Posted on 01/26/2005 8:15:51 PM PST by Former Military Chick
OLYMPIA, Wash. -- Republicans have discovered and verified 737 illegal votes in Washington's ultra-close governor's election, state party leaders said Wednesday.
The state GOP has filed briefs telling a judge why he shouldn't dismiss the party's legal challenge to the election of Democratic Gov. Christine Gregoire.
"Clearly we have more illegal votes than the margin of victory," state Republican Party Chairman Chris Vance said. "The law is on our side."
Gregoire won the election by just 129 votes in a hand recount of 2.9 million ballots, after losing the first two counts to Republican Dino Rossi. She was inaugurated earlier this month.
Rossi and the Republican Party filed an election challenge in Chelan County Superior Court, suing the state and all 39 counties. The state Democratic Party and several of the counties have filed motions to dismiss the case. Judge John E. Bridges has scheduled the next hearing for Feb 4.
Democrats respond that while the election was close, it's over and Gregoire is the legitimate governor. They argue the proper place for an election challenge is in the Legislature, not the courts.
Vance has noted correctly that Democratic legislators have already said they don't want to decide the election and they think it belongs in the courts.
Democrats on Wednesday dismissed the GOP's latest finding as "Rossi rhetoric," saying it's not enough to nullify the election.
"The GOP has regularly exaggerated problems in the election," state Democratic Party spokeswoman Kirstin Brost said in a news release.
Vance said Wednesday that Republicans determined the number of felons who voted illegally by comparing voting rolls from the secretary of state with a list of convicted felons from the State Patrol, and checking each name to determine whether the person's voting rights had been restored.
Vance said the 737 illegal votes broke down like this:
-186 felons in King County
-54 felons from elsewhere in the state
-44 people who died before absentee ballots were mailed
-10 who voted twice in Washington state
-6 who voted in Washington and another state
-437 provisional ballots that were illegally fed directly into voting machines, as reported by King, Pierce and Stevens counties.
The King County prosecutor has asked the county sheriff to investigate four possible cases of voter fraud, prosecutor's spokesman Dan Donohoe said. Three involve people suspected of voting on behalf of dead relatives, and one is a person who may have voted twice.
they need to buy television and radio spots detailing this, and run them over and over again.
737 illegal votes? Does anyone remember the number of "found" ballots in King County?
The AP, who would have guessed.
btt
Jessie Jackson will be all over this...What? Jimmy Carter wants first crack?
Excellent idea they need to document all of this and then put it together and shown the year before the next election. The voters should know about this.
Denny Crane: "I want two things. First God and then Fox News."
Oh...now they want the legislature to decide? Wish they would make up their hypocritical minds.
Local Dems do not realize that as more and more states computerize their records, it becomes easier and easier for an investigator to correlate the data bases. The days of hiding illegal votes in a huge sea of voters, assuming no one has the time and resources to cross check are over. If the GOP is smart, have data base experts on standby to challenge many Dem districts. I think it would be interesting to see how big of a margin does illegal voters play in the Democrat election strategy. Preliminary cross checks between NY and FL data bases already has yielded several hundred Dem voters who registered to vote in NY and FL, and many of the NY voters requested for an absentee ballot to cast a ballot in NY and personally voted in FL for the national elections (IOW voted twice). They assumed no one would cross check the records. Many of them are elderly and once caught they claim senility.
Shocked I tell you..shocked..corruption..in the democratic party?? What next..you will tell me michael moore is dishonest???
Bored or is DU down?
ZOT!
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