Holding my nose, I just visited a place that I just about swore I would never go: Seattle "Indymedia." [Shudder]
Why? Well, John Carlson's show (KVI) had a late caller named Roy reading from an email Christine Gregoire had sent out. This letter lamented the "GOP smear tactics," e.g. exposing the truth about provisional ballots being run through machines. It also asserted that "this has been," thanks to the three counts, "the most accurate election in state history."
I sought this letter on the opposition websites to post here. With no luck at official Dem or Gregoire sites, I tried the fringe sites, like Equine Posterior, NWProgressive, and the like. Although I couldn't find the Gregoire letter, I did find something (posted below) which you might find interesting, because it unveils some rank hypocrisy within the Democrat Party machinery. It's also got a train-wreck kind of appeal...
I won't link it; I don't want to send them traffic. This is from an Indymidiot named Gentry who was a Democrat campaign manager [edited for length, emphases added]:
Is the media doing a whitewash of the issue? Or are they too dumb or too corrupted to tell the truth? The hand recount is exposing major flaws in the voting system.Now look at this fear-filled plea from "NWProgressive":
One thing is clear, neither party can claim moral highground in a recount that was bound to happen...For almost a year I traveled Washington State as a voting activist thinly veiled as the campaign manager for an unknown candidate for Washington State's office of the Secretary of State, Andy Stephenson. Together we warned everyone we could about the upcoming catastrophe that King County, Washington State, and the Country would be facing during this election. Namely that the election system is flawed, the machines are faulty, the procedures are unclear, the people running the show are partisan...
While Andy ran as a Democrat, the campaign felt no particular allegiance to a party that shunned us at every turn, and showed, at times, open hostility towards our “fear mongering” tactics. Paul Berendt had already chosen the Democrat's candidate for the office long before any of you went to the Democratic Primary, and that candidate was Laura Rudderman. So the Stephenson Campaign was left out in the cold, with no money, and only the truth on our side.
...
So why am I writing this? What's the point? Well there are several points about the current fiasco that need to be made.First off, neither side of this controversy has a right to claim the moral high ground. While the Democrats chant, “Count Every Vote” and the Republican's chant, “don't change the rules”. Neither party is willing to face the numbers. This race is statistically tied. The machine count has a margin of error, and when the victory is awarded based on a difference that is smaller than that margin, there is no clear winner. Counting every vote does not matter. Changing the rules does not matter. The race is tied.
It seems funny to me the turnaround that the Democratic party is trying to get away with. Or maybe ironic is the word? As the manager of a campaign trying to win the Democratic nomination based on the idea that every vote should count, the Stephenson Campaign broke the news about King County's Felons, Sam Reed's seemingly illegal certification of software for Voting Machines, and Bob Terrwilliger's (Snohomish County Auditor) obvious incompetence. And at every turn we encountered Democrat's who worked to undermine our efforts. Dean Logan of King County originally denied that felons ever worked on King County's Voter Tabulation software, which was proven true, Christine Gregoire's office of the Attorney General got Andy Stephenson's lawsuit against Sam Reed dismissed on technicalities, and the entire Democratic Party seemed to rally around Bob Terrwilliger, one of two County Auditor's in Washington who have installed touch screen voting machines that have no legitimate way to be recounted in the hand recount, the infamous “Blackbox Voting Machine”... as long as its the Democrats selling out the integrity of Washington State's voting process to private corporate interests, that's just fine with the Democratic Party. It's nice to say I told you so, and it's nice to see both the parties in turmoil due to a system that is broken.
But what is still troubling me, is that the media is doing such a whitewash of the issue. Too dumb, or too corrupted to tell the truth, the talking heads go on and on about the hand recount, without mentioning some key facts. The vote is tied, the hand recount is exposing major flaws in the system, and two counties Snohomish and Yakima are putting on a smoke and mirrors display that is costing lots of money, to simply go through the “motions” of a hand recount, without the actual substance of a hand recount. [huh?--ed.]
Republicans are outgunning us by nwprogressive on Wed, 01/05/2005The aggregate effect of these two missives from similarly left-fringe types is very reassuring.If we don't start acting to do something, the Republicans are going to seize the momentum and win the governor's race.
The recounting may be over, but it's foolish to stop campaigning now.
The GOP just spent a lot of money on a radio ad buy, and they are urging their activists to contact legislators, write letters to the editor, and contribute to the party's coffers. They also have people signing the petition at revotewa.com. No doubt they will be filing lawsuits soon.
What are we doing in response? Sitting on our hands? Does anybody actually think Chris Gregoire is safe? She isn't. We've got to defend both her and the legitimacy of our elections system, because the Republicans are doing everything they can to tear it down.
Contact your legislators. Send them an email (go here to find your legislator's email address or call the legislative hotline at 1.800.562.6000 to leave a message...
