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.
Either the people quoted weren't quoted thoroughly or were quoted thoroughly but just didn't give a reply that made sense. I honestly cannot make sense of what you queried or what I heard on television, based on the amount of data given. But by comparing it with some joker from King County who was last night trying to express confidence along the same lines as the people quoted above, and noting how similar the "reasoning" and fog factors were, I concluded that they're stalling because they don't have any good, truthful answers.
Stay tuned and the light -- and heat -- of day will burn off this fog ... of war.
Even non-political people I know are disgusted with the situation. It's that American underpinning of fair play being attacked that's getting to the citizenry. Of course, some have the attention span of a gnat and just want the thing over, no matter who wins. Some dems who normally just assume things will always be dem-run are talking about it, not from the point of fearing the loss of power, but from disbelief and something akin to embarrassment, and starting to approach anger. I think there's a general but quiet sort of alarm as the corruption is being peeled back and people are realizing how bad things are here. There are some democrats who realize this is making the democrat party in Washington look very bad and they don't want to be associated with it, especially as we have Florida's example of dem politics run amok to show them how the stench of political corruption clings.
Nice quote. :-)
Very heartening. It's always a good day when a lib is forced to face reality. Thanks.
I've been telling people for years that Washington is one of the most corrupt states in the country only to encounter disbelief. Haven't had that problem over the last month or so.
In other words, they may have voted twice. Very comforting.
good one!!!!
I still think all of you Conservatives who sat out to "teach a lesson", or vote Libertarian in protest, should be proud of yourself. Look at what you wrought.
bumpskis
My thoughts exactly as soon as I read it.
Provisional ballots are for people whose names don't appear in the poll books.
Why would they sign a poll book and then fill out a provisional ballot? Unless of course there was double voting (which I believe happened in Philly).
Will getting this straightened out help to determine a winner? If they find that they have several hundred votes that cannot be not matched to voters, they still don't know which votes (dem or repub) to throw out.
I assume that the remedy that will be asked for is a revote?
My head is reeling.
I was a precinct chief judge and did not sleep well for days before Nov 2. One of my major anxieties was not having the number of ballots cast and voters in the building match when it came time to turn in our results.
Even one 'double' vote per precinct can change a whole state's result.
How can these officials in Washington hold their heads up in public with these huge discrepancies?
"Applause!"
The Democrats are crooks.
There is no way I was making the trip to the courthouse unless everything added up.
This idea of being off by hundreds, even thousands of votes, is pure bull. It reeks of in your face fraud and they were so bold about it, so confident of getting away with it, they didn't even bother to cover their tracks. That tells me they've done it before and unless they suffer serious consequences, will do it again.
This is yet one more example of why this "provisional ballot" crap has to go. "Provisional" ballots should be outlawed. If you can't be bothered to get legally registered to vote in your place of residence, then take the time and trouble (it only takes a lousy phone call to the board of elections, for cripes' sake) to verify that you are properly registered (if there is any question of that), then you shouldn't be allowed to vote. It is close enough to a violation of the equal protection clause that I think we should take a serious look at getting rid of this provisional ballot nonsense.
Note that I am not including absentee ballots in this manifesto. Military service, illness, work-related travel, all of these constitute valid reasons why a person might not be physically present at their designated polling place on election day. Otherwise, drag yourself out of bed and go cast your vote, if it's important to you.
If this "election" of the Democrat stands, I believe that the serious consequences will be the end of the Dem party as a contender in Washington politics. Even the uninterested-in-politics-citizen can understand and be repulsed by this level of brazen fraud.
I would bet on Washington voting in a Repub Senator and a Repub governor in their next election cycles.
It is amazing to me that dems want 'every vote' counted to ensure that there is no one left out. But when it is shown that some who have no right to their vote are found, that is ok. They know that the "extra" votes are dem.
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