December 10, 2004
"Now or never"
Dino Rossi needs YOU to help out as a recount observer. A Sound Politics reader e-mails:
My wife spent the day as a Republican observer at the recount center near the Museum of Flight at Boeing Field. She says that we need more Republicans to participate in the re-count by many fold, noting that those who showed were very dedicated, but they were primarily older, and retired. Not the young blood that the Dems put up by the bus load. (She was paired with a 20-something who claimed that she was just dropping by to help, but it was obvious to my wife that the lady knew every Democrat and county worker in the room. She thinks she was a WEA or SEA type.)
The times are broken into half day shifts...I am sure that you must have some younger pencil-packing accountants, steely-eyed bookkeepers, no-baloney attorneys, observant police officers, fast-thinking computer geeks, and better yet, chesty steam-roller operators among your readers who could volunteer just a few hours to even the playing field. Its now or never, literally.
This reader and his wife have sold me on signing up for a shift.
An e-mail from the county GOP gives more details:
[As of today] and going straight through Wednesday, December 22nd, we are looking to fill approximately 68 slots EACH day. 34 of the slots are for the “morning shift” (8 a.m. - 1 p.m.) and 34 of those slots are for the “afternoon shift” (1 p.m. – 6 p.m.). We ask that everyone arrives 15 min before his/her shift.
WHERE: 9010 East Marginal Way South (By the Boeing field).
To volunteer, e-mail: info -AT- dinorossi.com
Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at December 10, 2004
10:45 PM | Email This
1. Stefan,
All we can do is call or email. If the GOP doesn't call or email back--what can we do? Volunteer management is an extremely important job, and the job most overlooked by charitable and political organizations. I can't tell you how many times my husband or I have signed up to do something at church or whatever and never received a call back.
I have now twice called the GOP HQ with no call back, plus I've emailed with no reply so far.
Once I responded to a state GOP emailing which asked people to call either the state GOP or the Rossi HQ. I called the state GOP, and the phone was answered by a young woman who seemed to be bothered that I had interrupted whatever she was doing. She then told me I had to call the Rossi campaign. Not giving out the correct phone number and making people have to jump through hoops is not the way to build a volunteer base.
The GOP talks big about how they are on top of this whole recount thing, but by my personal account, they seem not to be.
If Chris Vance is reading this, please be advised you need to take the kids off the phones and put some mature adults in charge of managing volunteers and potential volunteers. I believe there are people out there willing to work, and they are not being utilized. Set up a process for signing on volunteers, then train, train, train. That is my advice.
2. Stefan--
I observed the entire hand recount in Jefferson County. 3 teams of 2 counted 18,772 ballots in 3-1/2 hours. King Co. has 80 teams of 3. If they worked at the same pace as Jefferson County, they would have counted 500,587 ballots in 3-1/2 hours. Now assuming some inefficiences caused by sheer volume, shouldn't they have been able to count the 900,000 ballots in a single 12 hour day??
So why is it taking 2 weeks???
I'm not making any allegations...just curious.
2 weeks seems like a long time.
I was very surprised that 14 previous over- and under- votes were counted this time that were not counted at the prior 2 machine re-counts. It gives some credence to this hand re-count.
However, I still believe we should have stopped after the 1st machine re-count because every time they open the lock-box and handle those ballots it allows for additional human error (intentional and unintentional). We will never have a perfect election count. I don't believe the 39 county vote-counting machines all conspired to give Rossi a 42 vote win. While I feel very comfortable with the Jeffco hand recount process, I'm not as comfortable with the rest of the State. While I believe Dean Logan is a very skilled and honest Election Supervisor, this manual task is massive...and putting in place appropriate internal controls and then implementing them successfully is pretty much impossible.
3. I believe this possiblity was raised earlier, but now it appears to be a defintie worry for the state Dems...
KING COUNTY - King County election officials are now saying the cost of a hand recount in King County alone will top $500,000.
http://www.komotv.com/stories/34345.htm
4. Good. They should pay all it costs for the recount. The law says they can do it. So let them pay for it!
5. How will they get Move On and Kerry to pay more after the recount results are in? If Gregoire loses again, only by continuing to pursue lawsuit(s). Not to be too pessimistic, that appears to be where this is headed unless there is a quick decison Monday and she concedes before the counting is finished.
