1. Wouldn't it be ironic if Dino picked up the winning votes in these?

Posted by: DustinJames on December 22, 2004 01:32 PM

2. Interesting, it was a unanimous decision, showing again how minimally qualified Stephanie Arend really is, as rated by the Bar Association...

Posted by: DustinJames on December 22, 2004 01:34 PM

3. Ironic, and highly unlikely. As previously explained, these ballots are from precincts that are more heavily skewed toward Gregiore than King County as a whole.

Posted by: jason on December 22, 2004 01:35 PM

4. Congrats Democrats. You probably got more than you bargained for though.

Posted by: Tuxmelvin on December 22, 2004 01:39 PM

5. Apparently, the Ukrainian Supreme Court is either a lot braver, or a lot less corrupt, than the SCOWASH.

Posted by: Matt J Kurlander on December 22, 2004 01:40 PM

6. Don't congratulate thieves, it will only embolden them further, and justify the "...by any means necessary..." attitude they have about staying in power.

Posted by: jason on December 22, 2004 01:41 PM

7. Democrats have been saying that Bush stole the 2000 election with the help of the supreme court who selected him. The irony is amazing, but I doubt the Democrats will see it.

Posted by: Dane Summers on December 22, 2004 02:01 PM

8. Well, I'm certain that the Democrat motto seems to apply in this situation:

"If we didn't have double-standards we'd have no standards at all."

Posted by: Dave Kaplan on December 22, 2004 02:03 PM

9. Its not over yet. We'll see them at the Federal Level next. This violates state law (no matter how the court likes to interpret it) as well as Bush v. Gore

I'm all for a new election. Any takers?

ed.

Posted by: LibertyNews on December 22, 2004 02:07 PM

10. I'm p@ss*d! What can I do about it? Any ideas?

Posted by: chris storer on December 22, 2004 02:10 PM

11. so, is it all pretty much over? is there any hope?

Posted by: scott on December 22, 2004 02:12 PM

12. Hey Dane,

What happens to that logic when KC reports back the hand recount without the Supreme Court numbers and shows Chris in the lead without the Supreme's ok'd extra votes?

Then who stole it? Sims? Logan? All of King County? All of the 2 million people who voted against Dino?

Posted by: DustinJames on December 22, 2004 02:12 PM

13. The big mistake from the beginning was allowing King County to report last. Once all the other votes had been counted they knew how many they had to manufacture to install Queen Christine.If they could keep coming up with new votes on nine different occassions, what would make anyone believe they couldn't do it at least one more time, especially knowing how many they had to find?

Ken

Posted by: Ken Hupp on December 22, 2004 02:19 PM

14. Federal? On what grounds?

Posted by: Zev Sero on December 22, 2004 02:24 PM

15. I was just watching the vote.wa.gov manual recount site and I swear I just saw KC results?? But now they're gone! Anyways, I thought I saw CG up by over 200 votes. Let's hope it was a strange mistake or my imagination...

Posted by: kristen on December 22, 2004 02:26 PM

16. Maybe there is some merit in this afterall, you could have your Lossi governor, and we could have our Greatgoire governor...

"Washington diverse enough for two states"

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/204225_firstperson20.html

Posted by: DustinJames on December 22, 2004 02:26 PM

17. The Supremes of the State of Washington have now trumped the Florida Supremes. Any old ballot that one county comes it with can be counted - 8 weeks after the vote. Lovely

Posted by: CP on December 22, 2004 02:27 PM

18. I have a bumper sticker on my truck that reads "Gregoire is NOT my Governor" and I get a lot of smiles.

If/When she steals this election, we CANNOT forget it! Every Republican should put this bumper sticker on their car as a reminder for the next four years.

I think the D's stole this battle, but we'll win the war.

Posted by: Erik on December 22, 2004 02:28 PM

19. I was saying a few days ago that I'd support a new election. Clearly this race is not only well with the margin of error, but as we are seeing today, it's also within the "margin of theft". All King County needed to do was wait until the rest of the state's returns were in, then re-canvass enough "Christine Rossi" votes to get them over the top.

My understanding is that there is no legal provision for a new election, but that the legislature could call for one.

I'd suggest we all contact our representatives and tell them we want a new election to clear up this mess.

Posted by: jason on December 22, 2004 02:30 PM

20. Jason - You're absolutely right. Even most of the democratics in the Legislature come from RED districts. Start calling your congressmen!

