Posted on 12/23/2004 9:24:50 PM PST by Publius
Statement on the status of the Governor’s race
This count is not over. This battle is not over.
Throughout this process we have opposed efforts to change the rules. Unfortunately, the Supreme Court did just that yesterday so we are aggressively fighting under those new rules. Today, in counties across the state, Republicans formally requested County Auditors to reconvene canvassing boards in order to reconsider legitimate votes cast for Dino Rossi that were erroneously rejected. These voters are no different from voters in King County whose votes were counted today, and recanvassing is allowed under Supreme Court’s recent decision until the Secretary of State finally certifies the election. In fact, one county, Thurston, has already reopened their process after first certifying their results. Several counties have either agreed to hold new canvassing board meetings or are seriously considering doing so. This activity will continue, and we ask the Secretary of State to delay final certification until we know every legitimate vote has been counted.
We believe Dino Rossi is the legitimate Governor-elect of the State of Washington and we will continue fighting to protect his election.
Question & Answer on the Statewide Recount
Why now do Republicans cry “count every vote”?
Republicans have consistently said the rules for the election should not be changed, and that all votes should be counted and recounted under the rules in place before election day. Against Republican opposition, the rules have been changed several times – by a King County Judge, by the Secretary of State, by the King County canvassing board, and now by the state Supreme Court.
We still feel that a consistent, fair set of rules is the most important thing in an election process. However, we no longer have such rules, so now we think it is important that EVERY vote be counted – not just the ones in King County.
Why should counties reconvene the canvassing boards?
Many – if not most – counties around the state have ballots that were rejected because the county did not have enough information to verify the voter’s signature, as well as ballots from military personnel who did not receive their ballots until after election day. The Supreme Court has said county canvassing boards have the authority to correct discrepancies and inconsistencies, and we believe they should use that authority to fix the errors that stopped these votes from being counted.
Have any other county canvassing boards gone back to reconsider votes after they have already certified?
Yes. Thurston County reconvened its canvassing board after it certified the manual recount in order to add one ballot – a vote for Christine Gregoire – to the returns.
Who are the voters whose ballots were thrown out? Why were they thrown out?
Many reasons:
Are these voters from a concentrated area or do they live throughout the state?
These voters are in counties all over the state.
Could these votes change the outcome of the election?
There are thousands of voters whose ballot were rejected, and those ballots certainly could change the outcome in such a close race.
Ping.
I hope it does, honestly. This sort of thing needs to be nipped in the bud before it becomes a trend.
The manual recount only brought more uncertainty as to the actual results of the Governor's race. The charade that is King County's election office can not be allowed to be the sole deciding factor in who becomes Governor. The only possible way for our State Government to maintain its claim of legitimacy is to hold a new election.
Under state law, if petitioned, the court can throw out the results of an election if there has been such gross incompetance or fraud that the result cannot be trusted.
But that's as far as the court's authority goes. From that point on, the rest is up to the legislature. The legislature would have to set the date of a new election and set up the ground rules. For example, should the revote be a complete rerun with all candidates or a runoff with only the top two? Should the new election be coupled with vote reform, such as tightening up the rules for absentee ballots, abolishing provisional ballots and requiring picture ID at the polling place?
There would be a lot to do. Either Gary Locke or Lt. Gov. Brad Owen would be acting governor until this could be all sorted out.
Thank the Almighty the national election didn't turn into this sort of debacle.
I'll pray that Washington can get this sorted out (in favor of Rossi, of course).
It's the last of the 3 items on the list.
If they get away with this, we might as well forget about voting in upcoming elections.
I hope this does go to the US Supreme court. I wonder what the RAT woman Gregoire thinks about letting in every single military ballot that they claim came in to late to count come into play.
But another article posted a short time ago (may be biased) stated that the very existence of a priori uniform statewide standards ensures that the case will not go to SCOTUS. Any non-uniformity of county application would be a state issue, not federal. I am not arguing this myself, just conveying the thinking.
Need to count every vote and we are now playing under new rules set by WSSC from yesterdays ruling. This is what needs to be emphasized to these counties. Everyone should start calling counties on Monday.
Even if the GOP finds the vote necessary to win in other counties this election has now become a joke and no one will be able to claim a legitimate victory. Rerun it
A priori standards existed but were thrown out. The pre-election standard was that the manual recount was a recount, not a recanvas. Every county but one operated under that standard, and even Ukraine County operated under that standard until became clear that it wouldn't yield the desired result.
Now that we're making up the rules as we go along, we have to apply whatever these new rules are uniformly across the state. Failure to do so is indeed a matter for SCOTUS review.
They went from a mechanical recount to a manual recount. The logic seems to be that the manual recount is more reliable than the mechanical recount. Why not just do a manual count in the first place?
FWIW, I agree that a civil war is justifiable when corrupt people steal elections. Oh, for legal reasons, I'll add that I mean that in a metaphorical sense....
State law.
I was interested in this, but couldn't care less about it anymore.
If the people of Washington want to live under the rule of socialists let it be.
If the idiots who want to get rid of the Electoral College get their way, we could easily someday see this kind of debacle on a nation-wide scale. Can you imagine a nation-wide hand-recount?
Election and Tag Line on hold...
remember on a rerun the libertarian pro homo marriage candidate won't do nearly as well. also, what's to say you can't go thru this circus again.
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