Posted on 12/17/2004 3:13:20 PM PST by fidelio
Edited on 12/17/2004 3:33:51 PM PST by Admin Moderator. [history]
TACOMA - A judge Friday granted a state Republican Party request to block the counting of hundreds of recently discovered King County ballots in Washington's incredibly close governor's race.
Pierce County Superior Court Judge Stephanie Arend's decision hinged on whether it was simply too late for counties to reconsider ballots from the November election, even if such ballots were erroneously rejected by election workers.
From reading state law and state Supreme Court decisions, "it is clear to me that it is not appropriate to go back and revisit decisions on whether ballots should or should not be counted," Arend said.
State Democratic Party Chairman Paul Berendt said the party would appeal the decision.
"We're going to fight for every vote to count in the state of Washington," he said. "I guess we're headed to the (state) Supreme Court."
Republican Dino Rossi won the Nov. 2 election over Democrat Christine Gregoire by 261 votes in the first count and by 42 after a machine recount of the 2.9 million votes cast.
Friday afternoon, with all but two of Washington's counties reporting results of the hand recount, Rossi had picked up just one net vote over Gregoire. Pierce County's results shrank his overall lead from 74 to 43.
King County - the state's most populous and a Gregoire stronghold - and Spokane County are the only two that haven't finished their manual recounts.
King County officials and Democrats had wanted to include 723 newfound ballots in the hand recount, saying they are valid ballots that were mistakenly rejected because of county workers' errors.
But Republicans went to court, saying it was too late to add ballots to the recount now.
PING.
Hope this holds.
I just can't keep track of this anymore.
but on another thread, it looks like she may win the recount WITHOUT these questionable 561 votes?
It pays to judge shop. The Dems do it. Apparently, so do the pubbies.
From the posts below King County has become a joke. Glad the judge has the foresight to call a halt to this nonsense. Parley
Link please. I can't find this on the NYT's AP wire link which usually covers all AP stories.
Carlson said judge has granted a restraining order...for how long, I don't know. Vance is on KVI.
It is raw wire copy that just posted
It about time someone put a stop to ballots that 'magically' appear for the Democrats when they need them.
This is Super Breaking News, AP is still at Lunch.
So where do the Dems go to appeal this ruling? The state Supreme Court?
Dems will appeal to WSSC - the judge, according to Vance, seems to have ruled that the ballots CAN'T be added.
Which Ballots, The ABc Ballots or the 500+ ballots or the 20+ ballots?
The Florida Supreme Court would be more than willing to hear the case ; ^ )
NONE of the extra "found" ballots.
It's a temporary injunction basically, which prevents King County from doing *anything* with these (besides secure them) until and unless the injunction is lifted by a superior court (the state supreme court now).
IOW, the judge punted to the WSSC.
Is it safe for me to do a one-man conga line in my cube?
Thanks for the ping. This is good news, but there will be hell to pay if GregGore loses this election for the third and final time. Liberals blocking Christmas traffic in downtown Seattle, WTO-style demon-strations, all the stuff they're so good at.
It's bad enough having the election decided by a handful of votes. Now, whoever wins this final recount will have a tough time in Olympia.
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