Posted on 05/31/2005 4:27:15 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
WENATCHEE, Wash. - The state elections director testified Tuesday that he believes the problems in Washington's incredibly close 2004 gubernatorial election were innocent mistakes.
"I saw inadvertent mistakes and errors of human beings who were working their hearts out," said Nick Handy, who was appointed to the post. He said he disagrees with his boss, Secretary of State Sam Reed, a Republican, who has called the problems in heavily Democratic King County "appalling."
Handy testified as a trial to determine whether the results of the election should be thrown out entered its second week.
Democrats are trying to defend the 129-vote victory of Gov. Christine Gregoire. Republicans are asking Chelan County Superior Court Judge John Bridges to nullify Gregoire's win and open the way for her GOP challenger, Dino Rossi, to be declared the winner or for a new election to be held.
Last week, attorneys for the state Republican Party presented evidence of illegal votes and other problems in King County, arguing that the election was "stolen" from Rossi.
This week, Democratic attorneys plan to argue that mistakes happened everywhere — not just in King County, and not just in the counties that supported Gregoire.
On Tuesday, under questioning by Democratic attorney Jenny Durkan, Handy said he does not believe that discrepancies between the number of ballots counted and the number of voters were significant or sinister. GOP attorneys have pointed to the fact that King County counted 785 more ballots than the number of people who were credited with voting in the 2004 election.
"It's not a process that bears on the authenticity of the election," Handy testified. "It's more like a housekeeping exercise done after certification."
Handy said the secretary of state's office is not taking sides in the election challenge, but is involved to make sure the record is clear and complete in the precedent-setting case. He noted that his office has been sued about 20 times in the past year by both Republicans and Democrats over elections.
"We are an equal-opportunity defendant," he said.
The 129-vote margin was the smallest by percentage of any governor's contest in U.S. history.
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On the Net:
Video of the trial: http://www.tvw.org
Judge: "Sure. Mistakes happen. No worries. The election is hereby annulled."
Whether the mistakes are or are not innocent only matters with respect to whether or not anyone should be prosecuted and convicted of a crime.
But as far as the election is concerned, all that matters is whether or not the mistakes might have changed the outcome of the election. If so, the election must be overturned.
The rats will steal anything that is not nailed down and lots of things that are. Nature of the beasts.
Massive, blatent, and intentional fraud was conducted in front of reporters in Detroit and nothing was done about it.
I don't live in the wonderful land of Washington so I'd rather have Dino Rossi running against that worthless Maria Cantwell. Without a dotcom fortune behind her now (shows you how brilliant a businesswoman she was in the first place), she is going to have to manufacture a record to stand on.
We can sue until we are blue in the face, but our legal system (judges) won't uphold the law or what is right, anyway.
Cantvotewell's Senate seat was bought and paid for by a Washington billionaire. Here is some info on the guy behind it.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2001988508_glaser26m.html
If Nick Handy doesn't believe the errors are NOT appalling then he's proved his testimony of no value. Even if one were to assume they were innocent, errors of such huge import and proportions SHOULD appall him.
BTTT
But as far as the election is concerned, all that matters is whether or not the mistakes might have changed the outcome of the election. If so, the election must be overturned.
You would think so but that's not the way the law is written in Washington. To win a contest there are a limited number of specified things you must prove, such as fraud took place in numbers big enough to turn the election.
Rossi had the best two out of three election counts.
Obviously, he is the winner.
I understand your position but there I disagree. First off I do live here and Frauderie is a horrible witch we can't survive four years of. She's already blown the budget, handed out big raises to all the grievence group paid-for-lobbiests "the Hispanic Commission" "the Black commission" "the Womens commission" "the people of indeterminate gender commission". It's like the bad far-right fiction I love to read, only it's real and it's happening. It is appalling.
The second reason is imagine the headlines the "day of" the day the b*tch fraud-governor is kicked out. Finally the full truth of Democratic election stealing will be naked for discussion. It's up there with the Blue Dress as a political moment to look forward to. Go DINO! (He has made me tremendously proud of how this has been handled regardless of the outcome. I WILL support him with cash, votes and money no matter what he runs for next.)
"Mistakes were made. Can't we just censure and move on?"
Exactly.
Actually, thanks to many who work hard everytime it comes up, WA is actually one of the few states without a Women's Commission.
Rossi and his supporters shouldn't be "disenfranchised" just because a bunch of overzealous Leftwing morons made some "mistakes" to make sure their girl won! Gregoire should resign. NOW!!!!
"This week, Democratic attorneys plan to argue that mistakes happened everywhere — not just in King County, and not just in the counties that supported Gregoire."
Hmmm . . . and we shouldn't throw out these election results and start over because? King County is the most liberal county in all of Washington State. If there are mistakes that happened everywhere and "not just in the counties that supported Gregoire," can you imagine how many of those votes were probably for Dino Rossi?
The admission that "mistakes were made" may concede the case to the challenger, in that recounts were conducted until the party seeking the recounts got the desired results. If "mistakes" are inevitable, then the outcome of all close election is simply a matter of which way the mistakes go. In this case, just recounting until the mistakes fall your way. Combining this with the uncontested fact that the mistakes happened disproportionately in Democratic districts, means that it is probable that the Republican won the election. The election must be thrown out, and a new election called. In addition, some remedy should be ordered to better insure a valid count of the votes in Kings County.
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