Posted on 03/05/2005 10:21:12 PM PST by CHARLITE
Attorneys for Republican Dino Rossi yesterday released the names of more than 1,000 people who allegedly cast illegal votes in November's disputed gubernatorial election.
The list of alleged felons, people who voted twice and dead people recorded as voting is at the heart of a lawsuit Republicans filed to overturn the November election of Democratic Gov. Christine Gregoire.
Rossi spokeswoman Mary Lane said the list — given to Democratic attorneys late yesterday in response to a subpoena and released to the media — is based on extensive research. While she said Rossi and his attorneys are confident in the "overall accuracy" of the list, she said, "it's not perfect. I'm sure there are going to be errors."
A check by The Seattle Times of 32 of the 1,135 names on the list found one case that appeared to be in error, and one that was unclear. The others appeared to be properly included on the list.
Searching for felon voters is complicated because of the cumbersome process of determining whether someone's voting rights have been restored and the difficulty in tracking a case to make sure felony charges were not later dropped or reduced. Records kept on computer by the courts and government agencies sometimes have gaps in them that make it difficult to say for sure what happened in a particular case.
Attorneys for the state Democratic Party said they hadn't had a chance to look at the material yesterday. But David McDonald, the party's chief counsel, said the names will be checked carefully before a trial in the case.
Republicans have been searching for felon voters since soon after the Nov. 2 election. Some of the work was done by the Building Industry Association of Washington, the home-builders group that is a strong backer of Rossi's.
Republicans were able to subpoena the Washington State Patrol's criminal database and the statewide voters list kept by the Secretary of State's Office. Names that showed up on both of those lists were then checked in court files.
Last week, Republicans gave the Democrats boxes of paperwork that included death certificates of people listed as voting as well as court records of the alleged felons who voted.
McDonald said research on the votes alleged to have been cast under the names of dead people showed many errors.
"I think we're going to find that most of this is business as usual. They've done a good job of press releases and superficial checking but not of doing their homework," McDonald said.
Harry Korrell, Rossi's chief attorney, said earlier he was "99.999 percent confident" that the list of felons was accurate.
Shortly after that, King County Executive Ron Sims said the county's administration of the election was "99.98 percent accurate."
"We'll see how Harry Korrell's 99.999 percent accuracy matches up to Ron Sims' 99.98," said Democratic attorney Jenny Durkan.
Rossi was initially declared the winner of the November election, the closest governor's race in state history. He won the initial count by 261 votes and a machine recount by 42 votes. But after a hand recount, Gregoire was declared the winner by 129 votes.
Rossi and other Republicans filed a lawsuit in January in Chelan County Superior Court alleging that the election was flawed because of felon voters and mishandling of ballots by election officials.
The next major step in that legal challenge will be Judge John Bridges' decision on what level of evidence Republicans will need to show in proving there were enough illegal votes that the election should be nullified.
Republicans have argued that it is enough to show that enough illegal votes were cast that the true outcome of the election is unknown.
Bridges has said Republicans must show the illegal votes "appear" to have changed the outcome, but hasn't yet ruled on the level of specificity that will be required during the trial.
Democrats say Republicans must show which candidate got each of the illegal votes.
That issue will be decided in the coming weeks, setting the stage for a trial. No date has been set.
1000 , I guess I gave the Rats to much credit , I would have thought there fraud would be much ,much more. Still did the trick this time though.
The problem with nullifying THIS election is that it creates an entirely new dynamic for people actually pulling the lever in the booth.
What SHOULD happen is that votes should be scrutinized individually, bad ones subtracted, the rest totalled, and a winner declared.
Regardless, it appears there's some major work to do on insuring the validity of each vote, and the overall voting process.
The fraud was much greater. This search would not uncover people who did not go to vote, but were 'helped' by the dems. Hey, how convenient! Don't bother to vote, and let the Democrats cast your ballot!
Another election stolen by corrupt, unethical democrats. Ho, hum. Business as usual. And just as usual, abosolutely NOTHING will be done about it.
How about this-for every felon or dead person voting subtract 10 votes from that party. Now, THAT would do it!
New demo motto: A Vote for Democrats as a Vote for Criminals! Sirhan Sirhan Deserves to Vote Too!
That's an inpossible task as there is no record of who voted for whom. There's no way to subtract out the felons' votes.
Another election, with purple fingers proving one vote and one vote only, is the only answer.
This is only one issue. Democrat-controlled King County also fed provisional ballots into the machines without checking their validity. There is no way to get those back. They also "found" LOTS of ballots as the recount procedures went forward. Whenever Gregoire needed more votes, voila - they appeared - in King County.
Those of us who vote in Washington state want a new election, and it would be nice if we got some support from people in other states. Knowing, without a doubt, that someone cheated their way into your governorship and that people think this is a "better luck next time" thing is a real drag.
Shortly after that, King County Executive Ron Sims said the county's administration of the election was "99.98 percent accurate."
"We'll see how Harry Korrell's 99.999 percent accuracy matches up to Ron Sims' 99.98," said Democratic attorney Jenny Durkan.
...Bridges has said Republicans must show the illegal votes "appear" to have changed the outcome, but hasn't yet ruled on the level of specificity that will be required during the trial. ...
If even half of the 1000 votes should not have been counted, over three times the margin of victory, then I would say there's no "appears" to it, and you cannot assume beyond a reasonable doubt that Gregoire won this election.
I'm from Texas, not Washington. You guys deserve a revote.
Let's hope democracy spreads to the state of Washington.
Not likely to EVER happen in King County
I'm from Texas, not Washington. You guys deserve a revote.
I agree with you about the revote (see tagline). I don't suppose Texas politics is perfect, but right now, I wish I was from Texas. I can't imagine that any business would want to locate here with this garbage going on. How the Dims in King County can look at themselves in the mirror is beyond me.
I hope you get your revote. It's high time we put a stop to stolen elections in this country.
I think there was a little thing about LBJ in a race here one time that was pretty damn suspicious. I'll have to ask my cousin when I see him again. He's a walking talking encylopedia on demonrat dirty tricks and foul play.
Don't even get him started on the Clintons. :-)
It really doesn't matter what crimes the RATs get caught commiting. Nothing ever happens, and nobody is ever punished. If all the RAT politicians who stole their offices were thrown out, there wouldn't be many left. Think Louisiana and Missouri, for example.
Not only that, it's a test for Democrat theft elsewhere. The Demo's want a low profile theft to test their methods, not something likely to undergo a lot of national scrutiny.
Democrats cheat and lie. That's what they do.
"The fraud was much greater. This search would not uncover people who did not go to vote, but were 'helped' by the dems. Hey, how convenient! Don't bother to vote, and let the Democrats cast your ballot!"
That is an old practice from here in New Jersey. Ever hear of the "card" system? If you haven't voted by mid-afternoon, a Democratic/union operative goes to your home, and inserts a card in your door frame. If the card is still there at 8pm (meaning you didn't come home and open the door), it's assumed that you're out of town, and the Democrats cast your vote for you.
NJ is solidly Democratic now, so I don't think they bother anymore. But I suspect it may have been happening in Pennsylvania, where the Dems had operatives at the polls with lists of voters in order to "identify" voters who didn't make it by mid-afternoon.
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