6. Technically, the recount was requested by David T. McDonald, who is an officer of the Washington State Democratic Party. If Gregoire remains a loser after the recount, and the costs exceed $730,000, then Mr. McDonald will be the person techincally liable for the difference. The RCW sections do not authorize a political party per se to request a recount, only a candidate in that race, or an officer of a political party. And that person is the one liable for any extra recount charges. Conceivably, Mr. McDonald could take personal bankruptcy in that scenario, and the Democrats would not have to pay a dime. However, I think that he is the same person as the David T. McDonald who is a partner in Preston, Gates and Ellis, and would likely have quite sufficient personal assets to pay the deficit, in the event the Democrats are unable or unwilling to make it up. Bad strategy on the part of the Democrat lawyer team. They should have named someone who didn't have anything lose financially as their recount director, and who could file bankruptcy without difficulty if need be. That way, they could have kept their $600,000 to $1,000,000 that will probably be required to make up the deficit when it is confirmed that Gregoire is a three time loser.
7. Interesting note by Mr. Pope. I note that David T. McDonald also represented the Washington State Democratic Pary in their four year suit constitutionally challenging Washington State's primary system - successfully doing away with the open primary.
8. Question for Richard Pope... Who would be responsible for collecting the debt? The AG? PDC? SOS? just curious,,, could be a great first case for Rob McKennas office.
9. If the recount applicant (David T. McDonald) filed for personal bankruptcy, then the debt would be dischargeable. Nothing special about it at all. Of course, Mr. McDonald probably has assets that would not be exempt in bankruptcy, since he is apparently a rather successful lawyer. So whatever those surplus assets are, they would be distributed pro-rata to the State of Washington and his other creditors. If Mr. McDonald does not declare bankruptcy, then the debt would accrue interest at the legal rate (12% per annum in Washington, or 1% per month -- simple, not compounded) from the date the bill was compiled and presented to him, until the date it is paid. If there is a debt (and hopefully there will be), then the State of Washington should insist upon this interest being paid (given the likelihood that it will probably take many months for the state Democrats to raise the money). The PDC would have nothing to do with the debt collection. The SOS would send the bill to Mr. McDonald (and presumably a "courtesy" copy to the state Democrat HQ). The AG's office would give the SOS whatever formal or informal (most likely verbal) legal advice that was necessary. If there was a need to sue over this, then the AG's office would represent the State in suing Mr. McDonald for a judgment, and attempting to collect it. Likewise, the AG's office would represent the State's interest in bankruptcy court, in the event that Mr. McDonald goes there.
10. This was really a very stupid battle for the Dems to fight, in my opinion. Each day that passes chalks up another day of "losses" for them- capital, political, and most certainly in the media. Add a few months of non-payment for recounts, and they will be taking some serious body blows that could reflect nationally.
If I own the keys to the Dem Party here in Washington, I give Berendt his walking papers tomorrow. He has become the ultimate liability.
The Dems are already dead political meat, and will become moreso should this drag on in the courts. There is absolutely NO way the Dems can take the "high road" at this point. None. This is the penultimate "lose-lose" situation for them.
The only amazing thing about this reality is that Berendt hasn't a clue. But then, he never really did...
11. Losses in the media? I thought the Liberal Media was an extension of the democratic party.
Food for thought....
12. Tom, a prediction.
If Rossi survives the recount, the Washington-MSM will refer to this as "the contested 2004 election" throughout his term.
If Gregoire steals it, the recount will rarely if ever be mentioned again.
13. That's what makes me read the newspaper's endorsement pages each election and if my mind isn't made up on a particular election, I'll often pick the one that wasn't endorsed by the MSM. USA Today has the best endorsement page: "We don't do endorsements, as it should be the job of the reader to decide who to vote for."
14. If you are interested in helping out Rossi with the observation process in King County, I suggest that you call the Rossi office. Number on their contact page.
My experience is that their email systems and response to email is not very good. It' much faster and more accurate too for your to simply call them so they can slot you in to a time where they need help.
The critical counting/ observing days are the rest of the days this week.
Lunch is included for the early shifts.
I'll be there.