Posted by: CP on December 22, 2004 02:33 PM

21. This calls for another Orange Rally.

Posted by: Nathan Azinger on December 22, 2004 02:34 PM

22. "I was just watching the vote.wa.gov manual recount site and I swear I just saw KC results?? But now they're gone! Anyways, I thought I saw CG up by over 200 votes. Let's hope it was a strange mistake or my imagination..."

the results I saw said they were updated at 2:00, but now it's back to 11:27. Anyone else notice this?

Posted by: kristen on December 22, 2004 02:34 PM

23. Stefan or anyone - How can we get a list out to those who don't know who the reps are in their districts or how to contact them? This blog would be a good start.

Posted by: CP on December 22, 2004 02:37 PM

24. Kristen - That would sound about right. If the 700 ballots are included, and Gregoire wins these by 30% as predicted, she will "win" by 200 votes. Lets face it guys, its over. Rossi will live to fight another day and Washingtonians will know that the KC elections department is a fruad. It will come back to haunt them, or way or another electorally.

Posted by: Marc on December 22, 2004 02:39 PM

25. The only thing that would explain KC pulling votes back would be if they heard that a Rossi county had changed their vote total.
They would need to make sure that they still had enough votes for CG..

Posted by: Dane Summers on December 22, 2004 02:40 PM

26. Kristen, are you sure you didn't look at the machine recount report from King County? Do you recall what the changes were in each candidate's totals?

Posted by: RIchard Pope on December 22, 2004 02:41 PM

27. I particularly enjoyed the SC comment on ballot security:

[The GOP] suggest that there may have been some impropriety involved in this decision, or that the ballots involved might have been tampered with, but point to no facts supporting such a conclusion

In other words, the dems learned the lessons of Watergate and didn't get caught or leave tracks while tampering with the ballots they 'found.'

Posted by: Grey on December 22, 2004 02:42 PM

28. This page allows you to enter your address, and it then provides with the list of your representatives, including contact info:

http://www1.leg.wa.gov/legislature

Posted by: jason on December 22, 2004 02:43 PM

29. uhhh, I don't think that was the lesson of Watergate.

Posted by: Dane Summers on December 22, 2004 02:44 PM

30. Thanks Jason - let's all start being heard.

Posted by: CP on December 22, 2004 02:46 PM

31. You should be able to tell from the date & time if there has been an addition to the Sec. of State voting page. And there has been a recent one this morning at 11:22.

Posted by: Susu on December 22, 2004 02:50 PM

32. Hi Richard - I'm fairly certain I saw the results right. At the bottom, I remember seeing numbers of CG at 1000+ total and Rossi at 800+ total. In the KC line I think it was KC at 500+ and Rossi at 300+. Adds up anyways...unfortunately.

Posted by: kristen on December 22, 2004 02:54 PM

33. Susu - the results I saw had a date stamp of 2:00, but now the page has changed it back to 11:27 like it was before. Obviously they made some sort of mistake, but wouldn't be surprised if those are the real numbers.

Posted by: kristen on December 22, 2004 03:00 PM

34. "Lets face it guys, its over. Rossi will live to fight another day and Washingtonians will know that the KC elections department is a fruad. It will come back to haunt them, or way or another electorally."

Yes, Marc, exactly! We need to get the grassroots machine going and shows these Dims that we aren't gonna passively take their crap anymore. How about Rossi for Senator in '06? Or at least Rossi for Governor in '08? The slogan could be something like "Help Dino Rossi win the governorship a second time!"

Posted by: Ferrous on December 22, 2004 03:01 PM

35. The Washington Supreme Court has defined certification date as the day on which Sam Reed certifies the manual recount, for the purposes of allowing the newly "found" votes to be added under RCW 29A.60.210.

However, county election officials in all 39 counties have interpreted the "certification date" in RCW 29A.60.190(1) -- setting a deadline for receipt of the absentee ballots -- to be November 17, 2004 -- the date on which county officials certified the original count.

This is the first time any appellate court has intepreted the meaning of "certification date". Presumably, the same definition should apply to RCW 29A.60.190(1) as to RCW 29A.60.210.

This means that all the absentee ballots that were received after November 17, 2004 (or whatever other date counties decided to stop counting) must be counted. Most of these will be military ballots and overseas voters. Military and overseas ballots merely need to be signed on or before election day, with the postmark date being irrelevant. Any other absentee ballots -- i.e. those mailed by non-military voters from within the United States -- must have a U.S. postmark on or before 11/02/2004 to be counted.

