The state Democratic Party filed suit today, asking that Secretary of State Sam Reed list Dino Rossi's party preference as "Republican Party" on the general election ballot. When Rossi filed for office, he listed his party preference as "GOP Party."[snip]
Allowing Mr. Rossi to obscure his true party preference and affiliation directly violates the law, would mislead a substantial portion of the voting public and would breed cynicism and mistrust in our public institutions and, indeed, in our electoral process. This Court has the power and the duty to correct such threatened errors in the preparation and printing of the ballot and should exercise that power to protect the integrity of the electoral process.
The Rossi campaign points out:
Ballots in Washington state have already been printed and military ballots are in process to soldiers and sailors overseas. If 'GOP' is ruled by the judge to be invalid, then the ballots from military personnel will be invalid.
Fair point. Then there's this video compiling all the disclaimers used in Rossi's 2004 TV ads:
Wow, that crafty Dino Rossi foresaw Republican problems four years ago and started casting his wicked spells of trickery all the way back then. Or the Democrats' case is laughable.
Why don't they just make matters simple and petition the court to legally change Rossi's name to George W. Bush?
Posted by Eric Earling at September 23, 2008 07:31 PM | Email ThisSo, it's time for legal games, provisional games, registration games, etc. Anything that might help a Democrat, will be cause for another lawyer to be hired to parse the ridiculous minutia in search of a few more votes for Gregoire.
Only this time, it ain't gonna be close enough to steal.
Bwah ha ha ha ha ha!
Hey Democrooks, using GOP isn't what breeds cynicism and mistrust, it is you crooks stealing the election that does.
Posted by: Good One on September 23, 2008 07:46 PMPhil, you are right. Anyone who doesn't know that GOP = Republican should not be allowed to vote.
Posted by: Paula on September 23, 2008 08:09 PMThere's a reason these nuts think they know best - it's because they believe their fellow Washingtonians are so stupid they don't know that Dino is a Republican.
..or it's a ridiculously cynical political game played at the expense of the citizens should they actually win.
Come to think of it, wasn't one of the argued reasons that we couldn't have a run-off election 4 years ago the DRASTIC EXPENSE of re-printing ballots? Huh - I guess we're just gonna use our budget surplus to splurge a little this time around.
Bring on red state WA. woot.
Posted by: RookieRick on September 23, 2008 08:14 PM"If you would like to state your preference, fill in the name of the party, up to 16 characters. The first letter of the party preference will be capitalized (e.g., Democratic). If you want to use initials, separate each letter with a period (e.g., G.O.P.) Your personal party preference will be printed on the ballot as follows..."
Apparently it was assumed that candidates may wish to be identified by long time, long recognized names such as GOP.
Posted by: anon on September 23, 2008 08:19 PMThe first reason is just to childishly snipe at Dino and shout "Republican! Republican! Republican! Republican! George W. Bush!"
The second reason is that five of the nine Supreme court justices expressed willingness to have another look at I-872 if confusion among voters could be shown. While I am all for highlighting voter confusion to improve our election system, this clearly isn't such an example.
Their second reason, however, is actually in line with my goal of bringing down that terrible law, I-872, which Sam Reed is in favor of keeping. The Democrats are looking for a twofer here, trying to spite Reed while j'accusing Dino. And I have to say I can appreciate that ... but still, it's really stupid, and it's only going to hurt the Democrats in the eyes of the voters.
Never forget: the party morons started it... and the people of this state will finish it. And if they keep screwing around with this, they may come to find that each and every elected position that can be non-partisan, IS non-partisan.
Imagine how much more would get done for the people of this state if the legislature wasn't full of party hacks on both sides toeing a party line instead of doing the right thing for us.
Keep pushing. See what happens.
Posted by: Hinton on September 23, 2008 09:47 PMThere is no way in hell that they would do this if their internals weren't telling them some VERY bad news.
This kind of reminds me of Tom Dashle going nuts and suing Republican Poll Watchers the day before the election in 2004. Except in this case, it's still 6wks away from the election.
Posted by: Cliff on September 23, 2008 09:49 PMThats just one of the many things wrong with the TOP Two System.
