As of 5:00 PM tonight, Rossi has gained 32 votes statewide in the hand recount. 36 counties have completed their 2nd recount. Rossis lead now stands at 74 votes.
Rossi loses 44 in Snohomish. Only Spokane, Pierce and King left to count.
Republicans to file suit in Pierce County asking for a temporary restraining order that will stop King County from processing or counting the 573 newly found disputed ballots.
From the WSRP News Room:
Chaos in King County: Elections Dept changes its own rules to benefit Gregoire
Seattle, WA Today the King County Elections Department continued its march toward chaos as it announced it is changing its own rules on ballot-counting midway through the recount process. This new about-face has Republicans questioning what motivated King County to take this unprecedented step.
This morning the King County Elections Department announced to ballot counters that it is changing the rules it had previously set on counting votes. King Countys established guidelines had said that if there were marks in the bubbles for both Rossi and Gregoire, the vote would be considered an over vote and would not be counted because the voter had voted for both candidates. Now, however, the Elections Department is going to send these ballots to the Democrat-dominated canvassing board for review.
State GOP chairman Chris Vance blasted King Countys decision, and questioned why the rules are being changed now.
Why is King County all of a sudden changing its own rules? asked Vance. Weve just found out that so far Dino Rossi has gained about 15 votes in the King County recount. At the same time, Democrats are changing the rules in a way that benefits Christine Gregoire. Is that a coincidence?
After the canvassing board meeting last night, when the two Democrats on the board overruled the King County Prosecutors recommendation to investigate newfound ballots to make sure they are legal, it is clear that the actions of this canvassing board must be questioned.
By changing its rules midway through the process, King County is only adding to the chaos surrounding this election.
Vance outlined a history of suspect incidents in King County:
Why did King County change the rules?
Because the Democrats asked them to.
Seattle, WA Its becoming more clear why King County decided to change its own rules this morning for counting overvotes on ballots where the bubbles for both Dino Rossi and Christine Gregoire are marked: Because the Democratic Party asked it to.
Today the King County Elections Department announced it is changing its own rules on overvote instead of not counting them, it is now sending the ballots to the Democrat-dominated canvassing board for further review.
Earlier this week the state Republican Party, sensing that the Elections Department might be considering changing its overvote rules midway through the process, sent a letter to department head Dean Logan urging him to stick with the guidelines hed already established.
Yesterday the Seattle Times reported that the Democratic Partys recount director, David McDonald, asked that all potential overvotes be passed on to the canvassing board.
State GOP chairman Chris Vance wondered why King County Elections is ignoring Republican requests and granting the Democrats virtually everything they want.
The King County Elections Department is starting to look less fair and more partisan every day, said Vance. Im very interested to hear King Countys explanation for why it thinks changing the rules in Christine Gregoires favor is an OK thing to do.
Wow, that's surprising news! I simply had not expected that. No wonder they've had to come up with more the last several days, it must have dawned on them that the manual recount itself was not going to produce the desired result.
"This morning the King County Elections Department announced to ballot counters that it is changing the rules it had previously set on counting votes. King Countys established guidelines had said that if there were marks in the bubbles for both Rossi and Gregoire, the vote would be considered an over vote and would not be counted because the voter had voted for both candidates. Now, however, the Elections Department is going to send these ballots to the Democrat-dominated canvassing board for review."
Gotta love it, those DUmmies are giving Rossi a free certiorari ticket to the USSC. You can hear the DUmmies wailing now a la Charlie Brown: "Auggh! Everything I touch turns into Bush v. Gore!"
Skip RCW 29A.68.020 and proceed to Go. Or should I say Roe, as in Scalia will finally get the chance he has wanted to affirm Roe v. Alabama.