Posted on 12/16/2004 11:42:39 AM PST by MikeA
SEATTLE (Dec. 15) - The King County Canvassing Board decided Wednesday to begin the process of verifying 573 newly discovered absentee ballots that could change the outcome of Washington's extremely close race for governor.
The board has yet to decide whether any of those ballots will be counted, but its move was a victory for Democratic candidate Christine Gregoire, who trailed Republican Dino Rossi by 42 votes after a machine recount.
King County, which includes Seattle, is a Democratic stronghold that is expected to be the last of the state's 39 counties to complete a hand recount of all ballots. The recount is expected to be finished Dec. 22.
King County election officials said they discovered Sunday that 573 absentee ballots had not been counted because the voters' signatures had not been scanned into the county's computer system. Election workers should have checked the paper files, but instead the ballots were mistakenly rejected.
AP Christine Gregoire and Dino Rossi
County Elections Director Dean Logan said he believes most of the 573 ballots belong to valid, registered voters.
Still to be decided was the fate of 22 other newly discovered ballots. They were found in several polling places in the side bins of plastic bases in which polling machines sit, said Bill Huennekens, county election superintendent.
State Republican Party Chairman Chris Vance urged the canvassing board not to count the newly discovered ballots.
"None of these ballots should be counted," Vance said. "At the very least, the King County canvassing board needs to slow down and figure out what's going on with these ballots."
The canvassing board voted 2-1 to move forward with recanvassing the 573 ballots, a process that will take several days. After election workers determine whether the ballot signatures are those of registered voters, the board will decide whether the votes should be counted.
As of Wednesday, with all but the four most populous counties reporting results of their hand recounts, Rossi had gained 81 votes for a margin of 123.
I thought a judge ruled against this.
The GOP has to get a court to order the counting halted..These ballots are fake..but once the total gets out..and gives the Dems a win..you can't put the genie back in the bottle..
Newly found.... probably newly produced.
Gregoire will get exactly what she needs. You can bet on it. It is no coincedence that these ballots are turning up in only Dem counties. Ask and ye shall recieve.
That was over the ballots where there had been an issue with signatures, these are 'newly found' ballots
This was the 7th time they've found new ballots
This is a d*mned fraud, and an insult to the voters. Someone belongs in jail.
I am logging off because I will start using profanity here if I don't . . .
I don't understand how legal ballots can just appear. Aren't there rules governing the chain of custody of ballots?
Wait wait, I just found some ballots in my closet. Does it matter that they're here in NJ?
If there is no chain of custody showing where these ballots have been since 11/2, they should be thrown out.
Geez!!!! Do you think this will backfire? I have seen several articles and a poll that suggest people are sick of this and consider Rossi the winner.
I thought this was ruled out. Ofh I forgot, rats will do anything to win. They are noting more than socialists. I guess that dashes any chance of my state becoming red, ****ing liberals.
If they just count the 573 she would have to win by 348-225, or 60.7%-39.3%. If they count 595 (573+22), she would have to win by 359-236, or 60.3%-39.7%. Wide percentage margins but possibly doable with small numbers of ballots, especially if they're from heavily Democratic precincts.
The fix is in.
Anybody from Washington on this thread? What are the state media and the people saying about this?
Is the Democrat theft of the election developing any outrage out there?
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