Don't count on the law being applied equally to count these military absentee ballots, however.

Posted by: Richard Pope on December 22, 2004 03:04 PM

36. "Once again, Dr. Jones, we see that there is nothing you can possess which I cannot take away."
– Paul Freeman, as Rene Belloq, "Raiders of the Lost Ark"

Posted by: Joel on December 22, 2004 03:32 PM

37. Don't know if this makes much difference now, but the SC said KC could recanvass, or whatever, ***573*** votes.

Get it? Not *700* as the media is reporting, but right in the written decision kindly provided by King5 TV, the decision states **573** votes.

I agree w/Richard Pope that the military ballots should now be counted as well. Are Republicans on top of that?

Posted by: Mac on December 22, 2004 03:32 PM

38. To clarify my earlier comment-

The lessons of Watergate from a cheaters point of view: Don't get caught.

Posted by: Grey on December 22, 2004 03:37 PM

39. Re: Precinct 1823 - I think we all know what to do now....

Posted by: Mac on December 22, 2004 03:39 PM

40. I am a Rossi republican, but I really would like to see the lawsuits ends--continue to build the republican base in the state and take it back later--Rossi is young, and Gregoire and the democrats have not covered themselves with glory in this operation. Thune in South Dakota is a good example to follow. Most of us in Moses Lake understood that the democratic machine in King County was corrupt--this just proves it.

Posted by: RogerA on December 22, 2004 03:48 PM

41. Hurrah for Democracy!

Now the Republicans will put their action where their mouth is and concede....phew....at least we know the Republicans keep their word!

At least it is over.

All the lawsuits in the world cannot stop valid votes from being counted...the republicans and the democrats should rejoice...this one is done and the republicans will obviously concede because they claim they would when in the opposite circumstance...and we know they keep their word!

Now..to running the state....good luck Christine....remember you represent all of us and promised good things. We all support you.

Posted by: joe on December 22, 2004 03:49 PM

42. Just like in Chicago, New Mexico and South Dakota, the Democrats have no problem with outright fraud to steal elections. They are so convinced that they "know" better than better than anyone else what is "good" for us all, they can justify in their own minds any kind of larceny.

Hopefully the people of Washington will have long memories. They deserve to be turned out over this, much like Senator Daschle was turned out.

Posted by: remay1 on December 22, 2004 03:51 PM

43. You know, I voted for CG. I almost voted for Rossi but I didn't trust his agenda with his religious views. I think my worries were likely unwarrented but I went with my heart because I truly fear reconstructionists and they hide behind populist ideals. But he would have been just fine if he won and I could live with that. In fact, CG scares me as a repeat of GL.
But when I read some of your responses I am seriously worried. Some of you folks are overboard!! The issues, excuse me, THE REAL ISSUES, neither of these candidates have a clue as to how they will deal with them. Rossi did some good things to help us get where we are but unless this state can increase revenue we are hosed no matter who lives in the mansion. I hate partisan politics for this very reason. Both sides continue to loose sight of what is important and it has led us here.

Posted by: Jimmynap on December 22, 2004 03:58 PM

44. Mac -- The order is not limited to the 573 ballots. The Supreme Court instructed the Superior Court to cancel its temporary restraining order, so King County can recanvass any ballots that it believes were treated incorrectly. Of course the Republicans can go back to court, but this is unlikely to succeed unless there are new issues.

Richard -- Good point about military and overseas absentees. Based on the letter of the law (count them until certification) and the spirit (count as many as you can), they deserve to be counted. Do we have any idea how many ballots are involved?

Posted by: Bruce on December 22, 2004 04:00 PM

45. Joe:

Does that include all the valid military absentee ballots that were not counted because King County messed up and did not mail them out on time?

If King County's screwup with the 573 rejected ballots can be rectified, why not rectify their screwup and count all the military ballots now?

And why not count them from the other counties that did not mail them out on time?

Posted by: Larry on December 22, 2004 04:02 PM

46. Now we're going to actually COUNT all the legitimate ballots in King County, like in all the other counties! What a travesty!

Sam Reed (a Republican as I recall) supports the Supreme Court decision. He will certify Gregoire as the winner. The legislature will certify the election. Gregoire will be governor and will have all the powers of incumbency.

You all are deluding yourselves if you think her administration will be hamstrung by the close election.

