Posted on 01/07/2005 8:12:05 PM PST by NormsRevenge
BELLEVUE, Wash. - Republican Dino Rossi and the state GOP announced Friday they will contest the gubernatorial election that gave his Democratic foe, Christine Gregoire, a 129-vote victory.
Republicans have been building a case over the past few weeks, gathering evidence of voting irregularities, including illegal provisional ballots and a handful of votes cast by dead people. They are pushing for a revote, an unprecedented step in a statewide election.
"There are so many improperly cast and counted ballots that this election is invalid," Rossi said. "You cannot tell who won. The only way for us to get out of this problem is for us to have a revote."
Gregoire, a three-term attorney general, lost the first count by 261 votes to Rossi, a real estate agent and former state senator. Rossi won a machine recount by 42 votes but lost a hand recount of 2.9 million ballots.
Gregoire, whose inauguration is scheduled for Wednesday, has called the idea of a revote "absolutely ludicrous" but acknowledged Rossi's right to contest the election.
"I don't take any of this personally," she told a news conference in Olympia. "I respect the right of others to file an action in the courts. That is their right."
The party filed a lawsuit contesting the election in Chelan County, in north-central Washington. GOP attorney Harry Korrell said Republicans would not seek to block Gregoire's inauguration.
Democratic lawyers said an election challenge is unfounded and the state constitution will not allow a revote.
"No court will find this election should be set aside," Democratic Party attorney Jenny Durkan said. Even if illegal votes were cast, she said, "it would not change the outcome of the election."
Durkan said the constitution requires that the governor be chosen in the same election as state legislators and only in a November general election. She said a revote would first require a statewide vote on changing the state constitution next November and then an election in November 2006.
Former U.S. Sen. Slade Gorton, a Republican supporter of Rossi, said he believes the GOP has enough evidence to support an election challenge.
Gorton acknowledged there was "no serious allegation of someone doing this deliberately or fraudulently" but said that does not matter. If enough illegal votes were cast for any reason, he said, the election results must be set aside.
"If it comes to that, it is better to have the electorate, not the court or the Legislature, decide," Gorton said.
Republicans highlighted a host of problems, including thousands more ballots than people credited with voting in several counties' records — more than 1,200 in heavily Democratic King County alone.
King County Elections Director Dean Logan and other county officials have said it's common for vote totals not to match up with their lists of voters who cast ballots.
Another problem in King County: Nearly 350 provisional ballots were fed directly into vote-counting machines before election staffers could verify whether they were valid, Logan said.
Any election challenge will certainly end up before the state Supreme Court.
Supreme Court Clerk C.J. Merritt said the court will wait until the filing period closes before deciding what to do with election challenges. The deadline is 10 days after the Legislature issues a certificate of election, which is expected to happen Tuesday.
Republicans said they also found cases of votes cast by felons whose civil rights had not been restored, and dead people credited with voting.
The Seattle Times and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported Friday that some people who died before absentee ballots were mailed had been credited with voting in the November election.
The Times found 24 examples of deceased voters in six of the state's largest counties. The Post-Intelligencer found eight such examples in King County alone.
Republicans said they chose Chelan County to file the lawsuit because they didn't want to sue in any county where they were alleging serious problems had occurred. Democrats said picking a county where voters backed Rossi amounted to "judge shopping."
State Democratic Party Chairman Paul Berendt questioned the Republicans' contention that they don't need to prove fraud or misconduct — only that so many mistakes were made that no one could ever know who won.
"There's no smoking gun that points to the one issue that could get the election overturned," Berendt said. "They admitted for the first time in six weeks that there is no fraud. I think they're in big trouble."
___
Editors: Associated Press Writers Rebecca Cook in Seattle and David Ammons in Olympia contributed to this report.
bump
Just another reason why I have a problem with absentee voting. It ought to be absolutely reserved for military or state departement personnel only. No one who lives in the state of Washington ought to be allowed absentee voting. I do agree that there ought to be an extended voting "season" (a week-long chance to go into a county office and vote there). But this whole absentee ballot thing has gone and become a significant problem. Why do dead people vote? If you are dead before election day...your vote simply can't count.
Assuming this is rhetorical...you DO know what kind of con artists we are dealing with here...
Washington has become the new Ukraine. Meanwhile, Rossi is doing something that should have been done a long time ago by a public official: taking the Democrats to task for years of fraud, treachery, and malfeasance. I forward my sincerest hope to the people of Washington that justice prevails.
I wish Rossi the best, but it looks to me like the Dims have stole another one...
This, plust the "outrage" of Sen. Boxer et. al. regarding the Ohio results can only mean one thing....REAL ELECTION REFORM!
We could turn this into a great issue and enact real election laws.
You know, like, you have to be alive to vote, your have to be an American to vote...hairbrained schemes like that.
With the Wash. fiasco and the Democratic complaints about Ohio, I think we could really push real reform of the election system and in the process, END THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY......hehe.
If we only eliminated 50% of the vote fraud, how many seats would the dems lose in 2006?
And we could bundle this bill with real campaign finance reform just to rub it in.....
I paid for this priceless pic: {thank you FRreeper]; 
So, by their own admission, it's common for them to run bogus elections!
"It makes sense to look at the votes again and find problems. A re-vote seems like a strange solution however."
The liberals have changed the votes so much that there is no way to differentiate legal votes from illegal votes anymore. They have "enhanced" votes with markers and white-out...there is no way to tell what was the original vote and what wasn't.
Please remove my post #24. It was out of bounds. Thanks.
Don't worry, I'm sure all the big media will be rushing to get to the bottom of this close election.
It'll be like Florida in 2000. Big research staffs, a thourough examination of the ballots, multiple scenarios......
oh wait, never mind, We're talking about media investigating a Democrat victory....never happen
when you think of "liberals", think of "nuanced". PERIOD.
I agree with you completely on the absentee ballots but not on the week long voting period. I might go along with a 24 hour period though.
One of the Dead Person votes was cast by a man ho admitted filling out his wifes ballot after she was dead because he knew that was the way she would have voted. He claims he had no idea it was wrong.
I assume they would prefer we pick a court in King County.
All the voters of Washington desire is the opportunity for a revote. If denied, as it has been, we will seek all legal means to document fraud and other illegalities. Should we not be granted the right to a revote, a court record will forever exist documenting the dubious claim of Gregoire to the Governorship.
The Elected Democrats brought this result on their own heads.
So Gregorie will be governor regardless?
This from a woman who said that, as the state AG, sha has not duty to investigate criminal conduct by judges. In fact, she said the AG has no independent authority to investigate any criminal activity. I've got a letter saying exactly that.
How about Governor for a day?
The Republicans are smart on this count. The Democrats will tons of money on the inauguration, then face a new election, after having spent money for the manual recount and other recounts.
Republicans will use their money conservatively and the Democrats, true to form, will use their money liberally...
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