelmingly believe that they have selected me. I only want it if it comes from a clean election. I am willing to sacrifice a year or even more of my office - which is rightfully mine - in order to allow the people the choice once again to choose a governor, because I believe the will of the people should be honored above all."
That's a message that will resonate with every single Washington voter. We wrote our state constitution specifically to point out that the right to govern rests SOLELY in the hands of the people, and our government serves at the whim of the people. Every effort by any government official to oppose the will of the people - even in the judicial branch - is seen as tyranny and unjust rule, violating the very principle upon which our state constitution was written. Rossi is right, and I hope this will serve as a precedent for future challenges. If the election is wrong, hold another one. Don't overturn elections, even when they are wrong. Hold another one.
Posted by: Jonathan Gardner on April 20, 2005 11:18 AMAs our resident narcoleptic (nelson) reveals on another thread, "The goal of all Democrats is to make voting as east (sic), whimsical and effortless as possible."
Accuracy, legitimacy, honesty be damned! The democrats (who brought us same-day registrations, motor-voter registrations, and advocate automatic reinstatement of felon (voter) rights) also blur the lines with vote enhancement.
They insist on keeping it as "flexible" as possible, all to retain as much discretion as they require to maintain their lead.
So, who's the dummy here, the dems for keeping a tool that allows them to cheat with impunity, or us for failing to take them to the mat over it?
Posted by: alphabet soup on April 20, 2005 11:44 AMJust FYI. I used Spin Doctor with the SoundSoap plugin to process the audio. Most of the problem was that the tapes were either copies of copies of copies which produced incredible hiss, and/or the mic they used to record was a piece of junk and/ or poorly placed.
Would have been easy had they used decent equipment to record and duplicate their audio. But hey, this is KC Elections, they can't count or keep track of counting in a believeable way, so recording is definitely out of their league.
Posted by: Jeff B. on April 20, 2005 02:22 PMI'll bet they would make the big bucks!!
I'm trying to find which of my audio programs will produce the clearest sound on these tapes....It's going to take a little while...
Posted by: Deborah on April 20, 2005 07:45 PMWas that erased during the conversion to MP3? I don't think it would be - because the erase starts at about 9 minutes into the tape.....
Hmmm....Interesting!
Posted by: Deborah on April 21, 2005 08:33 PM