Voters irked ballots didn't count

Todd Stansbury, a Marine stationed in California between tours of duty in Iraq, flew home in October to cast his absentee ballot.

But he and his parents, Bellevue residents Ken and Wendy Stansbury, now know that their votes weren't counted in the election that put Christine Gregoire into the governor's mansion with a 129-vote margin.

King County election officials yesterday released the names of 96 voters whose valid absentee ballots were mistakenly left in their original envelopes. The uncounted ballots were discovered between March and May in boxes of what were believed to be empty envelopes.

Wendy Stansbury, a Republican precinct committee officer, said the county's failure to count her family's three votes for Republican gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi "stinks more than three-day-old fish."

More than half the uncounted votes were from the 41st Legislative District, which tilted in Rossi's favor.

"Somebody with sticky fingers, who had some way of knowing, did cherry-picking," Stansbury said. "We're never going to be able to prove it."

A Seattle Times analysis in April showed that two-thirds of 91 uncounted ballots came from precincts in which Rossi outpolled Gregoire. If the uncounted ballots went to the candidates in the same proportion as did other votes in those precincts, Rossi would have reduced Gregoire's victory by four votes.

The Stansburys weren't the only voters upset to learn they were disenfranchised.

"I just think it's a disgrace, really," said Frances Staub, of Bellevue. "I think the only thing that would be fair would be to have another election."

But that won't happen. Chelan County Superior Court Judge John Bridges this month rejected Rossi's attempt to set aside Gregoire's victory on the basis of illegal voting and procedural errors, particularly in King County.

County officials say they have seen no signs of fraud but are investigating the absentee-ballot operation.

Supervisor Nicole Way has been placed on paid leave pending completion of the probe. The County Council and County Executive Ron Sims have launched outside reviews of the election office.

"We are analyzing every nook and cranny of the processes in King County," elections spokeswoman Bobbie Egan said yesterday.

Magdalena Bachmeier, an 80-year-old Renton resident whose vote for Gregoire wasn't counted, seemed unimpressed. "We vote, but I don't think our votes are counted anyway, no matter who you're voting for."

The writer says they were 'mistakenly' left in their absentee envelopes.

Two facts come to mind:

1. These ballots were reported by an underling to the press two weeks after their discovery. That underling was not instructed to tell the press but did so of their own free will. When confronted by the press, the underling's superiors responded that they were 'waiting to see' if any other uncounted ballots existed before reporting the incident.

My thinking: What a CROCK.

2. Weeks before the November elections there were breakins to Republican offices to steal computers in precincts where these uncounted ballots were from. Note that the writer referes to Ms. Standbury as a Republican Precinct Officer which I am sure she is.

My thinking: Cherry picking ballots to be left uncounted would require knowledge of who exactly is voting against your candidate. Nothing is better than a list of donors and an organization chart. Much better than primary registration records because you know that donors are not going to swing to the other side. It's a sure thing.

Lastly I would inform those unfamiliar with the Washington State Governor's race that there were actually several hundred uincounted ballots found and they are not believed to a complete list of uncounted ballots.

Dino Rossi won two counts and was certified Governor of the state until his opponent's organization assembled a vote finding manual recount in which there were more than 1600 votes than voters. Yes, that's called ballot stuffing.

I would also remind those that two Election Officials from the most blue county in the state admitted to breaking the law, falsifying reports and allowing an illegitimate certification to occur. Why? Simply to preserve their jobs. They couldn't reconcile votes with voter registrations. They lost control of the ballot accounting and then made up numbers to cover up their inability to reconcile the returns. Had they come forward and blown the whistle during the election and not during the trial, they would have caused the disenfranchisement of voters in the State's largest Blue County based on an inability to certify returns. As Dino Rossi said time and time again, it was impossible to know who won the election and only a revote would settle the question.

Now I see people are angry after experiencing the hurtful shock of learning the truth about this botched election and seeing one party turn a blind eye to its causes or downplay the lawbreaking into innocent 'mistakes'.

Some wishful thinkers hope that the anger and emotion subsides among the voters. I don't think so. And to those that think so, remember the respected poll showing 75% of the public think the election was stolen.

Payback is in the works but first we have some 'Republicans' that need to be confronted with a well placed boot in their arse.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.