Former Attorney General Christine Gregoire signed the Democrats' package of lame-ass "election reform" bills with the comment:
The November election was a total meltdown and nobody in his right mind believes that I actually won. So in order to placate a few gullible moderates, we're pretending to engage in serious "election reform", when in fact all we're doing is rearranging a few deck chairs and opening up some huge new holes to enable a lot more vote fraud. The more anonymous mail balloting we can get away with, the better. Wahoo! And I can't believe how easy it was to get the newspapers to fall for that "move the primary" diversion.Okay, what she actually said was:
"Last year we had a very difficult and very close election for governor," she said before signing the bills. "There were problems in some areas and with these new laws we're taking necessary steps to see if we can't address those problem areas and restore public confidence in our state's election system."But you understand the subtext.
On a serious note -- One of the few improvements in the "election reform" package is SB 5743 Sec. 17, which puts date of birth back in the public version of the voter database. We lost the battle but won the war!
The bold print pretty much sums up what she said...
To address those problem areas and restore public confidence would require honesty and she knows she *honestly* did not win the election - and her party would never win again!
It's still national news (or at least west-coast news). And it's not over. Hoping for the best!
Posted by: Michele on May 3, 2005 10:48 PMMy favorite part:
"Democrats have a different view, saying that problem ballots occur in nearly every statewide election, and that the real news is how well the bulk of the ballots were counted. State Democratic Party Chairman Paul Berendt called the 2004 vote "the most accurate election in state history."
BWHAHAHAHA!
Posted by: Greg on May 3, 2005 11:25 PMLike I expect many SP readers, I'm in favor. But if seriously considering the initiative route, remember that there is a LOT to fix; i.e.:
The following election-related bills range from relatively short to very short:
1749 (SOS review county election procedures)
1754 (option for all-mail election)
5395 (paper trail)
5564 (SOS do plain-English manual)
5565 (out-of-State voters)
But 5499 and 5743 are BIG:
They each amend MANY RCWs in TITLE 29A; along with touching a number of RCWs outside of 29A.
One fundamental issue with any initiative is that you can only put so much legalese on the back and still have it be judged readable by the SOS and the courts. I've never seen a minimum font size specified, and some initiatives in the last few years have crammed an amazing number of words on the back. But without even beginning to have time right now to lay it out in one of my initiative master forms, it seems pretty clear that it is not possible to fix the entire mess the Legislature left us with through one initiative. It would take several; or VERY careful triage to get it down to the most important RCWs.
SIDEBAR: Also remember that HB 1222 added a new requirement for even MORE boilerplate on the back of an initiative sheet, further reducing the number of square inches available for RCW text.
Methow Ken
"we're taking necessary steps to see if we CAN'T address those problem areas"
In other words, she is saying she "can't" address those problem areas and wants to see if this bill will succeed in not addressing them ... otherwise, Democrats will not be elected again in a statewide election.
Posted by: DeadManVoting (aka Iguana) on May 4, 2005 02:48 AMI hope you've provided details about the vote cast in your wife's name to the WA State Republicans or the Rossi organization...those are the kinds of specifics they need for the contest.
Posted by: Patrick on May 4, 2005 06:24 AMThere were problems in some areas and with these new laws we're taking necessary steps to see if we can't address those problem areas...
Taken literally, she certainly succeeded when she signed the election "reform" bill.
Posted by: Ken Coffman on May 4, 2005 07:09 AMhttp://www.votehere.net/news/archive05/011105.htm
Posted by: VaCSProf on May 4, 2005 07:41 AMNow, it seems she does this once a week on the same issue. It is a sign to me of one very, very confused lady.
Posted by: swatter on May 4, 2005 07:44 AMThe article reminds me that the problems are not new, those who defend the system are the same characters. It is, as Yogi Berra once said, deja vu all over again.
Posted by: Newman on May 4, 2005 08:12 AMThe spire that they are proposing in Tacoma should be built in Olympia as a symbol of our "elected" representatives sendiments towards the voters .... the one-finger salute! I just hope we have massive turnout in '06 and vote them all out!
Posted by: Vicki on May 4, 2005 10:19 AMTrue...but insulting. But I guess it's all right since you do it too, huh????
Posted by: Peter Franklin on May 4, 2005 01:38 PMNow, if I were to extend your argument and call you a pathetic slack-jawed mouth-breather, that would be an insult.
But I'd never do that, because that wouldn't be nice.....
Posted by: alphabet soup on May 4, 2005 02:05 PMDSHS claims all Domestic Violence is man beating woman. Yet the 2002 crime reports for the state of washington show nearly 50% of the victims of domestic violence homocides to be male. HMMMMM.
Yes that money will be well spent villifying one gender.
HOW DO YOU SPELL SPECIAL INTEREST?
Posted by: Andy on May 5, 2005 11:09 PM