Posted by: RightWingWacko on September 23, 2008 11:43 PMLooks like we've found exhibit A for the DNC lawsuit. One of the turnips that doesn't make the correlation between Republican and G.O.P. What are the odds he still says ATM machine and PIN number without the confusion?
Posted by: Rick D. on September 24, 2008 05:47 AMWhat about this for an idea to battle this top 2 system: The Republicans pay for their own primary and get the candidate we want into the general election. Then in the public primary (the top-2 one we have now) all Republicans vote for the nutjob Democrat (did you read the voter pamphlet? There are a dozen or so). This would put that person over the top and pit 2 Democrats against 1 Republican. Any thoughts? This will cost the Reps, I mean GOPs, a lot of money to begin with but once we have some Reps in office we can start to fix this mess.
BTW All of these idiot Libs posting asinine comments really aren't worth the enrergy to comment on (Yet, here I am doing so.) Their own words usually do more damage to their own cause than anything we can say in reply.
Posted by: Thom on September 24, 2008 06:14 AMJust ask Al Bore and the 200 election in Fl.
Come on buddy, your not that dense.
We should change the dem party to the lib party only!
Posted by: Army Medic/Vet on September 24, 2008 06:18 AMGregoire's NAME is clearly on the ballot.
So is Rossi's.
So what's the problem??
If this lawsuit in any way disenfranchises Military voters, Gregoire will have hell to pay.
Her timing makes you believe this was her clear intent..to disenfranchise Military voters.
Shameful.
Why didn't she do this months ago???
Because she wants to disenfranchise military voters.
Gregoire will do anything to cling to power.
The same bunch that spends tons of energy registering "voters" that are so stupid that they have never registered on their own and then still need a provisional ballot on election day because they are as dumb as a 2X4 are now worried that voters don't know what G.O.P. means?
Cripes, I knew what the G.O.P. stood for when I was in fourth grade.
If there was real truth in advertising the ballot would read: Chris Gregoire - Socialist
Dino Rossi - Capitalist
I have no reason to want to do that. Nothing I have ever said has ever expressed a desire for such a thing.
Never forget: the party morons started it... and the people of this state will finish it.
Yeah, um, when you attack the parties for sticking up for their constitutional rights, do not expect anyone to care.
And if they keep screwing around with this, they may come to find that each and every elected position that can be non-partisan, IS non-partisan.
I don't care. I would prefer that to the current system, where the government gets to decide who is from what party, and allows candidates to misrepresent themselves to the detriment of a party, and where we have conflicting law such that right now our presidential preference primary is illegal, and so on.
Keep pushing. See what happens.
I will. You see, I am about rights and liberty and democracy, not about defending the power of the two parties. This is why I used to be registered Libertarian (in MA), and why I've been against the bipartisan Commission on Presidential Debates, which explicitly does try to keep power in the hands of the two parties.
Indeed, some of my main reasons for opposing I-872 are because it makes it even harder for a third-party candidate to get elected. As much as I can't stand Jesse Ventura, in a top two primary system he probably wouldn't have even been on the November ballot. It's undemocratic. The voters LOSE choice with I-872. It's a lie by Sam Reed and the Grange to say that people get more choice from I-872.
The Democrat Party surely is a collection of the worst among us. What don't they lie about? From accusing "McCain/Bush", (or is it "Rossi/Bush" - I get confused), of wanting to "privatize Social Security", to putting the blame for the mortgage crisis on Republicans when they fought Republican efforts to reform Fannie and Freddie. Good lord.
They call Sarah Palin "unqualified" and yet their own VP candidate thinks FDR was President when the market crashed in 1929 and that he reassured the nation on television. And Palin is unqualified? Sheesh!
Now here they are in desperation doing what they do best, going to court to thwart the will of the people.
Looks to me like they are showing everyone just exactly who they are. And what they are.
They lie, they shut people up, they in Obama's words, "get in peoples faces", and they have taken over the media and public education.
This is a perfect example of who they really are. They will stop at nothing.
Posted by: Bill Cruchon on September 24, 2008 10:49 AM