bump for later read
Ping.
bttt
A question for my Democrat State Senator and Democrat State Legislator:
Can you tell me that if all legitimate ballots cast were perfectly counted that you are certain Christine won?
If yes then you are an dishonest, unprincipled partisan hack and if no then how dare you certify the results of an election that you don't even claim to know who won.
I'm no lawyer but this looks like a straight-forward analysis by this guy.
Good analysis by the blogger. It would appear that the Republican case is very sturdy. Kudos to Washington Republicans and all others who aren't taking this fraud sitting down.
I would like to know the source for this (including especially that 50,000 number).
King County has admitted the 348 illegally-counted provisionals, and Dean Logan himself has said that much of the 180-vote discrepancy can probably be explained by "voters" who didn't sign the poll books, so I'm willing to assume that we're talking about several hundred there as well.
But so far, the ballot enhancement issue seems to be merely an allegation. That's not to say it isn't true, but if King County has admitted it, or if it has been conclusively proven, I'd like to know.
Pithy analysis, scathing implications.
Here is the letter I got from King County elections today:
Thank you for taking the time to voice your concerns and giving us the opportunity to respond. Please give us a moment of your time to consider the facts, and not simply the political rhetoric.
We are not aware of any evidence of fraud or misconduct parting the administration of King County's election or recount processes. The rate of accuracy in any election in Washington State is approximately 99.9 percent. In a race this close, there is little room for even the smallest amount of human error; however, when errors do occur, election officials refer to our longstanding laws in place to ensure the errors are corrected in an open, fair and transparent manner. The record shows King County has done just that.
The standard by which King County Elections conducted this election is the same standard used in every county in accordance with state law.
Unlike Florida in 2000, Washington State has explicit election laws in place when human errors or discrepancies in the election process occur. This provides county canvassing boards and election officials' structured and consistent guidance to correct mistakes (RCW 29A.60.210).
When staff became aware that a group of ballots were incorrectly categorized and rejected, we researched and corrected the error, a decision which was ultimately upheld by the Supreme Court (read the decision at http://www.courts.wa.gov/opinions/?fa=opinions.opindisp&docid=763992MAJ ).
We understand in a race this close, political rhetoric is at an all time high; however, it is important to step back from these accusations and look at the facts in a nonpartisan manner.
The facts show:
* All 39 counties added votes to their original election returns during the machine and manual recounts. This is expected. Five counties added ballots during the recount process, King County being one of those. The other four counties used the same state law to correct discrepancies and add previously uncounted ballots to their election returns. The additional 566 previously uncounted ballots included in the manual recount represents a .06% fraction of change in King County's election return.
* King County did not change the way it conducts elections along the way. In fact, the county resisted efforts by the political parties to change procedures. Twice the Washington State Supreme Court validated King County's election decisions in two separate cases filed by the State Democratic Party and the State Republican Party.
* King County military and overseas ballots were mailed on time and alternative faxed and e-mailed ballots were offered to voters whose ballots did not arrive in time. All voted ballots received prior to certification of the General Election were counted as long as the ballot was signed on or before November 2. In fact, only 16 ballots from the "military/overseas/Federal Write-in" grouping were received too late to be counted. For more information, please visit: http://www.metrokc.gov/elections/news/2005_01_05.htm
* The remaining difference in the number of votes cast versus the number of registrations credited with voting in the 2004 General Election is approximately 1,800 - an accuracy rate of 99.8% based on close to 900,000 ballots cast. This number is consistent with historic reconciliation rates for King County. In 2000 this number was 1,230.
* Election officials conduct every election in an open and transparent process and work together with the parties to hire poll workers and official party observers. To ensure questions were answered on time and in an efficient manner, election supervisors met with party observer representatives throughout the day and every night during the recount to address any questions or concerns.
* With nearly 900,000 ballots cast, King County issued and counted more ballots than almost any other jurisdiction in the country, second only to Los Angeles County, California.
