Posted on 12/16/2004 11:59:33 AM PST by Publius
Republicans announced plans Thursday morning to sue King County over 573 newly discovered ballots that could change the outcome of the closest governor's race in Washington state history.
The county's Canvassing Board voted Wednesday to prepare the 573 absentee ballots for inclusion in the hand recount, over the objections of Republicans who urged the county to investigate the ballots first.
State GOP Chairman Chris Vance said Thursday the party would seek a court order Thursday afternoon in Pierce County, aimed at slowing down the processing of the previously rejected ballots to allow them to be better tracked and verified.
Specifically, the party wants to stop the county from separating the ballots from their outer envelopes, which Vance said would make it far more difficult to determine where the ballots came from, whether they were stored correctly, and why they were not counted previously.
Democrats applauded and Republicans decried the board's decision Wednesday to move forward with assessing the 573 previously rejected ballots. King County is a Democratic stronghold and the newly discovered ballots have the potential to change the outcome of the election.
"I get to vote, I did it right, and it gets to count," said King County Councilman Larry Phillips, whose ballot was among the 573 mistakenly rejected by election workers.
Election workers will verify signatures on the ballots, and the canvassing board will meet again Monday to decide whether to count the ballots that have been verified. The three-member board postponed a decision on what to do with 22 other newly discovered ballots but will consider that Monday as well, said Bobbie Egan, county elections spokeswoman.
Republican Dino Rossi won the Nov. 2 election over Democrat Christine Gregoire by 261 votes in the first count and by 42 after a machine recount. As of Wednesday he had gained 79 votes in the hand recount for a margin of 121.
The canvassing board voted 2-1 to move forward with recanvassing the 573 ballots. King County Election Director Dean Logan and Democratic King County Councilman Dwight Pelz voted for the recanvassing; voting no was Dan Satterberg, chief of staff for Republican King County Prosecutor Norm Maleng.
Satterberg complained that Logan was rushing, and said the board should take more time to figure out the story behind the newly discovered ballots.
"This is a matter of public integrity, public trust," Satterberg told Logan as they met before a row of TV cameras and reporters. "The appearance to the world that's watching is that you're rushing this through."
Logan said King County election workers made a mistake and he wanted to correct it. The absentee ballots were not counted originally 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. The error was discovered only after Phillips saw his name on a list of rejected absentee ballots and notified Logan.
"The facts are pretty clear there was a discrepancy in the canvassing of these ballots," Logan said. "There is a record that shows these are validly registered voters who did nothing wrong."
State law allows counties to recanvass ballots and correct errors during a recount if there is "an apparent discrepancy or an inconsistency in the returns."
Election workers had found at least 245 of the 573 voters' signatures on paper registration records by Wednesday afternoon. They will continue checking the records and verify the ballots that belong to registered voters. Workers will then take those ballots out of their security envelopes and return them to the board for a final decision on whether they should be counted.
Vance urged the canvassing board to reject the ballots.
"At some point it just lacks credibility that they keep finding ballots," Vance said. "None of these ballots should be counted."
After the canvassing board vote, Phillips retorted, "I don't care what the chairman of the state Republican party has to say. I did my duty as a citizen and he's going to get out the way ... He has a right to have his vote counted and so do I."
State GOP attorneys are considering their options now. If the King County ballots are included in the recount, and they do end up putting Gregoire on top, lawsuits may ensue.
"It doesn't look like I'm going to do any Christmas shopping anytime soon," said Mark Braden, Rossi's chief lawyer, after leaving the canvassing board meeting.
The board delayed a decision on 22 other ballots- 20 absentee and two provisional - found in the side bins of plastic base units in which polling machines sit. All ballots should have been logged on Election Night and returned in a sealed bag to election headquarters, but these 22 apparently weren't. They've been sitting unsecured at various polling places since the election.
The hand recount is expected to finish by Dec. 22, though there's no deadline set in state law. The governor's inauguration is scheduled for Jan. 12.
Meanwhile, two members of the federal Election Assistance Commission arrived in Washington on Wednesday to observe the recount. Kay Stimson, spokeswoman for the commission, said the members wanted to learn about the historically close recount for a report on "best practices" by the states.
As a computer professional I know better than to trust machines unreservedly.
No postal stamps, time stamps or way to know when these "found" votes were cast. Hey, I have a absentee ballot I didn't use.. I wonder if it's too late?