Posted by: Mark on December 22, 2004 04:03 PM

47. Hey Joe - when did Rossi ever promise to concede if the situation were reversed? Maybe he would have conceded if he lost both the first two counts, but do you really expect him to throw in the towel after losing one out of three counts by only 10 votes?

But I guess we don't need to worry because Christine will not declare victory since a win of less than 42 votes constitutes a "tie" in her words.

Posted by: kristen on December 22, 2004 04:06 PM

48. This just in... Gregoire picked up 59 votes in KC which gives her a "overwhelming victory" total of....

10 votes

Remember folks that it a "victory" and not a tie

Posted by: KLRMNKY on December 22, 2004 04:13 PM

49. Interesting manual recount results. First of all, they counted 898,633 ballots -- which is an increase of 59 ballots over the 898,574 counted in the machine recount. No explanation as to where these extra 59 ballots came from -- a number which is (coincidentally?) exactly equal to Gregoire's relative improvement in this manual recount.

Remember also -- there was no explanation as to where the extra 336 ballots came from in the machine recount either -- an increase from 898,238 ballots to 898,574 ballots.

Also, Gregoire gained 47 votes and Rossi lost 12 votes. If a manual recount is fair, how can you possibly lose votes on a manual recount? If the machine can read the oval for Rossi, why shouldn't the canvassing board be able to do so as well?

There was also an increase in overvotes -- from 46 in the machine recount to 86 in the manual recount. It would seem most probable that the Democrat canvassing board counted just about any Rossi ballot with a stray mark as an overvote, while the same thing was not done with Gregoire ballots. That is the most likely and logical explanation.

The one thing that made sense was that undervotes fell by 45 votes -- from 21,307 to 21,262. Presumably, the manual recount was able to find votes from these, which were missed by the machines and missed by the enhancement process in the machine recount. But I would doubt that this process was fair to Rossi, especially on those ballots that were referred to the canvassing board.

I would like to see how the precinct-by-precinct ballots counted totals from the manual recount compare with those from the machine recount and the original count. It would also be nice to see exactly how many names of people are recorded as casting valid votes, compared with the number of ballots actually being reported as counted in each precinct.

Posted by: Richard Pope on December 22, 2004 04:24 PM

50. "[...] but unless this state can increase revenue we are hosed no matter who lives in the mansion."

No, jimmynap, that is exactly the problem.

Posted by: John Stark on December 22, 2004 04:27 PM

51. "but unless this state can increase revenue we are hosed no matter who lives in the mansion. I hate partisan politics for this very reason. Both sides continue to loose sight of what is important and it has led us here."

Partisanship has nothing to do with your argument. You want a tax increase, and to you it doesn't matter who's in office.

Rossi has shown a budget can be balanced without a tax increase. Gregoire has not.

I'll take the (gasp) partisan official who chooses NOT to raise my taxes, thank you.

Posted by: jimg on December 22, 2004 04:35 PM

52. Is the rumored 10 vote lead with or without the "found" absentee ballots?

Posted by: Marc on December 22, 2004 05:00 PM

53. rog...with attitudes like yours, no wonder the Democrat party gets away with this every single time..

its time to stop being the gentleman and start demanding what is rightfully OURS....

no doubt in my mind, that Gorton had this same deal done to him...he went away quietly and now look....they have done it again...

the Fraud party of king co...also known as the democrat party....they have absolutely stolen this election and no nicety-nice attitude will ever get this corrected...

and to think , it was all those non-residential absentee ballots that are listed at the same govt. building are disenfranchising me and the millions like me...

just let the Democrat controlled state try to raise my taxes again....Tim E. is probably in 7th heaven knowing the referendums he can pull out now.....and I'll sign every one...

Posted by: lee on December 22, 2004 05:14 PM

54. Im thoroughly disgusted with the whole affair. If the demorats can eke out a victory as easily as this...we just as well give up the ghost and let them remain in office forever..A new election is the only fair way to relsove this magical win for "Chrissie"..playing fair isnt in their repetoire and never will be. A reminder we shouldnt soon forget

PR

Posted by: PR on December 22, 2004 05:44 PM

55. I can almost guarentee that she will be protested wherever she goes....

Posted by: lee on December 22, 2004 10:20 PM

56. Joe, you trust too much. X-tine plans to tax your bee-hind off! Or more likely mine....

Posted by: Michele on December 22, 2004 11:50 PM

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