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.
Good thing the opinion of the "pubs" aren't the same as yours....the state has two dems for senators, outgoing dem govenor, both houses with a dem majority (incoming) more friends of dems judges that have been appointed over the last 20 years; this ought to tell you how much work has gone into this race...it ain't over.
"the poisoned Ukrainian dude"...priceless choice of words! (continuing to LOL)
Hope either of you are successful.
Been twenty five years since I've done political cartooning; had to scratch it out, not my best, but figured Horsey wouldn't ever draw this.
Both will be. On the other hand, if the new GOP AG is willing to do his job, Gregoire will be indicted shortly after Mckenna takes office.
The FBI has been trying to avoid doing their job for the past four years. The US Attorney for Western Washington has admitted to me that the CJ of the state SC has been obstructing justice in my case, but claims he is too busy to investib=gate or prosecute these criminals. True story. I suspect things will be changing soon.
His name is John Mckay and his top criminal deputy is Jeff Sullivan, a personal friend of CJ Alexander.
Unbelievable.
This election is not legitimate.
The only solution is a recount.
GO ROSSI!
Governor Rossi: that sounds beautiful.
Are you referring to failure to stop fraud in this election, participating in fraud in this election, benefitting from fraud in this election, or previous misdeeds? Do you think there is a possiblity McKenna can or will? Sorry for the multiple questions, but you'd probably know better than most.
The new AG should help......
(Indiana has started to crack down on voter fraud too....Both the "D" candidate in Lake County (East CHicago) were caught....They told on each other.....Expect more to happen with Our Man Mitch as the new governor).....
A state must have someone willing to stick their neck out and get the job done.
Hilarious
I guess the daley mob decided to open a west coast branch?
"They admitted for the first time in six weeks that there is no fraud. I think they're in big trouble."
Well I have to agree with this statement by the Dem operative. Because the former Republican senator DID say there were no specific allegations of fraud.
I'm starting to take serious pause with this whole thing now. The pubs are lily-livering out and I knew it.
What the hell happened to those hundreds of ballots signed by the same person?"
Fishtalk- That isn't what Governor Rossi or his lawyer were saying, they said that they don't have to prove fraud in order to contest the election. There was indeed fraud, but they don't have to prove it.
When Rossi won the initial count by 261 votes Gregoire said it was a tie. After the third recount gives her a 179 vote lead she tells the Republicans to get over it. These demorats have no shame.
Previous and ongoing misdeeds unrelated to the election. Because we are getting a new AG who campaigned on an anti corruption platform, Gregoire and the Democratic party must be very worried because McKenna can put an end to the corruption from his position as the state AG.
I've got lots of proof of her corruption and racketeering.
Hence King County allowed the provisionals to be placed in with the regular ballots, maybe 1,000's of them. They also permanently changed ballots to reflect voter intent, against the law, there were over 50,000 of these ballots modified to reflect "voters intent" in King County alone. There are several other items that also will be submitted, dead folks voting, felons, etc
It does no good to go the fraud route and it is not necessary. Get a re-vote and CG is toast.
BTTT 506, you ol dog you! What a GREAT cartoon! I didn't know we had another Great One in our midst!
BTTT Not so fishtalk. The pubs are running a very clever public relations campaign along with contesting the election. The law says that the court does not have to prove vote fraud - just enough mistakes to possibly change the eleciton outcome. By being magnanimous in their speech, the pubbies hav earned good will from the democrat citizens of WA who MUST help "us" contest this election. Behind the scens, the lawyers are handling the fraud business. It will come out and it will be stated by lawyers - not Governor Rossi.
In addition, today Dino also said that while he thought he could find 130 votes to change the election back, he DID NOT want to do it, because that would create doubts about him too (becasue of the closeness in numbers.) He said he would ONLY accept a re-vote. Believe me, Rossi was statesman-like! The people like him more and more, and Gregovych less and less. Only 29% of WA citizens think she won. And 56% of WA wants a recount! The rats ahve gotten their buns in a sling now!
In Washington, to get the election thrown out, you only need to prove that substantive errors were made in the process -- which does not require you to prove intent, just that errors occur.
The Republicans have that down iron-clad -- why go for the dangerously difficult case to prove (fraud) when you have what you need when just going for the proof of errors? Why be stupid, when being smart gets you to where you want to go?
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