I believe that ballots of any kind postmarked before the voting deadline are valid
If you commenting on the 22 ballots having a postmark, then they would have been mailed to one location in King County - not to various locations to be found at a later date.
The canvassing board has not decided yet what to do about those 22 ballots (BTW, 20 are absentee and 2 provisional).
Sorry, also:
PI article "They've been sitting unsecured at various polling places since the election."
So they came from different places, and were mailed to different places. So what is weird about that?.
"The absentee ballots were not counted originally 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. The error was discovered only after Phillips saw his name on a list of rejected absentee ballots and notified Logan. "The facts are pretty clear there was a discrepancy in the canvassing of these ballots," Logan said. "There is a record that shows these are validly registered voters who did nothing wrong."
I'm just not sure what's wrong with this.
the only thing that is wrong with this is that there is no mention if the ballots were secure after they were rejected. If they were secure, why did the newspaper get a list of names and addresses of all of the people who's ballots were rejected? Did they have direct access to the ballots after they were canvassed or was a list made as they were being canvassed? Chain of custody isn't even addressed and I think that is very important when dealing with ballots 7 weeks after an election.
That's what they say. How do we know this is, in fact, true? Where's the paper trail? Where's the chain of custody for those ballots?
So they came from different places, and were mailed to different places. So what is weird about that?.
Well, unless King County is different than the other counties in Washington - ballots are mailed to the County Office not to different places within the county. Polling places close after Nov. 2 and could not receive all the ballots mailed on Nov. 2.
I gotta go.. Keep the faith and don't beat the puppy too bad, he's new and hasn't been house broken. ;)
Honestly.. It the shoe were on my foot.. I would buy new shoes.
"Did they have direct access to the ballots after they were canvassed or was a list made as they were being canvassed?"
Couldn't tell ya. The county knows; the article didn't say.
Chain of custody isn't even addressed...
In the article, no.
"...and I think that is very important when dealing with ballots 7 weeks after an election."
That's one important thing. Ensuring that validly cast votes are counted is another important thing. If NO evidence of tampering exists, I think the county will count them rather than reject.
Yeah. Go read my blog and my other posts, then come back and tell me I'm a DNC troll.
Ever heard of Modus Operandi, Troll?
Yes, it's Latin for "method of operation". What does that have to do with anything?
You don't find it slightly suspicious that ONLY heavily-Democratic King County keeps "finding" ballots. Not once or twice, but SEVEN times since the recounts started. Are we just supposed to take their word for it and let them keep "finding" ballots until they "find" just enough to beat Rossi?!
Just for arguments sake... what would the Democrats be saying if Gregoire was winning, but a heavily-Repub county kept "finding" ballots - SEVEN times. The Dems would be screaming bloody murder.
More PI (http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/aplocal_story.asp?category=6420&slug=WA%20Recount%20Lawsuit%20Glance):
"Existing law gives county canvassing boards the power to recanvass, or reconsider, any ballots during a count or a recount. They just have to do it before the election is certified. While the election results from the first, machine recount were certified Nov. 30, the hand recount results have not yet been certified, so the window is still open for county canvassing boards to reconsider ballots...The relevant state law, RCW 29A.60.210, is available online at http://www.leg.wa.gov/RCW/. It says:
"Whenever the canvassing board finds that there is an apparent discrepancy or an inconsistency in the returns of a primary or election, the board may recanvass the ballots or voting devices in any precincts of the county. The canvassing board shall conduct any necessary recanvass activity on or before the last day to certify the primary or election and correct any error and document the correction of any error that it finds."
"any necessary recanvass activity" includes verifying the so-called "chain of custody" to their satisfaction.
No voter fraud in ohio???????
There was plenty. The Rats were paying, with drugs, to get registration of non-existing voters.....
I'm a bit less likely that you to make assumptions of behavior in contrary-to-fact scenarios.
Look at the context of my remark. I was referring to no Republican voter fraud.
So far no definitive proof there, though you can believe as you will. The man arrested for it has pled Not Guilty and has not yet been tried or convicted.
http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20041215/NEWS02/41215006&SearchID=73193161567734
Actually, the key phrase is "before the certification of the election". The election was certified before the manual recount.
Ah, Grasshopper, the key phrase really is:
"...machine recount were certified Nov. 30, the hand recount results have not yet been certified..."
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