Posted on 01/04/2005 12:37:46 AM PST by nickcarraway
GOP calls on counties to explain a discrepancy of nearly 8,500
Thousands of "mystery voters" in the counties of King, Pierce, Snohomish, Clark and Kitsap appear to be Republican Dino Rossi's best prospect for challenging the legitimacy of the closest and most contentious gubernatorial election in the state's history.
The state Republican Party yesterday called on county election officials to explain what the GOP says is a nearly 8,500-vote discrepancy between county vote tallies and the number of people credited with actually voting in the election.
"People ask me what would fraud look like? It would look like this," said state Republican Party Chairman Chris Vance.
County auditors and election officials say Republicans have based their conclusions on there being many more votes than voters on preliminary lists, and they say much of the deviation would be accounted for as voter lists are updated.
But they do not dispute that the numbers don't add up.
And most agree they never will.
"At the end of this, it's never going to match one to one given the volume," said Dean Logan, elections director of King County, which counted about 900,000 votes.
The current number is "larger than I'm comfortable with," Logan said. But based on historical data, he expects the reconciled lists to include 1,000 to 1,500 more votes than voters accounted for even after the lists are reconciled.
Logan said those unaccounted-for votes would likely be from military voters who cast federal write-in ballots and the 76 people in King County who participate in the Address Confidentiality Program.
"I think this is sort of the issue du jour," Logan said. "There has been no evidence of any voter fraud. The differences on the lists are not, in and of themselves, indication that there was."
Vance said that's outrageous.
"You simply can't have more votes counted than you have voters," Vance said. "The counties have to come up with a plausible explanation for this and if they don't this election is invalid on its face."
And Secretary of State Sam Reed again said that this issue could be used to contest the election.
Throughout the process, both parties have scrutinized even the smallest inconsistencies.
Democrat Christine Gregoire became governor-elect when a hand recount of nearly 2.9 million votes put her ahead of Rossi by 129 votes. Rossi had come out 261 votes ahead after the first machine count and 42 votes ahead after the mandatory mechanical recount.
Last week Republicans demanded that King County explain how its tally of votes counted exceeded the number of people listed as voting by 3,539. This week they found similar disparities in other populous counties.
Clark County Auditor Greg Kimsey said he thinks that 553 of the 1,005 vote-to-voter discrepancy there will be accounted for when the list of inactive voters -- those who have not participated in recent elections -- is reconciled with those who did in fact turn out in November.
But he has no plans to try to account for 452 extra poll, absentee and provisional votes.
"It would be a huge task," Kimsey said. "You are looking through 121,679 absentee ballots, affidavit envelopes and through poll books where 50,598 voters cast their ballots.
"The controls that are in place in the election process ensure that only registered voters are going to receive a ballot. While I understand the concern that comes from seeing two different numbers, the controls are at the front end."
Republicans contend that serious questions arise when results are certified before the voter lists are reconciled with the number of votes counted.
The counties say they don't because law does not require it.
Reed said that in each election, counties have a statutory requirement to record the names of all voters who cast ballots. He said that reconciling that list with the list of votes cast is an important quality-control measure.
Significant discrepancies could be of grave concern, he said.
"This is an issue that could potentially be used to contest the election," Reed said. "You'd have to make the point to the judge that it actually made a difference."
Carolyn Diepenbrock, Snohomish County elections manager, said the deviation in her lists is 388, not the more than 1,700 as the Republican's contend.
"We believe that the majority of those 388 are poll voters who signed in the poll book but actually voted a provisional ballot," Diepenbrock said.
She said the county would likely be able to update records as early as tomorrow.
King County officials said they would release completed lists Friday.
Pat McCarthy, Pierce County auditor, said she couldn't say how much the two lists deviated but she knows it's by less than the 1,640 Republicans contend.
She said that if the number were that big "it would have been a problem."
Rossi's spokeswoman Mary Lane said there's no excuse for certifying the election before these lists are reconciled. Otherwise, "we can't be certain that the number they certified is valid," Lane said.
"If someone wanted to commit voter fraud, this is one of the ways they could do it. When you have a number this huge, in an election this close, we need to have the answers and the counties need to provide those answers -- and the onus is on them right now."
One high-profile Republican, former Gov. Dan Evans, joined the chorus calling for a new election with an online essay published Friday.
"Democracy may be messy, but its principles are why it still serves us best," Evans wrote for the Web site www.revotewa.com. "If we screw up the implementation, let's go back to the principles. The voters' will is paramount."
He proposed a special election next month. Yesterday, Evans said his appetite for a revote depends heavily on how King County answers questions about the 3,500-vote difference between voter rolls and certified ballots.
"If they can explain that and there are no other significant errors, in spite of the fact of a close election, it's time to say 'OK, we'll accept it,' " Evans said.
