Posted on 04/10/2005 1:43:51 PM PDT by Publius
The discovery of uncounted ballots in a King County elections facility could change the tenor of the governor's-election lawsuit, and it comes just as Republicans fine-tune their case in the final weeks before trial and drop some previously high-profile claims.
Already, attorneys for both sides say the news of 94 uncounted, valid absentee ballots means scrambling to change plans for last-minute collection of evidence.
They will expand the list of officials they want to question under oath and will change the nature of questions they'll ask King County's top two election officials, who were already scheduled for depositions.
News of the latest foul-up could also allow Republicans to introduce the prospect of fraud by election officials.
"This raises a flag that wasn't there publicly before," said J. Vander Stoep, an attorney and adviser to Republican candidate Dino Rossi.
So far, Republicans have been careful not to mention fraud in the courtroom or in legal filings, though backers of Rossi have not been nearly as restrained in the public-relations realm as they attack Democrat Christine Gregoire's 129-vote victory.
The possibility of fraud comes not from a specific allegation but from a so far unexplained statistic:
Out of 91 missed ballots whose precincts were known last week, 61 were cast in precincts Rossi won in November.
Given that Gregoire won King County by a 58-40 split and led the final results in about 70 percent of all the county's 2,616 precincts, Republicans find it suspicious that so many of the uncounted ballots came from Rossi strongholds.
"Can it be random error?" Vander Stoep asked. "What are the odds of that being chance?"
King County elections spokeswoman Bobbie Egan said no one should jump to conclusions about why the ballots weren't counted.
"There is no evidence at this point of fraud," she said yesterday. "We must wait for the external investigation by election professionals to conclude how these ballots were handled."
Republicans do not need to prove fraud by election officials to get the election overturned by Judge John Bridges, the Chelan County Superior Court judge presiding over the lawsuit.
So far the case focuses on alleged widespread illegal voting by felons and enough errors by election workers to show Gregoire was not the legitimate winner.
"The focus of the trial will be on whether or not we can reliably say who won," Vander Stoep said. "On that basis, new ballots showing up makes it far easier for the judge to say, 'We don't know.' "
Democratic Party attorney Kevin Hamilton laughed at the allegation.
"Now the theory is what? Somehow they went through Rossi precincts and stuffed ballots under the rug so they wouldn't get counted?" he said. "I'm sorry to laugh. But it's so implausible.
"The fact that they are raising this issue at this point suggests to me they have lost confidence in their case."
As Republicans consider whether to introduce the prospect of fraud, they are dropping other, well-publicized claims in their lawsuit.
Last week Republican attorneys told their Democratic counterparts Rossi was dropping two claims: that election officials failed to mail military ballots on time and that King County used illegal methods to enhance ballots that could not be read by vote-counting machines.
"It's a question of time and resources," Vander Stoep said. "We're at a point now where we're having to choose between valid claims. Which ones are the strongest.
"We're having to make hard decisions based upon what gives us the best likelihood in the shortest period of time to prevail."
Republicans have just this week to file with the court a list of all expert witnesses they plan to have testify during the May trial.
Of the claims Republicans have dropped, military ballots were among the more high-profile allegations.
Rossi's initial legal challenge filed in January claimed, "Military overseas and other absentee voters may not have received or been sent their absentee ballots in a timely manner and could have been disenfranchised by the neglect, mistake, or error of election officials."
Soon after the November election, state Republican Party officials said several members of the military, including some serving in Iraq, had told them they wanted to vote but didn't receive ballots in time.
In December, Rossi held a news conference alongside the parents of Tyler Farmer, a Marine wounded in Iraq who didn't get his ballot until the day after the election. A news release from Rossi that day was headlined, "With so many disenfranchised military voters, how can this be a fair election?"
Republicans featured Farmer's story in a radio ad that called for a re-vote in the governor's election. A rally, promoted by conservative talk-show hosts, was held near Fort Lewis to protest the alleged disenfranchisement of military voters.
