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.
Chad Fairbanks in #100 is asking the good question. Why aren't we hearing more about the military absentee votes that haven't been counted BECAUSE of a mistake by the elections people, not themselves. The same logic applies to count these military ballots as Phillips is using to get his own ballot counted. What am I missing here? How many of these ballots are there in elections folks hands and why are we not hearing more about them? Unless Washington is different than elsewhere, military absentees' vote majority Republican. Hello?
The election itself has been certified. Period. The certification can be amended and changed, but the election has already been certified. Period. Rossi is the Governor-Elect, no matter how much you'd like to believe otherwise.
I'm not sure what you're talking about. Any absentee votes received at any time (before the election is certified) by county officials that were postmarked on or before Election Day are counted.
Good question. I wonder if Chris Vance and his people have looked at this angle. Disenfranchising the military would not sit well in this state except among the most radical of leftists.
If we played their game...
We'd take all those envelopes with military ballots, or "find" them, and put a black marker over the postmark. Oops, no way to tell if they weren't mailed before the deadline. Every vote must count, right, and how dare you disenfranchise those who are willing to die for our country?
Not true. State law allows for a machine recount and then a hand recount if requested and paid for. If the SoS wants to rush a certification before all the recounts mandated by law occur, they do not invalidate or cancel the other counts. The certification is of a total from a single count.
By Washington State law, which apparently I am more familiar with than yourself, December 2 is the last day for the Secretary of State to certify General Election returns.
Don't be silly. If it isn't postmarked before Election Day, it's not a valid ballot.
Which means, and I think the Washington State Supreme Court would agree with me, that up until December 2nd, counties can recanvass all they want, but after certification (which, by law much be by Dec. 2nd) they cannot add new votes to the totals. They can only recount those which were counted before December 2nd.
Ya with me so far?
Actually up to and including Election Day. However, when the county mails them out late, and people get them AFTER election day, then what? You still havn't answered.
Well, I'm not sure what I'm talking about either. I'm under the impression that there are returned military absentee ballots, in hand, that were received back late, as a result of being mailed out by elections people late, that haven't been counted for whatever reason. Does anyone know what the current status or number of these ballots
And if it's found weeks and weeks after Election Day... it's a valid ballot?
1. Best case: Republicans don't sue, 573 King County ballots get counted, Rossi wins.
2. Republicans sue, 573 King County ballots don't get counted, Rossi wins. (Republicans get blamed for possibly blocking legit votes, but Rossi's in the mansion. This is the "Gore shoulda won Florida" scenario.)
3. Republicans don't sue, 573 King County ballots get counted, Gregoire wins. (Dems get blame for running messy election and possible vote fraud -- "silver lining in dark cloud" scenario.)
4. Republicans sue, 573 King County ballots don't get counted, Gregoire wins. (Unlikely, considering the previous recount result.)
Nope. Re RCW 29A.64.070
Limitation.
After the original count, canvass, and certification of results, the votes cast in any single precinct may not be recounted and the results recertified more than twice.
Get that? RE-certified? Each count in a recount is separately certified.
Post-marked on or before election day. Is that a state or a federal requirement? What would a federal court say to state elections officials who, because of their own mistake, won't count returned absentee military votes?
Sorry, kids, gotta go. It's been fun, and I'll be back.
Go WHOEVER!! I'm just glad it's not Dixy...
Ahhh, but you can't add new votes (i.e. not previously counted) to a count when recounting a certified election, which is what is occurring.
Have you read the Supreme Court decision yet?
On Tuesday, Dec. 14, the state Supreme Court ruled that a recount is a re-tabulation of votes already counted. The Court ruled against the Democratic Party’s efforts to get previously uncounted ballots back into the recount.
Mistakes that favor Democrats must be corrected.
Mistakes that favor Republicans are "unfortunate" but nothing can be done about them.
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