Posted on 12/28/2004 11:07:31 AM PST by The Teen Conservative
Clark County canvassing board to consider counting 24 votes
Tuesday, December 28, 2004 By DON JENKINS, Columbian staff writer
The Clark County canvassing board will meet today to consider a request by the Republican Party to count two dozen invalidated ballots, all presumably containing votes for GOP gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi.
"The (state) Supreme Court opened up the recounting of ballots in King County more than a month after the election," Clark County GOP Chairman Brent Boger said Monday.
Immediately after the manual count turned against Rossi last week, Republicans asked canvassing boards around the state to reconsider hundreds of ballots deemed invalid in November because of missing or mismatched signatures.
Republicans argue that the Supreme Court's decision last week allowing officials in heavily Democratic King County to count more than 700 previously disqualified ballots opened the door to reconsidering discarded ballots elsewhere.
Clark County Democratic Party Chairwoman Carleen Pagni said the King County ballots aren't comparable to the ballots Republicans want reconsidered here.
"There were no problems with the (King County) ballots. The problem was with the computer system in Seattle," she said.
The additional King County ballots helped Democrat Christine Gregoire beat Rossi by 130 votes after losing two machine counts. Secretary of State Sam Reed plans to certify the result Thursday, transferring the title of governor-elect from Rossi to Gregoire.
Republicans have submitted signed statements from 24 Clark County voters who claim their votes were valid but not counted. (Two other affidavits were from voters whose ballots were counted).
The Skamania County canvassing board already has rejected a request from the Republican Party to reconvene.
"We believe that state law doesn't allow us to go back because we have already certified" election results, Skamania County Auditor Mike Garvison said.
Two weeks ago, when then-trailing Gregoire was scratching for every vote, Democrats tried the same tactic that Republicans are using now and submitted hundreds of affidavits, including a dozen in Clark County.
The state Supreme Court shut down the effort by refusing to force canvassing boards to revisit decisions that excluded ballots because of voter error.
A week later, the court turned down a motion by Republicans to block the King County canvassing board from counting ballots that had been originally rejected because workers failed to locate signatures on file.
The King County elections officials said they wanted to tally the ballots rather than let their clerical mistakes disenfranchise voters. In both cases, the Supreme Court declined to tell canvassing boards how to conduct their duties.
The Clark County canvassing board rejected 247 absentee ballots because the voters didn't sign return envelopes. Election workers mailed a photocopy of the envelope and a postage-paid return envelope to each voter. Voters who didn't return a signed photocopy didn't have their ballots counted.
Another 199 absentee ballots were rejected because the signature on the envelope did not match the signature on file. Election workers mailed notices asking voters to reregister with an updated signature. Voters who didn't respond had their ballots set aside.
The canvassing board Auditor Greg Kimsey, Prosecutor Art Curtis and Commissioner Betty Sue Morris will meet at 2 p.m. today at the elections office, 1408 Franklin St., Vancouver.
Update
Previously: The Clark County canvassing board in November ruled hundreds of ballots invalid because of missing or mismatched signatures.
What's new: The Republican Party wants the board to reconsider 24 rejected ballots, presumably all containing votes for Dino Rossi.
What's next: The canvassing board will meet today to consider the request.
Proving the addage that Democrats lie.
Please add WA to the title of this thread, otherwise it will just get lost.
Ping.
And off we go to round 215... ;)
ping
"We believe that state law doesn't allow us to go back because we have already certified"
I'm hoping that someone, somewhere will show me where in the statutes it specifically states that they cannot "uncertify" (open for reconsideration) once they have certified. I can't find a reference in the state statutes that supports this.
(Even if the WSSC didn't change the rules in the middle of the race!)
Ukraine! Ukraine! Ukraine!
Thanks for the ping. I'd have missed this one otherwise. We'll be watching for the outcome of Clark County's meeting.
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