"It's sort of the loose-cannon approach to litigation," Hamilton, the Democrats' attorney, said. "They file litigation with a loud, flamboyant press conference, and then there's no 'there' there."
But Charles Farmer, Tyler's father, said yesterday he was glad he and his son played a role in Rossi's effort.
He said he knew the issue of military ballots wasn't likely to be part of the final legal battle because his son's commanding officer had told him the Marines would not want to get involved in a political dispute and have to testify about military personnel who didn't receive ballots.
He said he understands and supports the Marines in that, but still thinks it is a shame that stories of what he believes are hundreds of Marines and soldiers unable to vote won't be part of the trial.
"I believe wholeheartedly that Dino Rossi won this election, and it was stolen and he should be governor," Farmer said. "But most importantly, I'd like to have seen my son have the chance to vote."
The governor's election lawsuit
The basics
Filed: Jan. 7 in Chelan County Superior Court.
Petitioners: Republican gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi, state Republican Party Chairman Chris Vance and Rossi supporters.
Claim: The election of Gov. Christine Gregoire, a Democrat, should be nullified because of illegal votes and errors by election workers.
Key issues
Illegal votes: Will Republicans have to prove which candidate received each illegal vote? Will Democrats be able to cite votes and errors that improperly benefited Rossi?
Errors: How will Judge John Bridges factor evidence of improperly counted provisional ballots, mishandled absentees, vote tallies that don't add up and other mistakes by election workers?
Appeal: Regardless of the outcome in Bridges' court, the case is expected to be appealed to the state Supreme Court.
Upcoming in the case
Wednesday: Pretrial motions are due.
Friday: Republicans must submit final lists of alleged illegal votes and errors by election officials and disclose list of witnesses.
Next week: King County officials will be questioned under oath by attorneys for both sides.
April 20: Final replies to pretrial motions are due.
May 2: The judge will hold a hearing on pretrial motions.
May 6: Democrats must submit final lists of alleged illegal votes and errors and disclose witness lists.
May 20: Cutoff for evidence gathering for both sides.
May 23: The trial begins.
Yup. He's gonna be on "Up Front" with Robert Mak at 4:30
I'll be featured on KING/5 News "UP FRONT" with Robert Mak, this Sunday, April 10, 4:30pm on KING 5, 10:30 PM on KONG 6/16!
Yea, and when the politics of it becomes a focal point it will soon turn to mud.
fyi
I heard briefly on the radio the other day that Dino is getting low on $$s and they picked a couple of items that they felt they could win on. In addition, a couple of pubbie members of the King Co Council and the Evergreen Freedom Foundation have asked the Feds for a grand jury on the election. I think I heard that Slade Gorton has also asked (some are saying its fairly clear he lost his senate seat in 2000 to Maria Can't-do-well due to major election problems (which I've felt all along). I think there may be some individual miliatary folks calling the FBI and/or Fed attorneys about investigating the election as well (though, I've heard some have contacted the US Attny in Seattle and he hasn't done squat - -not sure if he's gathering evidence and waiting for the trial to be over or if he's a Clintoon appointee and just laying low).
Here's a story about Bryan Suits (a KVI talk show host who just got back from Iraq) posted on soundpolitics. I heard Bryan discussing this the other night on his show, including w the main spokeswoman for Rossi. He was really PO'd (and I don't blame hime, I was, too) and said he was definitely going to do something:
"That was the wrong ballot to lose
Thanks to Stefan's trusty voter database, most Washingtonians can quickly check to see if their ballot was counted in the last election, a resource that King County itself has not provided directly.
Lt. Bryan Suits, recently home from combat in Iraq, used it to discover that his general election absentee ballot was not counted. Actually, what he saw in the database search result was a hash mark... curious, he called King County elections, who confirmed that although his vote was counted in the primary, he was not credited with voting in the November election.
You ask: "maybe it didn't arrive in time?" Well, to ensure that it was counted, he had sent the completed absentee ballot to his wife (a police officer, by the way) who made sure it was in the postal system well in advance of election day.