We welcome your feedback and appreciate the opportunity to provide additional information in response to your concerns.
Thank you,
King County Records, Elections & Licensing Services Division
King County Admin. Bldg., #553
500 4th Avenue
Seattle, WA 98104
BTTT. The dead voter issue is something I'd like to see some follow-up on. Perhaps that may not be a major factor, but damn, someone submitted those votes and needs to be called on the carpet. That trail leads back to who gave the marching orders. Omerta is breaking
So what do we do now?
I'm hoping that our Washingtonian friends stand for a pitched battle on this election fraud and theft.
Anything less would be a signal to the dark side that cheating works.
BTW, the normally excellent WSJ had a pretty wimpy ed on this important topic. (Definitely not worth reading.}
Systemic problems: Systemic problems, problems with election law as written, as important as they are to fix, will not help with the contest -- namely, because the same systemic problems will almost certainly be in play in any revote. What needs to be shown -- and clearly has been -- is unique instances of illegal voting, or voting irregularities, that can be avoided in the next vote.
The reason I question this is because of the military vote. We might agree that the 'disenfranchisement' here is something that 'does not matter' in court but....
there are reports of possible violations of meeting post office deadlines and there is the strange 'back dating' just recently observed.
If there is evidence that a deadline was in fact missed although published otherwise, then that should be material to the courts.
In short, if King County promised to meet a deadline for mailing out military ballots and reported that they had indeed met the deadline but instead had lied or otherwise obfuscated the actual mailing dates that were after the deadline, then this could amount to misconduct as well.
I'd be interested in your views on this.
I still think that, judges being human, may be extremely tempted to say that the disruption to the state from unseating a sitting governor outweighs the irregularities in this election. I hope I'm wrong.
What happens to Gregoire's appointments if she's ousted? Are her appointments considered null and void? Will the Democrats raise a stink if a Governor Rossi demands the resignations of Gregoire-installed politicos?
-PJ
placemarker
This number should go on T-shirts and bumper stickers all over the state.
348 unverified provisional ballots mixed with the real ballots: Once again, while this wouldn’t matter in a normal election, it matters here, because these disputed ballots are a great deal larger than the margin of victory. There’s no way of knowing if these ballots were signed by registered voters, unregistered voters, illegal aliens, space aliens or Mickey Mouse. This may be the strongest piece of the contest, as it has been well documented and was even anticipated before the election. This is clearly misconduct material to the result.
If you take the total difference between Rossi’s initial margin of 261, and Gregoire’s current margin of 129, you get 390. If you subtract from that Rossi’s second margin of 42 votes, you get 348 -- which is the exact number of provisional ballots mixed in with regular ballots. Ooooh -- spooky.)
348!
Sounds like the Dims finally got their math right.
It is my conviction that if we let the election process, as has been revealed in these months since November stand, we will have allowed anarchists to determine who is the governor of the State of Washington.
This my way of using the power of the analogy to help those who are still being clouded in their vision to get the full picture:
Let's say you drove all the way up to Paradise to get a beautiful photo of Mount Rainier. When you get there you set your camera on a tripod and while you waited for the sun to move out of the clouds, someone comes up and, without you noticing, smears Vaseline on your lens. After taking an entire roll of film of the mountain, you go home, and send the film in for processing. Upon getting your photos back, you discovered they were out of focus as a result of Vaseline on your lens. You would be quite upset because somebody ruined the time and trouble you took to get a beautiful picture. Those who cause such trouble are anarchists who do not value another man’s property. We in Washington State are upset because we found the Vaseline smeared on our election process by anarchists, who prevented us from getting a perfect picture of the will of the people. What would you do? If after finding the Vaseline, you would clean up the lens and go back and retake the picture. That is what the voters of Washington State want. We want to revote the election with a clean lens.
Ping.
Thank you for a good concise read and update. I like the part where the swearing-in does not mean a thing.