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.
The level of potential fraud has reached the point where there are sizeable numbers of suspects and "persons of interest". One of them is bound to crack.
I pegged it as propaganda as soon as I heard the story - but that's because I have experience with Democrats on the KCC, and I don't trust a single one of them.
"Count(erfeit) every Vote!"
marking
King County's manual recount is not yet in I believe but in any case the democrats say they found 22+ more ballots and they will problably find more as need be.
It's a horror. Pray it is finished soon.
I'd like to see a review of absentee ballots that were counted in the original to see if Mr. Phillips' name appears in more than one category.
So you're cool with them just finding ballots wherever they happen to turn up? Do I have that right?
Ok, since it appears you have no clue what you are talking about, let me ask you something in all seriousness:
At the close of the polls (7 weeks ago), part of the election day process is to take the machines apart one by one, and members of BOTH parties verify that there are no ballots at all stuffed anywhere in or around the machines - including in the side pockets, underneath them inside them. Every nook and cranny is checked and verified.
7 weeks ago, those ballots were not there. Period.
Deal with it.
Bookmark.
I couldn't disagree with you more. PROTOCOL was not followed. Protocol ensures FAIR elections. There is a chance that these ballots are fake. There is reasonable doubt that these ballots are genuine. Hence , they should be discounted. That is what election rules and protocols are for. To make sure that every vote is a fair and accurate vot. You can not say this about these magically appearing votes. Maybe they are genuine and maybe they are not. Therefore they should be thrown out to protect those votes that are proven to be genuine.
Yah, I hope McKenna throws them all in the slammer.
Heck, Norm Mailing is our man too. He might as well.
"Well, In order to prevail, if Dino is up by 121, te Rats would have to steal 80% of those 573...."
Do you think there's any possibility that these missing absentee ballots might be military or other Republican-majority ballots? Is there any way the Reps can tell before seeing them?
It's actually scary what is happening in my county.
I would call that evidence of an irregularity. But that's just me.
The military ballots were mailed too late for any to come back by November 2, the closing date. These guys had almost all the bases covered -- but they overestimated the enthusiasm of their own people for Gregoire.
It's either corruption, incompetence, or both. Probably both, knowing King County government as I do.
I take it you keep a tube of KY handy for the reamings the scurrilous dem's hand out in every close election?...makes it easier to take it guess.
I'm practically speechless that the republicans are actually going to challenge this fraud.
any ballots from Spokane County?....or Ferry?...or Stevens?
this is war...the RAts have a long history of stealing elections IMO ....
sometimes you have to stop swallowing the company line and take a stand...
all I know is that Scott Peterson sits on death row with nary a drop of solid DNA evidence, no videos, no confession, no witnesses and yet smart people knew what they knew about what he did....
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.