Notice that NONE of the "protesting" or "discounting" county officials (those who DON'T want another election, or who are discrediting the numbers!) are EVER identified by party or by their standing with the democrats as a union member or lawyer or lobbyist!
On the other hand, EVERY republican official is CLEARLY identified so their "partisian" remarks can be discounted.
I've said it before.... the WA Repubs should be filing subpoenas and depositions to secure the ballots, voting lists and computer records in these 5 counties and others if necessary! Plus there should be legions of Republican lawyers & observers standing guard over these records. Otherwise the dirty dastardly DemoRATS will magically & fraudulently come up with enough bogus names & phantom voter registrations post-election, to make up most of the 8500 vote difference and sniff arogantly and claim the remaining difference is just a puff of smoke. DON'T let these B@$tards to get away with it. After manipulating & forging votes & ballots through 3 counts, the RATS aren't about to meekly roll over and admit they were cheating. Rossi & WA Repubs need to fight fire with fire....lawsuits, subpoenas, depositions, etc. Don't let the RATS get away with cheating, fraud & stealing this election!
Check the cemetery rolls also.
YOU don't have to. Loretta Sanchez, AKA the Polish Latina, invented people, invented houses, and registered the dead (and many of those were illegals). Furthermore, many of those invented, were multiple voters.
In a refreshing change from these creative tactics, she bowed to a long-standing Democrat tradition to issue inactive registered voters absentee ballots, and used them as needed, multiple times of course.
IMHO, not knowing a goldarn thing about King County, WA, this is probably how they came up with the winning votes there. It's the easiest. The registered, inactive (some because they are dead)voter is God's Gift to the Democrats.
The real question is now that Loretta is divorcing Sanchez, is she still Mexican? Her vote base is still dead, so it's a trick question.
**The Dems do have a history of sloppy voter fraud.**
>Unfortunately, the Republicans have a history of not doing anything about it. The Republicans and Rossi should stop mincing words.<
Umm, what the heck do you think these words are? Minced?
"People ask me what would fraud look like? It would look like this," said state Republican Party Chairman Chris Vance.
"You simply can't have more votes counted than you have voters," Vance said. "The counties have to come up with a plausible explanation for this and if they don't this election is invalid on its face."
The Republicans have plenty of weaknesses. In this case, I'd suggest that one weakness they don't have is being spineless about contesting the election.
-George
Considering the fact that many Republicans have moved over the river from Portland to Clark County, it does, indeed, seem strange that it was not a landslide Republican victory.
Camas is rapidly becoming "Copland" as many of Portland's finest have moved there to get away from the BS here. Also, the schools are better and there is less crime.
"Provisional ballots are for people whose names don't appear in the poll books."
Yep. Provisionals are for those who are in the wrong precinct and refuse to find the right one and for those who registered to vote late enough that they are not on the rolls.
Now this person is saying we've got people IN THE BOOK voting provisional. I'm actually surprised that they would be so open about double voting.
That's nice that she "believes".
It's not good enough. It's time to prove it.
As I recall, a MI Republican congressman named "Ehlers" (may not be exact name) sabotaged Robert Dornan's claim of fruad in the CA election.
But isn't MT headed more in the direction of WA State than ID?
I heard a rumor that Jimi Hendrix even voted for Gregoire. Hendrix! My God I hope he didn't vote more than once..
Ummm, did you check how much money they raised in this year's campaign? This is it for the Dems - the only power they have in Washington now is the threat of the filibuster in the Senate. They lose that and they are totally SOL. So they will fight to the death for every Senate seat they have, concentratiing on the (maybe) half dozen or so seats that look vulnerable. They'll have no trouble raising all the money they'll need to stay competitive everywhere they need to be.
I wonder what those 8,500 votes would have done to the federal election. It seems to me that charges should be brought against election officials in those counties for interfering with a federal election.
I think Rossi has stated he isn't interested in running for Senate. I doubt if he'd win that anyway. He has resigned his seat in the WA state Senate for the purpose of seeking the Governorship. I think he believes that is where he can do the most good for his state. Being buried in DC for the next six years, even if he happens to win the consolation prize against Cant-Do-Well, carries very little weight in turning the state around after 20 years of ruinous 'Rat control. Being a junior Senator from a state without much political clout in DC, one vote in a hundred, is not the way to effect real change in one's state.
ping
If you have not read this article yet, or have forgotten it, this is an explanation of what the Democrats in Washington have done:
Ping to #16
Practice makes perfect. Years and decades of it. Almost entirely unchallenged. The dems have owned the Olympia (state capital) and Puget Sound metropolis area (bulk of the population) for a long, long time. Washington doesn't count in presidential politics and people outside the state have hardly cast a dull eye our way for a very long time. No effective checks and balances within; no outside pressure. They speak monstrous lies to one another and the public and life has gone on ... to the grief of the Republicans, I can tell you.
As bad as this mess is, I am glad it's all being splayed for public view and correction.
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