Posted on 02/04/2005 2:05:45 PM PST by ijcr
WENATCHEE, Wash. (AP) - A judge allowed a court challenge to Democratic Gov. Christine Gregoire's excruciatingly close election to go forward Friday, rejecting arguments that the dispute can only be resolved by the Legislature.
The ruling by Superior Court John E. Bridges came at a hearing on a Republican attempt to overturn Gregoire's election.
Gregoire was sworn in last month after being declared the winner by a mere 129 votes out of 2.9 million cast.
But Republican candidate Dino Rossi and the state GOP say the contest was tainted by so many errors and illegal votes - including ballots cast by hundreds of felons - that the courts should throw out the results and order a new election.
On Friday, the Democrats argued that any challenge to the election belongs in the Legislature. GOP attorney Robert Maguire countered that the state constitution and state law say the courts - not partisan lawmakers - should hear the case.
"The state of Washington needs an open, transparent, public display of what happened in this election," Maguire said. "Without it, many - and perhaps the majority - of Washington voters will not believe the person sitting in the governor's office truly won the election."
The judge rejected the Democrats' argument, along with their claim that the case should go straight to the state Supreme Court.
The judge was expected to hear and rule on other requests to dismiss the case later in the day.
The Democrats are defending the election results, saying that Rossi does not have enough proof to nullify the election and that a revote would be unconstitutional.
Rossi, a real estate agent and former state senator, had won the original count by 261 votes and came out ahead by 42 votes in a machine recount. But to his dismay, the third and final count put Gregoire ahead.
The state constitution says contested elections for governor "shall be decided by the Legislature in such a manner as shall be determined by law."
"Through this sentence, the constitution imposes a mandatory duty on only one branch of government - the Legislature," the Democrats said in court papers.
The Republicans countered that the words "as shall be determined by law" clearly delegate the task to the courts.
Hope springs eternal.
Is it true that 1,800 more votes than voters were counted in King (Communist) County?
Ding-dong, the witch is deadmeat.
C'mon over to the live thread...sorry, I don't know how to post a link here, but just scroll down and you'll see it!!
Time to break out the orange banners for Rossi.
Regards, Ivan
These are important questions sine the democrat party has developed an efficient machinery to steal close elections accross the nation. It could have easily been a Presidential Election.
Rossi lost a lot of momentum at the start of this whole thing, but if a lot of voting fraud comes to light, it could really swing public opinion (and voting) in his favor. Pissed off Republicans can work wonders. (see Florida, 2000).
heh heh. The state constitution believes judges are not partisan lawmakers. That's rich!
Excellent. I hope the shine a very bright light on the Democratic voter fraud machinge as long as possible.
What I worry about is Washington State is all Democrat. What good will it do to have a Republican Gov.?
I have heard that there is a movement in Seattle to rename King County as "Martin Luther King County" because now it is named for the late Vice President {William?} King.
people said the same thing when rudy giuliani was elected mayor of NYC. so much for that idea.
Serves to hold back the REALLY bad stuff....but almost impossible to advance a conservative agenda. But hey, the former is worth it.
While the House and Senate are RAT controlled, having a Pubby Gov does give our Pubby legislators from the east side of the state some help. RATS control west side of state; Pubbies east side of state. The demarcation line is the Cascade Mtns.
We still got ours. Ready and waiting.
I thought the number turned out to be 3,700
It will be worth it just to rub it in the Democrat's face.
Yes it is! But .. at least this judge does not seem to be a partisan in favor of the democrats - or he could have dismissed the suit.
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