Posted on 12/24/2004 1:38:43 AM PST by kattracks
SEATTLE (AP) — In what may be their last hope of reclaiming an evaporated lead in the Washington governor's race before turning to the courts, Republicans have asked county auditors statewide to reconsider ballots that were rejected on Election Day. With the counting and re-counting finally exhausted Thursday, Democrat Christine Gregoire emerged as the victor by a mere 130 votes. The final tally: 1,373,171 votes for Gregoire; 1,373,041 for Republican Dino Rossi.But Republicans have vowed to leave no stone unturned in the breathtakingly close race that has dragged on for nearly two months.
"I know many Washingtonians are hoping this will end soon, but I'm also sure that people across this state want a clean election and a legitimate governor-elect," Rossi said after the final tally from a grueling hand count was announced Thursday. "At this point, we have neither."
[snip]
Failing that, it appears that Republicans — who have already been girding for a lawsuit — have a number of legal avenues to pursue. An election challenge could go to state courts or possibly to the state Legislature; experts disagree on what the law says. If the losing side alleges violations of the equal protection clause in the U.S. Constitution, the election could end up in federal court.
[snip]
In light of the high court's decision, Republicans want the secretary of state to delay certifying the election so they can seek reconsideration of rejected ballots in other counties.
On Thursday morning, Republicans submitted affidavits to King County elections officials from 96 people who voted for Rossi and believe their ballots were erroneously rejected because of signature problems. They say they have identified about 250 such voters statewide.
(Excerpt) Read more at nj.com ...
ALL the votes should count. If they aren't Republicans should ask the State Legislature to invalidate the election and hold a REVOTE.
A smudge/mark next to Rossi's name should be considered a legitimate vote for him.
Just wanted to thank you for posting great articles all the year through..May your Christmas be joyful!
A very Merry Christmas to you and yours.
This is so sweet. And, so utterly predictable. The end result will be a further marginalization of the RAT party; not just in the People's Republic of Washington, but nationwide. None of this criminal chicanery happens in a vacuum, and voters are not as stupid as the RATS assume. Payback is a bitch.
Did they count the Military votes yet, and if not, why not?
Here's what happened in a nutshell. Two 1994 statewide elections in Alabama...were extremely close. In deciding the winners, the issue of how to handle absentee ballots arose. Alabama had a statute that allowed absentee ballots to be included in certified election results only if they were enclosed in an envelope bearing the signatures of 1) the voter and 2) either a notary public or two witnesses.But Democratic election officials attempted to count absentee ballots in the 1994 election that had only the signature of the voter on the envelope. It appeared likely that counting these ballots would confirm a small lead by the Democratic candidate for treasurer and possibly overturn a Republican victory in the chief justice race.
Democrats prevailed in the state courts. A state trial court ordered the contested absentee ballots to be counted. But plaintiff Larry Roe, representing voters in the November election, went to federal district court arguing that counting the questionable ballots would dilute the legitimate votes cast in the election and thus would violate the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
In early December, the district court granted a preliminary injunction and ordered Alabama Secretary of State James Bennett to certify the results without the contested ballots. He and a group of voters who had cast the contested ballots then appealed to the 11th Circuit in Atlanta. The appeals court upheld the injunction, but ordered the Alabama supreme court to determine whether state law permitted or excluded the questionable ballots.
Alabama supreme court decided that it was okay to count the ballots despite their lack of appropriate signatures. The decision was based in part on the argument that some of Alabama's 67 counties had counted such ballots in the past. The 11th Circuit...ruled that in all but one county, the practice prior to the November 1994 election had been uniformly to exclude the ballots. The Alabama supreme court's finding to the contrary had been based on affidavits from local elections officials who subsequently offered very different testimony in federal court.
The 11th Circuit upheld the district court's ruling and ordered the contested ballots excluded from the totals. The clear lesson of the Roe case: States cannot effectively change the process of counting votes after an election, which the state courts in Alabama tried to do. Moreover, the 11th Circuit specifically rejected the claim that Alabama's vote-counting procedures did not invite federal scrutiny because they didn't involve federal constitutional issues. The appeals court...recognized that Fourteenth Amendment issues were present when a state attempted to change retroactively its electoral process.
"Allowing only a few counties to count ballots based upon the subjective opinion of partisan election officials, operating without guidelines, effectively changes the rules for counting ballots after an election in violation of Roe v. Alabama."
RCW 29A.68.020
Commencement by registered voter -- Causes for.
Any registered voter may contest the right of any person declared elected to an office to be issued a certificate of election for any of the following causes:
All election contests must proceed under RCW 29A.68.010.
- (1) For misconduct on the part of any member of any precinct election board involved therein;
- (5) On account of illegal votes.
(a) Illegal votes include but are not limited to the following:(i) More than one vote cast by a single voter;
(ii) A vote cast by a person disqualified under Article VI, section 3 of the state Constitution.
(b) Illegal votes do not include votes cast by improperly registered voters who were not properly challenged under RCW 29A.08.810 and 29A.08.820.
Surely, with the University of Washington being a hot bed of political nonsense, there has to be multiple voting in both the absentee and walk-up voter tallys.
But using the Roe logic, does this mean that even if you throw out the 'newly discovered 700+ ballots' in King County, Gregoire still wins by 10 votes???
Wait wait wait
I'm looking in my closet. Yes, here they are. I just found 1,000 more absentee ballots, and...
hold on (clicking noise)...
they are all voting for Gregoire. If not I can look in my closet for 1,000 need. Or 2,000 if that will do it.
HEY !!! The demokkkrats stole it fair and square !!!! If the Republicans dont know a place they can go and shake enough chads out to turn it around, they should just forget it.
I would hope that we could at least be more civilized and gracious than the Demwits when seekinf fairness for our side.
I.E. Insisting that the ballots of the men and women whom defend our country be counted.
The Libertarians and Greens demanded recounts in NM, OH, and NV. Why aren't they concerned about voter fraud in WA? Oh yeah, they are being paid by left wing groups.
Geeze, what a bunch of sore losers. The Democrats would never do anything like this. They listen to the voice of the people.
STATEMENT BY DINO ROSSI, December 23, 2004
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1307786/posts
Wonder how the Washington State registered Republicans who didn't bother to vote are feeling about now.
I know that was tongue in cheek, but this time, even the democrats around here are disgusted with what their party "leadership" is doing. That makes this a Class A Phenomenon. The voters of both parties know their votes have been manipulated for the gain of those who hold the democrat party reins who intend to pocket the taxpayer-funded salaries and wield power over the little people.
The spirit of Marie Antoinette and a few other noteworthies lives on.
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