Perhaps the post office lost his ballot? How many absentee ballots do you suppose the post office loses during a presidential election? Probably more than either the post office or election officials want to admit. Did Diebold lose the ballot?
Will the long-awaited audit logs show how many pieces of mail come in one door from the post office, and out the other to King County? Where is King County's Absent Ballot Audit Trail (which would show the date any particular ballot was received, if in fact it was received) when you need it?
Remember the 93 ballots discovered on April Fool's Day? Lt. Suits believes he voted in an Issaquah precinct from which two of these ballots were found. Hmm. [Update: he has determined his was not one of these. Still, King County won't tell him what happened to his, and hasn't tabulated those new ballots.]
Oh, incidentally, Bryan is back at his job as a talk show host on KVI 570, nightly 6-9 pm. During his time in Iraq, he gave boots-on-the-ground reports to KVI, Fox News, Tony Snow's radio show, BBC, and other media. Of all people to be disenfranchised... they picked the wrong soldier. And his wife knows a thing or two about law enforcement: Suits was active duty military-- his vote was quite probably mishandled by the elections department, and he has an unimpeachable witness to that possibility.
This is now a federal matter, and the FBI can investigate it.
That's the first call he's going to place tomorrow.
King County may have just reaped yet another whirlwind.
(Updated and edited 4/7 )
Continue reading "That was the wrong ballot to lose"
Brings back memories of the "Felons vote, soldiers don't" chant, doesn't it?"
snugs, thanks for the ping. I hadn't seen this. Good summary.
Publius, I always believed it was fraud. Many months before the election I was concerned about it. During the count I kept having the sense of Paul Berendts and Crew on the edge of their chairs saying among themselves, "But was it ENOUGH? Did we do ENOUGH?"
Haven't they already documented that there were way more felons that voted than the 129 vote margin? I though I had heard something like 225.
Dino star's rising ping!
bttt
Great Post Dude!
If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck ... it's a duck! It couldn't be more obvious. Gregoire is not our governor. Never has been. Calling U-Haul ...
Judge Bridges has ruled that the contesting side (Republicans) must show how those 225 people would have voted, but he has not told either side just how that judgment should be made.
More rulings on that point should be expected in preparation for the trial.
That really stuck in my craw.
Did you notice on the mail-in ballot for the current attempt at counting votes for an issue that half the ballot was in a language other than English?
I took a fat black magic marker, redacted all the non-English symbols and wrote at the bottom:
Suspicious? It was highly predictable.
The same thing happened after the 2000 election in Florida and the 2004 election in Ohio. All these "missing" democrat votes just sort of appeared out of no where - poof!!- , and they actually got to count them!
This is exactly what the Republicans are asking for in terms of relief. They want (1) the invalidation of the gubernatorial election, (2) the declaration that the governorship is vacant, and (3) placing the governorship on this fall's general election ballot. Technically, it's not a revote, but it's close enough for government work.
Hey Publius,
I don't know if you remember me but I was cheering for you all from Alexandria VA. I watched all that mess in the governor's race. I'm glad you're still in there guns a'blazing to get that witch out of office.
Now that I have your attention..and on an entirely unrelated matter please answer me this "Is it true you all at one time tried to make Louie, Louie your state song?" lol
I hope that the solution will come BEFORE Temporary Governor Gregoire's 4th year in office... The Dems would love to put off voting until then. My question is, WHICH laws can be overturned when Rossi takes office? If the election is a fraud then what about all about all the post-election legislation? Of course the Republicans don't make it easier by voting with the left on all issues. If the record showed that Rs voted against the legislation, perhaps a case could be made to undo them. Unfortunately the minority leadership is going right along with the left, not even bothering to get anything in return. Perhaps when a new election comes around the citizens of WA will say, gosh, why change? The Rs are voting for the same things!
As a classical music fanatic and lover of chamber music and lieder, my soul recoils in horror at just the thought.
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