It reminds me of something Gregoire said today: "When Dino Rossi was ahead by 42 votes, he didn't talk about these provisional ballots." More to the point, when she was behind, she claimed that there were vote irregularities galore. Now that she's squeaked out a thin margin, she says: "there is absolutely no evidence – none whatsoever – to support" Republicans' suggestions of major election errors or fraud.
Posted by Brian Crouch at January 05, 2005 07:55 PM | Email ThisDear Friend,
Last Thursday the Secretary of State certified Chris Gregoire governor-elect.
We have just finished the longest, most scrutinized election in Washington State history. Ballots have been checked, double-checked, and triple-checked. Democrats and Republicans from across the state have joined together to make this the most accurate election in state history.
But, instead of taking Chris Gregoire's call for unity to move our state forward, Dino Rossi and the Republican Party have gone off on a bitter battle to tear down this election.
They are trashing the Republican Secretary of State, they are trashing county auditors across the state, and they are trashing their own Republican and Democratic observers. They're even shamelessly manipulating military families to falsely suggest that our soldiers' ballots weren't counted. All because they didn't like the result of this election.
And after two weeks of wild, unfounded accusations they still have no evidence of any wrongdoing. Not a one.
I need you to take action right now.
On Tuesday the legislature will vote to certify the election. We already know that Republican operatives are working hard to pressure legislators to undo the results of this election. We need to fight back.
Right now, call the legislative hotline at 1-800-562-6000. Tell your legislators to do the right thing, stand up to Republican rhetoric, do their duty and certify the election on Tuesday. It's time to get on with the business of moving our state forward.
The Republicans are working hard to make this election a circus. Let's make sure they do not succeed.
Sincerely,
Paul Berendt
Chair, Washington State Democrats
Click on my name below to read the letter.
Posted by: Brett Kappenman on January 5, 2005 08:12 PMAll fans and foes are invited!
Posted by: CR ACTIVIST on January 5, 2005 08:15 PMHe may be a lefty, but he's a genuinely good guy who would rather see elections be fair, open, and honest than see all of his favorite candidates win.
Isn't it good to see a Democrat who isn't trying to claim that there's nothing broken with our elections, and who isn't repeating the drink-the-koolaid mantra that, "everyone should just accept the deeply flawed results, coronate Queen Chris in peace and love and just move on"?
Posted by: Annie on January 5, 2005 08:17 PMI can just about see CG in her bed, covers pulled up to her nose, eyes scrunched up tight and hear her fervent mantra "I wish it was January 13, I wish it was January 13, please, please, please God, when I wake up let it be, January 13..."
Posted by: Cheryl on January 5, 2005 09:20 PMI didn't see any reference to Diebold specifically in Gentry's column at all. gentry is well aware that the Wally O'Dell issue is a red herring and that Global Election Systems was Democrat-controlled before it as purchased by Diebold in January 2002.
He did reference the electronic "black box" machines that have been roundly criticized on both sides of the aisle for the lack of auditability, including productions of a paper ballot, and for non-disclosed proprietary code that prevents independent assessment of accuracy and accountability.
The issue of "black box" tabulation devices with proprietary code is not a Democratic issue or a Republican issue -- it is an issue about which anyone who cares about clean elections should be concerned.
Posted by: Annie on January 5, 2005 09:25 PMThis election just gets weirder and weirder.
Posted by: Raoul Ortega on January 5, 2005 09:55 PMEither way, I don't understand why we don't have runoffs in this country. Our voting system is only accurate to within 1 or 2 percent. The only way to get more accurate is registration challenges, voter ID, etc, all things Democrats are against. If we had runoffs, then the errors would not have to necessarily be fixed, since a runoff would (I think) be less likely to be tied.
Anyway, we are all rooting for you, if Rossi is not declared Gov, then at least a runoff election should be held. Gregoire and all Democrats are complete hypocrites for all their crying about voting irregularities, except when those irregularities favor them. They think if they keep saying "there were no irregularities" enough times people will believe it (unfortunately they are right when it comes to the masses of sheep).
The one good thing is, maybe this will be the final straw that will bring election reform to the rest of the country. Hopefully with that reform we'll have everyone vote who is legally allowed to and wants to, and accurate voting counts with virtually no error.
PlutosDad
http://eyesontheball.blogspot.com
News Satire that's so right it can't be wrong
BTW, Black Sheep is one of Chris Farley's funniest movies. Not my cup of tea, but funny none the less.
Posted by: Jim in Clark County on January 6, 2005 07:38 AMAll the name calling you care to do matters little in the end, I've been called worse, and will be again.
And just for fun I included a link back to Seattle's Indymedia site (click on my name). I think it's funny your distaste for Indymedia, in that it was the previous "news blog" of sorts, except that it was not totalitarian, as blogs are controlled by those who write them, while Indymedia remains open to the public.
Posted by: Gentry on April 9, 2005 12:02 PM